Message: In Romans 6 Paul continued making comparisons between our natural lives and the spiritual representation of the resurrection of Jesus. Once again he seems to debate with himself in order to talk out loud through the things he knew people were wrestling with. These same topics are the very things people wrestle with today. If the price for sin was paid, why not just continue in the pleasure of sin? To this Paul says “certainly not”. Where most of us try to explain this by talking about the disrespect, Paul goes a different direction. He compares the act of His death to our spiritual death to our sin and fleshly desires, and the resurrection to our new life without the bondage of sin. This death and resurrection is represented in baptism. It’s a physical symbol to represent our spiritual change. This means the death and resurrection of Jesus didn’t give us a free pass to sin without consequence. It took away the bondage of sin so that we no longer have to be a slave to our lusts and desires. This doesn’t mean we won’t face temptation. It means that we have a choice and we no longer have to let our sin defeat us. Just as Jesus was obedient to death, we are to be obedient to the death to our flesh and just as Jesus resurrected, we spiritually resurrected into people who are changed and new.
