The Key to Holiness

There are more verses in the Bible calling us to live holy lives in this world than there are teaching the foundational doctrine of justification. This shows the importance of holiness in the life of a Christian. In Romans 6, Paul speaks about why believers should live holy lives and how they can do so in Christ. Holiness is the key to happiness.

The only basis of our salvation is the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the great event that took place in the midpoint of time. Our union with Adam brought us sin, condemnation, and death. Our union by faith with Jesus Christ canceled all that and brought us righteousness, justification, and eternal life.

When Paul said, “Where sin abounded, grace superabounded” (Rom. 5:20), he knew this doctrine of abounding grace could be misinterpreted, and it was. Throughout the history of Christianity, this misinterpretation has produced antinomianism, a perversion that is, sadly, prominent in many churches today. The slogan of an antinomian is, “Only believe, and live as you please. Sin all you want, because more sin means more grace, which means more forgiveness and more glory to God.” Paul opposed this Christian heresy, as did Jude in his epistle and Peter in his second letter.

Antinomianism

First, Paul warns of the antinomianism that teaching about grace may produce. He begins Romans 6 by asking, “Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase?” (v. 1). In other words, “Shall we continue on in the sphere of sin, that we may obtain more grace?”

In this chapter alone, “sin” appears in the singular fifteen times. And throughout this epistle, sin is personified: as a king (Rom. 5:21; 6:12), a slavemaster (Rom. 6:6), and a world ruler (Rom. 3:9). The whole world is under the authority of sin and death, and behind sin and death is the personal devil, the god of this world. Every unbeliever is a slave ruled by King Sin, King Death, and King Satan. But through his death on the cross, Jesus Christ sets us free from this most heinous and tyrannical slavery.

The gospel declares that believers are taken out of the sphere of sin, death, and Satan, and brought into the sphere of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. We have been brought from sin to righteousness, from condemnation to justification, from death to life, from darkness to light, from Satan to Christ, from the tyrannical slavery to sin to the glorious liberty of the children of God in and through Jesus Christ. Paul exclaims, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13).

Once we were united with Adam, but through faith we are now and forever united with Jesus Christ. Paul elsewhere states, “It is because of [God the Father] you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, righteousness, holiness, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). In this spiritual union with Christ, we are justified, sanctified, and glorified, for Christ himself is our justification, sanctification, and glorification. Those who have been justified are being sanctified and shall surely be glorified. Therefore, it is utterly impossible for a person to be justified and not be sanctified. We cannot come under the almighty kingship of grace and still live under the control of sin as our slavemaster.

Grace has defeated King Sin, King Death, and King Devil! All believers are under grace and Christ, and those ruled by grace cannot be ruled by sin at the same time. Grace and sin are opposites, just as Christ and the devil are. Christ came to vanquish the devil and his work: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb. 2:14-15). And John tells us, “He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8).

Therefore, a believer cannot go on sinning that grace may abound. In verse 2 Paul emphatically exclaims, “By no means!” (Mê genoito!). It is unthinkable blasphemy to say that a Christian can continue in the realm of sin once he has been delivered from it; he cannot stay on in Egypt. Having been taken out of Satan’s dominion, he has been brought into the kingdom of God to live under the rule of Christ and grace. Therefore, a person who claims to be a believer yet continues to serve King Sin is a liar. He is not saved. To such people Christ will speak on that day, “Depart from me, you workers of anomia [lawlessness, antinomianism]!”

The Key to Holiness

How, then, can a believer live a holy life? The key to holiness is our union with Jesus Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. The key to holiness is to know the truth that we have died with respect to sin once for all in the death of Christ. Sin did not die; we died to sin, our former master. Sin has no claim upon a slave who just died. He who died is free with respect to sin.

The emphasis in this first section of Romans 6 is on death. We find the words death, dead, die, crucify many times in the first thirteen verses: “We died to sin” (v. 2); “were baptized into his death” (v. 3); “buried with him through baptism into death” (v. 4); “we have been united with him like this in his death” (v. 5); “For we know that our old self was crucified with him” (v. 6); “because anyone who has died” (v. 7); “Now if we died with Christ” (v. 8); “We know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him” (v. 9); “the death he died, he died to sin once for all” (v. 10); “In the same way, count [consider, reckon] yourself dead to sin” (v. 11); “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life” (v. 13). This idea of the death of the believer to sin in the death of Christ is the key to our understanding of holiness.

