5 For if we have been joined together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be joined with him in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 For we know this, that our old man was crucified together with him, in order that the body of sin should be abolished, that we should no longer be enslaved to sin; 7 for the one who died has been vindicated from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with him, 9 because we know that Christ, because he was raised from the dead, no longer dies. 10 For the death he died he died to sin once for all time; and the life he lives he lives to God.
I believe that you correctly make the case that Paul's mention of our being raised, though expressed with the future tense ("we shall also be joined with him in the likeness of his resurrection"), is not strictly future oriented. Surely, given the contextual placement of this future oriented claim, Paul's theological affirmation encompasses the present in some real and significant way. This is surely to be inferred from his assertions in the following verses. The old man is rendered old by the formation of the new man, which is not specifically mentioned but certainly implied.
You properly identify the old man with Adam, though the first Adam is not strictly speaking the old man. Rather, we all, as individuals in Adam, constitute the old man. Hence, there is both a corporate and an individual dimension to the old man.
Of particular interest, in verse 7, is Paul's somewhat unusual use of the verb dedikaiōtai (perfect indicative of dikaioō). Many translate the word as set free (ESV; NRSV; NIV; NASB; etc.). What makes Paul's use of the verb somewhat unusual and difficult to translate is the fact that he connects the verb with a somewhat unusual set of words to follow--dedikaiōtai apop tēs hamartias--justified from sin. Paul's use, here, is similar to that in Acts 13:38-39, which, incidentally, is Luke's narration of one of Paul's sermons--By this one everyone who believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses. In Acts 13:38-39 Luke uses the verb dedikaioō twice: hōn ouk ēdunēthēte en nomō Mōuseōs dedikaiōthēnai and en toutō pas ho pisteuōn dikaiutai. Given Paul's use of dikaioō elsewhere in Romans, it seems unwise to regard use in 6:7 to be out of character with his other uses, as some commentators contend (e.g., Moo, Romans 1-8, 376-377). If Paul had simply intended to say "freed from sin," he could easily have used the same expression that he later uses in Romans 6:18, eleutherōthentes apo tēs hamartia ("having been set free from sin"). John Stott agrees with this (Romans: God's Good News for the World, 177).
Paul sustains his future orientation in verse 8, as you properly identify, as you say, "The emphasis is on the future, but the language (especially where Paul goes in the following verses) seems to include the present." What Paul says in verses 8 & 9 seems to be akin to the point made in Hebrews 7:16 which exalts Christ as having the power of an indestructible life. Christ cannot die again because he has been raised from the dead, Paul says. Hence, we who are in Christ live now and will forevermore live.
Again, verse 10 sounds like the argument in Hebrews 7:27; 9:12; 10:10; etc., where those passages also use ephapax to say that Christ died once for all time. The emphasis is upon the termination of death in the death of Christ (echoes of John Owen's classic, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ). Paul's argument is this: Christ died, ergo, we died; Christ lives, ergo, we live and we shall live. This was expressed long ago in a great old hymn by Christian F. Gellert (1757).
Jesus lives, and so shall I.
Death! Thy sting is gone forever!
He who deigned for me to die,
Lives, the bands of death to sever.
He shall raise me from the dust:
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.
2 comments:
Your comments concerning "justified from sin" make a lot of sense.
So is Paul saying that our justification frees from sin's power in our life? Or is he saying that because our union with Christ, Christ's victory over sin makes the believer's victory possible?
Am I on the right track?
Given the fact that justification entails a forensic or a courtroom imagery, it seems to me that justification from sin concerns not sin's power but sin's guilt, sin's condemning sentence. This is not to say that sin's power over us is not also broken at the same time as sin's guilt is lifted from us. Yet, Paul employs other imageries to depict this. In Romans 6, for example, he employs the imagery of emancipation from sin's enslavement (Romans 6:15ff).
Consequently, it seems to me that it is our union with Christ, which entails enslavement to a new master, is the imagery that depicts our victory over sin.
Post a Comment