The title of this blog might sound like a man-made philosophy that involves some type of reincarnation.  The truth is, however, it is a biblical truth that is not referring to physical death and life.  This is how Paul put it.

Romans 6:8 (ESV)
⁸  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

Let’s look at the context of this statement to see what Paul really means.

In the previous chapter of Romans, Paul was emphasizing that grace is greater than sin.  Knowing that some would misunderstand his teaching, concluding that if grace is greater than sin, then they should just continue in sin so that the grace of God will abound (ver. 1).  To guard against such an erroneous conclusion, he proceeds in chapter 6 to teach the importance of dying to sin.

Paul asked the question, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?”  When one understands the meaning of death, he knows that such is an impossibility.  To die to something is to be separated from it.  Physical death involves a separation of the soul from the body (James 2:26).  Being spiritually dead means being separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-2), and being dead to sins means being separated from sin.  So, how can a person be both dead to sin and live in it at the same time?  Obviously, that cannot be done.

Paul continues to remind us that when we obeyed the gospel we died to sin.   We were baptized into the death of Christ (ver. 4), at which time we were freed from sin and its dominion (ver. 6-7).  How do we know for sure that we died to sin?  The obvious answer is that God says so.  It is God’s plan that when we believe and are baptized, our sins are forgiven and we are saved (Acts 2:38: Acts 3:19; Mark 16:16).  Being buried in baptism, however, is not enough.  Following our belief in Jesus, and preceding being baptized, another step that must be taken to truly die to sin is repentance.  What is the evidence that we have repented?  After baptism, we walk in the newness of life (ver. 4).

Someone once argued that baptism did not work because he had been baptized four or five times and continued to sin.  Like Pharoah’s response to God’s demand to let His people go, this person’s statement was a sign of both arrogance and ignorance.  It was arrogant because he was claiming something God commanded didn’t work.  It was ignorant because he failed to see the obvious—he kept sinning, not because baptism does not work, but because he failed in each case to repent.  As it has been said, without repentance, a person goes into the water a dry sinner and comes out a wet one.  If you want baptism to do what God intends for it to do, you must repent.  That is a part of the dying that leads to life.

Romans 6:6 (ESV)
⁶  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

To live with Christ now and have eternal life at the God-appointed time, one must first die, or as Paul put it, crucify the old self.  Without this crucifixion, the newness of life is unattainable.  Paul could confidently teach this because he first practiced it.

Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
²⁰  I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

If you believe that you are alive spiritually, make sure that you have truly died to sin.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.