Count yourself: (6:5-11):
The Apostle says: “if we have been united with Him like in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection” (6:5). We are united with Him or grafted with Him.
- United with Christ: (6:5a): Our union with Christ brings not only justification; it also gives us the benefit of sharing in His death, the benefit of eternal life and the benefit of sharing in His resurrection. This affects the way we live. We are to live in a way that reflects our future life with Christ. Our old self was crucified with Him. Our old self was a descendant of Adam, a body under the power of sin, and that died on the cross. Our former identification with Adam is dead; we are no longer his, but we belong to Christ. Paul expressed a similar idea for his own life too (Phil.3:10-11): that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Some people are ready to be united together in the glory of resurrection, but are unwilling to be united together in His death.
- In the likeness of His resurrection: (6:5b): Our willing participation in the death of Christ gives us the right to participate in the resurrection of Christ. Many Christians focus too much on the crucified Jesus failing to see the larger part of ‘preparation for resurrection life.’
- The old self is dead: (6:6-7): The death of our old man happened spiritually when we were identified with Jesus’ death at our salvation. This old self is identifies with Adam. Paul gives a parallelism, that Christ died unto sin or a sacrifice for the sins of the world or a sin offering. No man has ever died sin-offering and can never be. The power and penalty of the sin died with Christ on the cross. The body of the sin is not this, but a rebellious, sin loving nature inherited from Adam.
The system of law is unable to deal with the old man, because it can only tell the old man what the righteous standard of God is. The law tries to reform the old man, to get him to “turn over a new leaf.” But the system of grace understands that the old man can never be reformed. He must be put to death, and for the believer the old man dies with Jesus on the cross. (Thought taken from David Guzik Blue letter bible)
- An obedient new man: (6:8): The crucifixion of the old man with Christ brought into the reality a New man in the likeness of Jesus. His life is obedient and pleasing to God. If we believe in Him, we will live with Christ in the future, we should also believe that he has overcome the power of sin and death, and he liberates us from these powers in this life. We still sin, but it does not have the final authority in our lives. It cannot force us to sin. We are no longer slaves of sin. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we can never fear death. This assurance frees us to enjoy fellowship with Him and do His will. This will affect all our activities, work, worship etc.
- Christ displayed Resurrection as a precedence: (6:9-10): “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all” (6:9-10). Jesus was not brought back to mortal life, as Lazarus was. Rather, Jesus was raised to immortal, imperishable life. Death had mastery over Him for a short time, just as sin once had mastery over us. But Jesus has been freed from that power, and as we are united with Christ, we will also be freed from those powers, too. “but the life He lives, He lives to God” (6:10b).
- Be a model: (6:11): “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (6:11). So we are to be a model of Christ. This is the choice set before us. We can either serve sin, or we can serve God.
Yield not: (6:12-14):
- Sin’s dominion: (6:12): Sin is represented as a king, ruler, or tyrant, who has the desires of the mind and the members of the body under his control. Apostle says: do not let sin reign, do not let him work; that is, let him have no place. Sin is known by the evil influences in the mind and evil acts in the life. These things prove Satan’s Certainly, the very existence of an evil thought to which passion or appetite attaches itself, is a proof that sin has dominion there. Without dominion such passions could not be excited. Wherever sin is felt, sin has dominion there. Sin is called sin only when it comes into action or passion against God. Sin cannot be a quiescent thing: if it does not work, it does not exist. (Thought taken from Adam Clarke’s Commentary).
- Not as instruments of wickedness but instruments of righteousness: (6:13-14): We should not yield to temptation. It is not a sin to be tempted. Sin happens in the yielding. While the sin exists only in Satan’s dominion, it is not ours but Devil’s. But when we yield, we make the Devil’s sin our own. “Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.” (Jam.4:7). Satan himself cannot force us to sin. Until he wins over our will, he cannot bring us into subjection. We can (certainly) be tempted, but yield not to the temptation. We are brought from death to life, sin to righteousness. Further we are not under law which points out us that we are sinners all the time, but we are under grace. We have the freedom, not to commit sin but resist sin and accept God’s righteousness. Let’s offer our souls, heart, our hands, legs and all parts of our body as instruments for righteous acts.