25 Oct '16 15:11>1 edit
So Paul asks the question which some of his critics had:
Should we Christians continue to sin because of God's grace ?
This is now BEFORE chapter 7 where he starts his in depth analysis of man's fallen condition and chapter 8 where he elaborates on the God ordained solution.
I like that Paul asks if they are ignorant of a very important fact that they must grasp and stand on by faith. They have been crucified and buried with Christ.
I ask "HOW did Paul get to know all of this? Jesus didn't talk much about us being baptized into His death and raised with Him."
The answer must be in the fact that Paul really understood deeply by both revelation and personal personal experience, the significance of baptism.
Look.
It is important to see that this realization and experience Paul GREW in. It was an encreasing revelation. It was an ever unfolding and encreasing realization. We can see this by the good translation of verse 5 in which he uses the phrase "grown together".
From the day he received Jesus into his heart, he began to be "together with Him" in the depths of his being. And he learned that a process was going on.
His old man was dying and being buried away.
His new man was being raised to walk in newness of a new life of godliness.
Baptism into Christ was an act he obeyed to do.
Dying and rising together with Jesus Christ unfolded more and more as he lived in the Holy Spirit.
He did not want the Christians to be ignorant of this reality. Together with Christ they would HAVE to be transformed. We are to grow with Christ growing in us.
Should we Christians continue to sin because of God's grace ?
This is now BEFORE chapter 7 where he starts his in depth analysis of man's fallen condition and chapter 8 where he elaborates on the God ordained solution.
I like that Paul asks if they are ignorant of a very important fact that they must grasp and stand on by faith. They have been crucified and buried with Christ.
I ask "HOW did Paul get to know all of this? Jesus didn't talk much about us being baptized into His death and raised with Him."
The answer must be in the fact that Paul really understood deeply by both revelation and personal personal experience, the significance of baptism.
Look.
" What then shall we say? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Absolutely not! We who have died to sin, how shall we still live in it?
Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life. "(6:1-6)
It is important to see that this realization and experience Paul GREW in. It was an encreasing revelation. It was an ever unfolding and encreasing realization. We can see this by the good translation of verse 5 in which he uses the phrase "grown together".
"For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection." (v.5)
From the day he received Jesus into his heart, he began to be "together with Him" in the depths of his being. And he learned that a process was going on.
His old man was dying and being buried away.
His new man was being raised to walk in newness of a new life of godliness.
Baptism into Christ was an act he obeyed to do.
Dying and rising together with Jesus Christ unfolded more and more as he lived in the Holy Spirit.
He did not want the Christians to be ignorant of this reality. Together with Christ they would HAVE to be transformed. We are to grow with Christ growing in us.