8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
I have absolutely no idea what to say about these verses. I'm three days behind on reading, as we've had the flu in our house this week and I spent two days basically sleeping and doing only what absolutely had to be done. Also, for some reason, I can't seem to form coherent thoughts of my own at the moment. The following is from Mr. MacArthur's sermon Dying to Live, Part 2:
Now here in verse 8, to begin with, you have the same ideas we have in verse 3 and verse 5. We have died with Christ and we now have risen in new life with Christ. This is a certainty. He says, we believe that we also shall live with Him. And the future tense doesn't point, I don't think, to heaven, I think it points to certainty. From here and now throughout forever in heaven. We participate in the same holy life that our Lord lives now and forever.
Then verse 9, again building on the same thought, "Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death has no more dominion over Him." In other words, we have died once in Christ, we rise to walk in newness of life, we are certain of that forever because verse 9 says, "Christ is never going to die again." Why? Because the dominion of sin was broken the first time, right? It was broken the first time.
And how do we know that? How do we know that Christ really broke the power of sin the first and only time He died, how do we know that? Because God what? Raised Him from the dead. And when He came out of the grave He showed that He had broken the dominion of sin because sin's power, sin's sting, sin's executioner is death. And when He conquered death, He showed that He had indeed conquered sin. It was a decisive, complete and final victory. There will be no more added to it...never.
And then the climax in verse 10. And we're going to stop with verse 10. And here's the key, "For in that He died, He died unto sin once in that He lives, He lives unto God." There are two elements that I want you to see and then we're going to close. And it's been marvelous your patience through this difficult part. First, He died once...once. A victory that needs no repetition. Verse 9 says, "He will die no more." Why? Because death has no more power. He has broken that power. This is a very very important principle to the writer of the book of Hebrews.
The writer of Hebrews shows how in the Old Testament they had to kill an animal and then another animal and another animal and another animal, it just kept going and going and going and going. And he makes a marvelous contrast and he says that, "But Christ, the Lamb of God, the Priest of the Most High God, the true Priest and the true Offering, offered sacrifice for sin once...right?...once; and by His one offering," he says, "He perfected forever them that are sanctified." He makes a major point out of the "once" idea, particularly in Hebrews 7 and in Hebrews 9 and Hebrews 10:10...once. So, when Christ died once, came out of the grave, He showed He had broken the power of sin. So, when we believe in Him and are placed in His death and resurrection, we too have broken the power of sin permanently and it will never lay claim on us again, it will never be our tyrant.
Then there's a second thought in verse 10 that I want to close with. And this is the key to unlocking some of your thoughts that will pull it all together. "In that He died, He died unto sin." What does that mean?
Some people say, "Well, when Christ died to sin, it means that He became perfect." No, because He was always perfect. And also, we didn't become perfect so it doesn't mean that. What does it mean? Two things, and I think this is simple enough. First, He died to the guilt of sin...to the guilt of sin. This is the legal sense. Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is...what?...death," that's sin's penalty. And when Jesus died on the cross, He died to sin in terms of paying the penalty, He died to the guilt of sin. Let's put it this way, He died to the penalty of sin. Jesus paid it all...all to Him...what?...I owe. Jesus paid the penalty. He met sin's demand. God says, "You sin, you die." Jesus said, "I'll take that death for every man." So, He died unto sin once in paying the penalty.
Now, that's a forensic thing. That's a legal thing. But it's nonetheless the fact, Jesus died unto sin in the sense of paying the penalty. Now listen to this, this is marvelous. When we died in Christ, our penalty was paid also. And that's why the law and sin has no more power over us in terms of penalty. That's why you don't have to go to hell to pay for your sins, because they've been paid for. Let's say you go out and murder a whole bunch of people. How many times can the law take your life? How many times? Once. What happens if they take you up there in the gas chamber and they put you in a pshhhh! . . . and you're gassed . . . and you're dead . . . and they walk in and unstrap you and you go, “Ahhhhh, it's good to be back!” Wanna know something? That's the law's tough luck. It has no claim on you. You paid the penalty. It just so happened that you rose from the dead. That's exactly what happened in the cross. The wages of your sin was your death and you died in Jesus Christ and you paid the penalty and that's why sin has no claim on you.
And so, when Jesus died, He died to pay the penalty of sin and when you died in Him, you died to pay the penalty of sin in Him. And so, when it says in verse 2 that we have died to sin and it says in verse 10 that He died to sin, we come together and both of us can die to sin in the sense of paying the penalty. He in reality pays the penalty, we spiritually in Him pay it. Great thought. There's only one way for you to deal with your sin, folks, you've got to die. And you either die in hell forever paying for them or you die in Jesus Christ. The choice is yours.
But, there's one other thing. He not only died to the penalty of sin, would you listen to this? And here's the thing I think most people misunderstand. He died to the power of sin. He broke the power of sin. It's not something in the future, He did it then. He broke the power of sin. You say, "Well, wait a minute. Was He under sin?" Sure He was. He bore in His own body our sins. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 5:21, this is a statement beyond all comprehension. It says, "He was made sin for us." Temporarily under its power like you can't believe. You think you were under the power of sin before you were saved? Imagine Jesus on the cross with all the weight of all the sin of all the people who ever lived in history. He was under the power of sin. And it killed Him. And by dying, He bore the weight of sin and by rising He broke the power of sin and He entered a new state no longer under the power of sin, no longer under the dominion of sin. And you and I came out of that grave with Him and we are no longer under its power either. No longer do we pay its penalty, no longer are we under its power. (all emphasis mine)
Isn't that fantastic? No longer are we under its power.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 6:11-14
1 comment:
It IS fantastic! I'm loving our study on Romans so far :)
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