“We died to sin” (v. 2). We died with respect to sin. It is past history. It does not say we are dying to sin; we died to sin. Sin was our master, but we have been taken out of his kingdom. We are no longer there to be ruled and tyrannized by sin. King Sin lost a subject; King Grace gained a subject. The wages of sin is death, but Christ died for our sins. In his death we died, and we have no further obligation to sin anymore. Sin demanded death, and Jesus paid the penalty of death. We have been set free. If the Son sets us free, we are indeed free.

Before we were dead in sins, but now we are dead to sin. Paul speaks of this: “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:3-6). We are united with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, and session. Paul exhorts the Colossians, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:1-3).

Paul speaks later in Romans 6 about our being freed from sin: “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. . . . But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life” (vv. 17-18; 22). We have been set free by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

When did we die to sin? We did so in our baptism: “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (vv. 3-4). In other words, Paul was asking the Roman Christians, “Don’t you know the meaning of your baptism? Are you ignorant of its meaning?” He made this appeal because everyone in the apostolic church was baptized in water. In the early church, water baptism was not optional. Every believer was baptized, and each knew that believer’s baptism symbolized death. Jesus said, “I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!” (Luke 12:50). Jesus was speaking about his crucifixion.

The New Testament mode of baptism is immersion, which calls for plenty of water. Water baptism signifies in a dramatic way our death in the death of Christ. In apostolic times baptism followed immediately upon confession of faith in Jesus Christ. It represents our union with Christ in all phases of his mediatorial work: we died, were buried, and have been raised with Christ. Therefore, immersion (going into the water) points to our death with Christ, submersion (being underwater) points to our burial, and emersion (coming out of the water) points to our resurrection with Christ. Paul writes elsewhere, “You were . . . buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col. 2:11-12).

Paul writes, “The death [Jesus] died, he died to sin once for all” (v. 10). Jesus Christ died to sin once for all, and in his death we also died to sin once for all. Therefore, Paul exhorts, “Count yourselves dead to sin and alive to God” (v. 11). From now on we are living our resurrection life to serve God, not the devil. When we repent and believe on Jesus Christ, we are saved to love God and delight in his word that declares to us this glorious freedom in Christ.

Jesus came once to die, was raised by the power of the Father, and returned to heaven where he lives forever. Though he was without sin, he came under the dominion of sin and death when he took our sin and its penalty upon himself. Yet death could not keep him in the grave because he was without sin, and he will never have to die again because his death for our sins was completely effectual.

In Christ’s death we died spiritually; in his burial we were buried spiritually; in his resurrection we are raised in our spirits, and at his second coming, we shall be raised up physically also. He will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). We are, therefore, no longer united with Adam in his sin, condemnation, and death. We have a new representative. We have been taken out of Adam and united to Christ by faith. So we are united to Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, as our baptism indicates. (PGM) And since Jesus will never die again, we who are in him will also never die again. Jesus said, “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). Death can only send us to the very presence of God. Jesus lives forever, and so we live by his resurrection life.

We are vitally united with Christ as branches are united to the vine. His life, his death, and his victory over sin, death, and the devil are ours. Christ is King, and we who receive the abundance of grace due to our vital union with Christ are also kings (Rom. 5:17). We are seated with Christ and our life is hidden with Christ in God. As kings, we live a victorious Christian life. We not only declare war against sin, death, and the devil, but we also rule over these enemies. We resist the devil by the gospel, and he flees from us because he knows Christ defeated him by his death, and he knows we know that. Knowing that we are united with Christ, the devil runs from us as we exercise faith in the gospel.

As Christians we have power, not political or economic power, but the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:8). We are not weaklings. The life of God in us gives us supernatural power. The power of God flows into us and makes us able to do what is right. We do not have to live in sin any longer; we have the power of God. John writes, “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, so the evil one cannot touch him” (1 John 5:18, author’s translation). If we are held by God, the evil one cannot touch us. He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. We are held by the hand of Christ and the hand of the Father. Nothing in the whole world can defeat us and separate us from the life and love of God. We died to sin in the death of Christ and are risen with Christ that we may serve God, not sin.

Living the Resurrection Life

Above all, may we remember Christ’s resurrection, which is the ultimate proof of the total defeat of all powers opposed to God. Because of our union with Christ, we are now on the other side of the grave. Sin, death, and the devil have no further claim on us. We have been set free from these things to serve God in the resurrection life.

We must not focus on ourselves and our weakness and misery. Instead, let us look to the dead, buried, and risen Christ, in whom we were when he died and rose again. His death and resurrection have been credited to our account, becoming effectual to us when we believed and were baptized.

