Union With Christ — In His Humanity And Death

We began a new series of studies last week on the topic Union with Christ and we have done an overview of the topic last Sunday and today we'll continue on the topic and today I'm going to very briefly share on Union with Christ in terms of his humanity and also in his death. So for this, we'll be dealing with two passages. That is from Book of Romans, that is Romans chapter 5, verses 12 till 21, and then from chapter 6.

So it’s not going to be a very exhaustive study, brief high-level introduction to this topic. As I mentioned last week, that this sounds very basic, but this is very crucial and critical for our Christian identity, because as Christians, we often forget who we are in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And many times we tend to think, live and act outside of this identity. And particularly these are also very good reminders to my own soul. And also I think it is beneficial to all of us. So first we’ll look at the aspect of our union with Christ into his humanity, and then we will briefly look at our union with Christ into his death.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this precious time, and we thank you, Lord, for your word. We ask you, as we look into your word, we pray that you open the eyes of our understanding. Give us grace that we may grow in the knowledge of your will. We pray that we, our lives, Lord, would be transformed by your word, through your Spirit. We ask you, Father, that we would, Lord, really see ourselves in Christ. Oh Father, Lord, have mercy upon us. Oh Father, Lord, and may these precious truths have deep impact on our hearts. And we ask you, Lord Father, to bless our time together.

In Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen. I request you to turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 5, and we’ll read verses 12, maybe till 19. Romans chapter 5, verses 12 till 19. We can read it responsively. I’m reading it from the NASB version. You can follow it in your own versions.

Verse 12. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offence of Adam, who is the type of him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression, for if by the transgression of the one many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

“The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned, for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression, resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions, resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one death reigned through one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through one Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.

“For as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one man many will be made righteous.” May God bless the reading of the Scripture. And so, firstly, I want to present you, as I mentioned even in our last study, in a previous study, about the two federal heads. Who are those two federal heads? Adam and Christ, right? So, particularly in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we see there that Paul refers to Christ as the second Adam, in some translations, or the last Adam, in some translations, in contrast to the first Adam, the father of the mankind.

So, Paul is using the metaphor that the two Adams are the two orders of existence. existence the old humanity is on one hand and the new human humanity is on the other hand so particularly if you look at first corinthians chapter 15 there i think in verses 15 and 19 paul says that the first man adam became a living soul and we will see uh and also the second Adam or the last Adam became the living spirit so we will we will see the contrast between Adam and Christ here but because of Adams sin the entire humanity has come under the curse of sin and death but and but the verses that we have read explained that even after Adam sin

believers can be hopeful. Though entire humanity came under the spell of sin, there is still hope. And if you look at the verse 14, ends with a declaration that Adam is a type of Christ. Adam is a type of Christ. What does it mean? What is a type? Means a pattern or a predictive symbol or a valid form of prophecy. Theologically, it is a person or thing prefiguring a future person or the thing. And in Scriptures a type always is a predictive symbol fulfilled by an antitype, right? For example, a lamb is an Old Testament type and the predictive symbol is the

Christ. He is the antitype. So, uh, so, uh, in the same way Adam is the type, Christ is the antitype. Okay? And, uh, so in what sense Adam is the type of Christ? In what sense? He, like Christ, functioned as the federal head or the covenant head of all humanity. And he, you know, on one hand Adam brought curse, and on the other hand the antitype Christ brought blessing, salvation. And this type works as a contrast. So he and all, and what is the hope for the believers here? All believers can have hope and assurance because now we now

We belong to the one who has overturned all that Adam introduced into the world. If we go down to verse 15 until verse 19, we will see that we all are connected to a federal head and to his sin which affected all of us. And behind all our depravity, guilt and sinning there is a deep mysterious connection with Adam. Whatever sin that we do is because we belong to Adam in a sense, and whose sin become our sin and whose judgment became our judgment. And look at the words in chapter 5, verses 15 to 17, that describe the impact of Adam's trespass. In verse 15,

Adam's trespass resulted in death. In verse 16, Adam's trespass resulted in judgment. In verse 16 again is sin. Adam's trespass resulted in condemnation. All humans enter into this world in the state of sin, judgment and condemnation. And look at the words in the same verses 15 to 17, describe the contrast here, describe the impact of Jesus' free gift. Jesus' free gift brought what? In verse 16, justification. Verse 17, life. The grace of the Lord is much more powerful than the trespass of Adam. You look there in verse in 17, it says that the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, right? So, and it overflows to such an extent that it triumphs over the, or what Adam introduced into this

world. As a result, believers who have received this grace can be certain that sin and death will never triumph over them. Thomas Schreiner says that the work of Christ does not merely return human beings to the state of Adam prior to his sin. Those in Christ now enjoy the righteousness of another, a righteousness not their own.

By virtue of their union with Christ, they are counted righteous before God and enjoy the life of the age to come. You see the difference? Adam, before the fall, was in the image of God. Right? Right? And after the fall, though the image is still marred, but now, because of our union with Christ, we are not again going back to the original state.

