EXPLORE THE TEXT
Believers need to understand they live in unison with Christ and act accordingly.
1 What should we say then?
Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?
2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death,
in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
so we too may walk in newness of life.5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death,
we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him
so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless
so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,
7 since a person who has died is freed from sin.
Paul’s opening question in verse 1
why is it significant to understand:
God’s grace multiplied in response to multiplied sin (Rom. 5:20).
Once Paul made the affirmation, he immediately raised a probing question about it.
If believers wanted God’s grace to be multiplied, should they sin more?
Growing disciples would have asked the question innocently and honestly.
However, enemies of the gospel would have asked the question in an effort to deceive people who had placed their faith in Christ.
Paul’s terse answer to the question keeps us from pondering it for even one second.
“Absolutely not!” . .The reason for such a stern response here drives home the truth about the reign of sin in a believer’s life.
When we gave our lives to Christ, we died to a way of life controlled by sin. (PSG, p. 48)
Baptized.
Briefly discuss Why baptism is a useful illustration
for what Paul was sharing about new life in Christ.
Talk about the contrasting images of death and life.