This union with Christ is the mother of all doctrines. It speaks of what is true of us in Christ. This is not mere imagination. The purpose of this union with Christ is that we live the resurrection life in service to God. That is why it is impossible for true believers to continue in sin. We died to sin; sin is no longer our master.

Risen with Christ, we now live by his resurrection life. Jesus came to give us this life. An unbeliever is dead as he lives. He may accomplish many things in the world, but he remains under the wrath of God. He is a dead man walking. But we walk in the newness of eternal life and live our daily lives by the life of Christ in us. We cook, clean, go to work, make decisions, worship, and proclaim the gospel in the power of resurrection life. We may even suffer and be killed in this resurrection power of the Holy Spirit.

We must think about this truth when we are tempted to murmur and complain. The death and resurrection of Christ matters in our everyday lives. It is not some fantastic idea that has no relevance to the present. Our old man is dead; our old sinful humanity does not exist anymore. Paul says of his old blaspheming self, “I have been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body now, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal.2:20). The new man lives in the power of the resurrection life.

Paul also writes, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died [to sin]. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15). Elsewhere he says, “For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve you” (2 Cor. 13:4). We live the Christian life by God’s power. Peter tells us, “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body [i.e., died in his body] is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God” (1 Pet. 4:1-2).

Freedom in Christ

In Christ, we are done with the reign of sin, death, and the devil. In him we are untouchable by these things. Now we are in heaven on earth, for God dwells in us and we in him. Our body of sin has been disabled and does not rule us anymore; rather, we rule it. Paul says, “I beat my body and make it my slave” (1 Cor. 9:27). We have been bought at a price, so we honor God with our bodies, which are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We do not and cannot continue in sin. In fact, we have been taken out of sin’s realm and control. Once we were dead in sin, following the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. We were objects of God’s wrath, in total slavery to sin.

Thanks be to God for our new identity! God has made us alive with Christ; now we are a new creation with a new nature. We have the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to obey the will of God. Before we were obedient to the devil and disobedient to God. Now we are disobedient to the devil and gladly obey God. We live to love and serve God in the life of Christ. We are free at last-not with the political freedom of social justice, but freedom in Jesus Christ.

Shall we, therefore, go on sinning so that grace may abound? Unthinkable! Perish the thought! It cannot be. How can we trade life for death, freedom for slavery, or joy for misery? There has been an emancipation proclamation from heaven. All slaves of sin who believe in Jesus are set free. Our shackles are loosed, our prison doors opened, and we are free to rise up and go out into the sunlight, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The stronger one, Jesus Christ, has come and bound Satan to set us free. Let us, therefore, go forth, walking and leaping and praising God. May we go with all God’s people to live a new life in the service of God. May we go with the saints of God to the heavenly Zion, singing praises of the superabounding grace of our God.

Once we could only sin – we were non posse non peccare (not possible not to sin). Now we have freedom to resist sin and live for God in righteousness (posse non peccare). We have freedom from both the guilt and power of sin. And at Christ’s second coming, we shall be glorified and brought into a state in which we will not sin at all (non posse peccare), a state superior to the state of Adam in his innocence, which was (posse peccare).

Yes, sin still desires to reassert its authority in our lives. We are tempted, but we resist. We are no longer the old slaves of sin. Empowered by Christ, we rule and fight as kings. We wield the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, and the devils fall and flee. In God we leap over walls and are able to live a victorious life because we died and rose again in Christ.

Live in The Truth of God’s Word

The key to holiness is to know this great truth of being united to Christ. If we do not know it in our minds, we will complain and go astray. Christianity demands, not the sacrifice of our intellect, but the maximum use of our renewed minds. Know the gospel facts.

Paul asks, “Don’t you know?” (v. 3) The actual Greek is, “Are you ignorant?” Do we read the Bible? Do we study to understand what has happened to us? “For we know. . .” (vv. 6, 9). Paul was not ignorant. He knew the gospel. Look at verse 11: “In the same way, count yourselves dead.” We must exercise our minds. We must not live as though we are still under the dominion of sin and the devil. We have been emancipated and are no longer in prison. Our shackles are gone and we have been transferred to the kingdom of God.

I pray that we will all know this truth and live for God as free men and women. We are no longer under sin’s authority and power. We are now under the authority and power of grace, and we shall never fall from grace to go back to be under sin. This is the key to holiness, the key to happiness, the key to a triumphant Christian life, not only in heaven, but in this life on earth.