Right? But we have received the righteousness of another. That is the righteousness of Christ. And with that righteousness, we stand before God. As originally made in God's image, is truly human. But sin has alienated man from God and robbed him of his true humanity. Therefore, redemption is considered as a restoration of that lost image of God in man. It is a reconstitution of man as man.

As Calvin puts it, “Christ is called the second Adam because he restores us to the substantial and true humanity.” So who this Christ, who is this Christ, you know, who this Christ is with whom we have come to be in a union? We have come in union with the exalted and risen Lord who is seated at The New Testament lays great stress on the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you read through the Gospels and also some of the epistles, we see that. And the New Testament lays great stress on the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. When he became a man in his incarnation, his assumption of manhood was no temporary experience.

His manhood is permanent, which means that God is eternally God without the nature of man, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. At one point of time, he stepped down into this world and when he had come into this world, he took upon himself another human nature.

And that human nature is joined to this divine person forever. It is not a temporary arrangement. He remains human also in his exaltation and glorification. He remains a man forever. And Christ's forever humanity is the only pledge and guarantee that we will share in Christ.

Christ's humanity is the only guarantee that we will share in Christ. And that is the reason the doctrine of eternal manhood of Christ Jesus is essential for the entire Christian theology. We should also consider our union with Christ in terms of his humanity. John Calvin says, “The crowning feature of God's infinite love shown in the incarnation lies in the fact that through putting on our human nature, Jesus, who could not be subject to death, nevertheless becomes capable of dying and offering himself in death. The human nature of which he assumed he consecrated himself to death as the eternal high priest to offer himself to bring expiation of our sins.”

When Jesus had become a human, it was made possible for him to die on our behalf, to suffer for our sins. And he continues to say that Christ sanctified himself to the Father so that His holiness might come to us. Therefore, the inward work of the sanctifying Spirit in the believer's life simply the impartation of Him of the sanctification that He has already worked out for him in his humanity. God has made the human nature of Christ Jesus the residing place of all the graces of the Spirit which are required to transform us into new creatures, recreated after the image of God revealed in Jesus. I want to repeat this last sentence. God has made the human nature of Christ Jesus the

residing place of all the graces of the Spirit which are required to transform us into new creatures recreated after the image of God revealed in Jesus. Everything that God gives us in Christ is communicated through Christ to the church through the Holy Spirit.

All the grace that we need to live as God's children in this world comes to us in Christ through the blessed Holy Spirit. It no virtue that we are required to live by comes from within. Everything is from him. The grace to love, the grace to repent, the grace to forgive, the grace to live holy lives, the grace to suffer, the grace to be focused on the hope, everything, the grace to persevere until the end, everything comes from the from the person of Christ Jesus. Nothing else, nothing comes from us. If anything comes from us, that is going to be no or vanished. It's not sufficient, it's not sufficient.

These graces in Christ equip us for the task as Christians in this world. Our sanctification here depends on Christ's human nature, which is the fountain from which we tap all the necessary resources. So my brothers and sisters, it's very essential for us to look to Christ each and every moment. The moment we fail, the moment we fail is not the moment to be in self-pity, it's a moment to look to Christ and to repent. The moment we fail is not to think that what others are thinking about me. The moment we time to think that, okay, I have sinned against God, and it's time to press on because God has called me to this new way of life in union with Christ. Only in union with Christ we can become true humans.

Christ's humanity is a channel for our true humanity. In Christ and because of Christ we can imitate Christ. As I mentioned last time, in the last previous session, that in Christ we get all the resources to live, and because we are in Christ and his grace and we have the resources now available in Christ to us, we can imitate Christ. Our imitation of Christ is possible because we are in Christ and his resources are available to us. You are, if you are imitating Christ, not because you're greater Christian, if someone is imitating Christ, it's only because that person is looking onto Christ.

If I have failed in imitating Christ, that means that I have stopped somewhere looking at Christ, tapping on the resources that are available in the person of Christ. The moment I realize that I fail, it's the time that I look to Christ, not to self. The more you look at yourself, disappointed. The more we look to Christ will be encouraged, because we'll realize that nothing comes from me, everything comes from Christ, everything flows from the person of Christ. And there is a possibility for us as believers to live according to flesh, act and think and talk like sinners, and we must be careful to repent, turn to the Lord and yield to the control daily to live like true humans.

Repentance is not simply feeling sorry for what we have done or confessing where we have failed, nor is simply resolving to do better. Rather, repentance is turning back to God in all of life. If sin is running from God to get control of our lives, then repentance is turning back to God and yielding control to him. In that clash of wills, Jesus or you, repentance is letting God's quiet voice become louder, larger and stronger in your life. And because we are turning back to the one who has already accepted and forgiven us, repentance is not only marked by weeping and mourning but is also marked by relief and joy. Yes, when we sin there is guilt and shame, but we can be relieved that God has forgiven us once we look

to Christ. You know, our sins are erased, forgiven. We need not carry that load, right? And he continues to say, we do mourn because we hate to grieve him who loves us best. But we also rejoice as we realize that the primary one we have offended is the very one who has moved toward us and embraced us. Here is a sorrow that leads to rejoicing and leaves no regret. Turning back to God is turning back to life. You know, this particular quotation, whatever, I saved it from reading, and this gave me a great comfort. This gave me a great comfort.

