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"But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him" (Rom. 6: 8).
Why should we thus believe, and why should this death with Christ give such
assurance?
"Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more. Death lords it over
Him no more, for in that He died, He died to sin once, but in that He liveth, He liveth
unto God" (Rom. 6: 9, 10).
Death ends dominion. The dead slave is free from his master and all his claims. The
next three references emphasizes this. Paul addresses the Jew particularly, as knowing
the law. His figure is that of the law of marriage. A woman is bound by the law of her
husband, and if she should, during her husband's life, enter into marriage relationship
with another man, she is called an adulteress. But, if the husband should die, she is
"loosed", and "free", and may, without blame, be joined in marriage to another man.
This truth is brought to a focus in verses 5 and 6. The A.V. of verse 6 reads: "that
being dead wherein we were held"; the margin--Or "being dead to that". The reading
apothanontos,, says Alford, has no place in the discussion, as it appears to be but a
conjecture of Beza's. We therefore translate verse 6:--
"But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were
holden."
The two remaining passages, 8: 13 and 34, we leave for the time, as they belong to
the sphere that results from this deliverance rather than to the deliverance itself.
It will be worth while attempting a summary of the doctrine of identification with
Christ, in death, contained in the references of Rom. 6: 2 - 7: 9, just passed in review.
Rom. 6: 2 declares the simple fact that we are dead to sin, and verse 7 adds the blessed
detail that he that is dead is justified from sin. This twofold relationship, "to sin" and
"from sin", cannot result from any act of our own, for we are already under the dominion
of sin and death, through relationship with the first man, Adam. We learn, therefore, in
the next reference, that another Head has been provided, in grace, and that this death to
sin, and justification from sin, is due to our having "died with Christ" (6: 8). Then
comes the assurance that this deliverance is complete and lasting. Christ, in Whom we
died, was raised again from the dead, and the Scripture affirms that He dieth no more,
death having no more dominion over Him. He died to sin once and now liveth unto God;
and in this He is still our blessed Head and Representative, so that we not only died with
Him, but we are raised with Him.
The great principle that death breaks all law's dominion is illustrated by the law of
marriage, and our complete and perfect deliverance is found in the fact that we are dead
to that which once held us--"dead to the law by the body of Christ" (7: 4 and 6). This
reference, 7: 4, is the only passage of the three under the heading thanatoo that is
included in our theme, the two in chapter 8:, like the two under the heading
apothnesko, belonging rather to the application and outworking of the fact.