God ("newness of life"), Who loved me, and gave Himself for me' (Gal.

The first item in the doctrine of sanctification which we have

established is 'newness of life'.  True, 'death to sin' must precede this new

life, but death to sin is not sanctification, any more than a good concrete

foundation is a dwelling house.  Power for sanctification is life, and the

study now before us is to discover from the passage as to what that life is,

and how its power may be received, and its effects:

'For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we

shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: knowing this, that

our old man is (was) crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be

destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is

dead is freed from sin' (Rom. 6:5-7).

The R.V. alters the reading 'planted together' to 'become united with',

and this is undoubtedly the meaning.  'Planted together' would truly describe

a row of lettuces, but each plant would nevertheless be independent; the word

sumphutos used here indicates something more intimate, more akin to

'grafting' than 'planting'.  The word is used in the LXX of Amos 9:13 for

'melt', and is employed by Xenophon to describe the 'growing together' of man

and horse known as the 'centaurs' of ancient myth.  The R.V. margin is

closest of all to the truth of the passage, and is the rendering of Alford:

'If we have become united with the likeness of His death, so shall we

be also with His resurrection'.

There is a real link between 'united' and 'likeness', the contrasted

thought being found in Romans 8:3:

'For that which was not in the power of the law, because it was weak

through the flesh, God (did), having sent His own Son in the likeness

of the flesh of sin, and on account of sin condemned sin in the flesh'

(Author's translation).

The Lord had a nature like our sinful nature, but had not Himself a

sinful nature.  If the apostle had not used the word 'likeness', it would

have appeared that Christ partook of sinful flesh, which, of course, He did

not.  So the believer is united to the Lord in the 'likeness' of His death,

for that death itself allows of no possible partner.  He suffered alone, and

suffered once for all.  He died actually and literally, that we might be

reckoned to have died with Him.  Moreover, as we shall see in the next verse,

'the likeness of His death' is most certainly a reference to the kind of

death He died, namely, not an honourable death, nor the death of an acclaimed

victor, but the death of a slave, the death of the accursed, death by

crucifixion.  All this is included in the original statement of verse 2,

'dead to sin'.

It is of the utmost importance that we shall realize the place that

union with Christ occupies in this great doctrine of sanctification.  Here,

in the short compass of four verses, we have such extraordinary expressions

as: 'baptized into His death'; 'buried with Him'; 'united with Him';