Summary of Romans 6:5-10
Since we died with Christ, we will also we raised with Christ. Because believers are united with Christ in his death, their old sinful self has been crucified, permanently breaking their enslavement to sin. Just as Christ was resurrected and defeated death once for all, believers are guaranteed to share in his victory, freed from sin’s mastery to live a new, eternal life for God.
BSF Study Questions Romans: From Guilt to Grace Lesson 10, Day 4: Romans 6:5-10
9) Romans 6:5: We are united with him in death and resurrections
Romans 6:6-7: Our bodies are no longer slaves to sin, as we have been set free from sin.
Romans 6:8-9: Death no longer rules us as it does Christ. We will live with him again.
Romans 6:10: We died to sin once and for all; and, we’ll live again with God.
10)Tthe “old self” is our former, unregenerate nature characterized by deceitful desires (Ephesians 4:22), earthly passions, and corrupt practices like immorality and greed (Colossians 3:5). It represents the pre-conversion identity that believers must actively “put off” (Colossians 3:8-9), replacing it with a “new self” created in God’s righteous likeness (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10).
11) I thank God for my eternal life, my new self, and my death to sin. I do believe whole-heartedly that He has set me free from sin!
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Romans: From Guilt to Grace Lesson 10, Day 4: Romans 6:5-10
Such power in these verses! Such truth, such encouragement! We are alive in Christ! Amen!
End Notes BSF Study Questions Romans: From Guilt to Grace Lesson 10, Day 4: Romans 6:5-10
Our union with Christ is both in death and resurrection.
Our old self is patterned after Adam and must be put to death, and therefore dies with Jesus on the cross.
The new self is instinctively obedient and pleasing to God. When Christ rose again, so did our new self.
The old self is different than the flesh, which is our emotions, etc. that still tempt us to sin. The flesh is influenced by the devil, by society, and our old propensity to sin.
Our new self has eternal life since death went away with the old self. We live to please God with our new self, not ourselves. That was the old self.
Fun Fact: A variant of the word “died” occurs 3 times in Romans 6.
END NOTES SUMMARIZED
In Romans 6:5-10, Paul expands on the mechanism of a believer’s spiritual union with Christ, explaining exactly how this union breaks the power of sin and guarantees a transformed life.
Here is the breakdown of his argument in these verses:
-
The Guarantee of Resurrection (Verse 5): Paul establishes an unbreakable cause-and-effect relationship. If a believer has been intimately united with Christ in His death, they are equally guaranteed to share in the reality of His resurrection life. The death and the resurrection are a package deal; you cannot have one without the other.
-
Crucifying the Old Self (Verse 6): The “old self”—the former, unregenerate human nature that was entirely susceptible to rebellion—was put to death on the cross with Jesus. The specific purpose of this co-crucifixion is to render the “body of sin” powerless, fundamentally breaking the chains of slavery so that sin can no longer dictate the believer’s actions.
-
Freedom Through Death (Verse 7): Paul applies a universal legal and spiritual axiom: death cancels all debts and contractual obligations. A dead person cannot be ordered around by a former master. Therefore, having died with Christ, the believer is legally emancipated and acquitted from sin’s authority.
-
Confidence in the New Life (Verse 8): Because the believer has shared in this definitive death, they can possess an unshakeable confidence that they now participate in Christ’s enduring, victorious life.
-
The Permanence of Christ’s Victory (Verses 9-10): Paul emphasizes the absolute finality of what Jesus accomplished. Christ’s resurrection was not a temporary resuscitation; death no longer has any jurisdiction over Him. He died to the realm and penalty of sin “once for all,” and His current, eternal state is lived entirely in unbroken fellowship with God.
CONCLUSION
Because believers are inextricably joined to Christ, His permanent victory becomes their permanent reality. The Christian is no longer defined by their past subjugation to sin, but by a definitive, irreversible transfer into a new realm of existence where they share in Christ’s triumph and are empowered to live entirely for God.
This passage explains why the idea of salvation by grace through faith is not a license or excuse to sin. Paul has just said a remarkable thing in the previous verse. Those who come to God through faith in Christ experience rebirth on a spiritual level. Through the Holy Spirit, God responds to our faith in Christ by causing us to die with Christ, spiritually, and to be buried in that same spiritual sense. Then we are raised to new spiritual life as He was raised to a new physical life by the Father.
Aroz explains it in one sentence “Our old self is patterned after Adam and must be put to death, and therefore dies with Jesus on the cross.”