Living the dream--a new life | Rom 6:4-10

The believer’s power over sin and the ability to lead a new life stem from identification with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. From God’s perspective, Jesus’ death to sin is ours as well. His rising to new life means that we also begin to lead a new life, and in the future our bodies will also be raised. In scholastic achievments, we can read a book and know what it says, but we may not necessarily believe it. In the life of Christ, we cannot possibly “know God’s word” without believing in Him. Our “old selves” are not a nature that we possess or just one part of who we are; it reflects who we were in Adam. We are heirs of the sin and death that Adam introduced into the world (Rom 5:12), we were slaves to the power of sin. But as people who are now in Christ, we have gone through crucifixion with him (see also Gal 2:20). When Jesus died on the cross, we also died to sin that ruled in our former selves.