Turning back is possible because we are united with Christ. No matter how bad your backsliding is, turning back is still possible because a believer is united with Christ. The work of sanctification makes us more and more true humans, which means we will become more like Christ Jesus. And when we do not, when we do not nourish ourselves on, will be malnourished Christians.

Christ's humanity is proof of his union with us. He is in us and he is with us and he enables us to respond to life problems and issues in a manner that we would respond. It is not just our union with Christ, it is humanity.

We come to the second point, it is also our union with Christ into his death which is equally important for our union for our Christian existence. Our union with Christ's death is a doorway to all other union in Christ. When Christ died for our sins, God dealt with it fully in Christ's death for our sins. The wrath of God no longer abides on us because of our sins. Now we are freed from that.

on your Bibles to Romans 6 and read verses 3-5. I request one of you to read louder. Romans 6, verses 3-5. Can you also read verse 10? And verse 14 as well.

So I will not get into much details of this passage. But I want you to focus on this term. Baptized into Christ in verse 3. Here a physical baptism is. The picture of physical baptism is used to represent our union with Christ here. In this context. Here baptism is a symbolic representation of our union with Christ. And the word baptism here is in a passive voice, which indicates that it’s not that we are doing the action. We are not baptizing here. Which means that God is doing the action. Which means it shows that our union with Christ. It is God who is uniting us with the person of Christ Jesus.

And what we learn from these verses is that we are united to Christ. We should think of sin as both as an act of atonement for our sins and reconciliation. And also, secondly, on the other hand, as death to sin. You know, uh, so as Paul speaks in, uh, Romans chapter 6 verse 10, if you turn your, uh, Bibles to 6:10, it says that, “For the death he died he died to sin once for all.” So what I mean is Christ not only died for atonement for our sins, in a sense he also died to sin in our place. I’ll come to that, uh, you know, in a moment. Christ definitely died for our sins. All that’s, all that we have sinned, all the sins that we have sinned are done, they are laid on the person of Christ. He died for our sins at

the same time. He died in his death on our behalf, he also died to sin. Right? As a representative, as a federal head, he died to sin so that in his death to sin we also die to sin daily. And you know, the, the change of preposition here has some significance here. He, the, Paul, you know, Paul doesn’t say that he died for sin, but he says die to sin. That is a very significant thing here. The word sin, again focus here, the word sin is singular. It doesn’t say sins, it is singular. And also in the original language there is a definite

article before sin. What do you mean by definite article? The sin. It is not a sin, it is the sin, hē hamartia, the sin. Which means it is, the sin is personified here, which is, which is, that’s the reason Paul uses the word dominion or master in verse 14. So your sin is personified, you know, which means that it is depicted as a master which govern the lives of people from Adam till Christ. That’s what Paul is saying, emphasizing in chapter 5, right? It, like a master, it ruled people, control people, dominated people. It is like, it like, it’s like personified, having or

exerting some kind of power. And sin entered through Adam, and it has its sway over all people. And the significance of Christ’s death to sin. And Paul’s point in chapter 6 verse 10 is to compare and contrast living for God and living for sin.

Do you, do we daily consider Christ as a master or sin as a master? Do we who died in Christ, who died to sin, do we still yield to sin? Or because in Christ we died to sin, do we yield to God? A contrast slowly Paul is going to bring out in this passage, where later he says that do not yield the members of your body as instruments of unrighteousness. Whom are you serving? Whom are we serving daily? Christ, to whom we are united. We died to sin, therefore we died to sin in Christ’s death. Our Lord also died to the dominion of sin in that sense.

In Christ’s death to sin, there is a death blow to sin. And in our union with Christ, we share in the benefits of that death blow. In Christ, we died to sin, which means we died to the reign of sin. Sin need not control us. Sin need not dominate us.

We are freed from the dominion. If we are under sin, it is we who have come under sin. It is we who are giving it a foothold. It is we who are giving it control. So you are, you seeing the contrast here? Death, sin as a master, God as a master. Sin reigned, in Christ now God reigns. Who is our master in our day-to-day lives? That’s the reason Paul says, Paul says in Romans chapter 6 verse 14, “For sin shall not be master over you.” Such understanding is essential for our Christian existence. And that is the reason Paul says in verse 3,

do you not know, do you not know. You know, it is a rhetorical question, which means believers ought to know the implications of Christ’s death. And any lack of such understanding, disconcerting, affects us adversely in our Christian walk. We will only live dysfunctional Christian lives. Anytime, any moment that we are dysfunctional. Have you ever been dysfunctional Christian?

Quite often, right? That’s a reminder that we are not under the reign of God. Look at verse 6. Here our old self, our old man was crucified with Christ. It is my former way of life under Adam. In Adam we were under the dominion of sin and death, and in Christ we are under the dominion of grace and life, which means that I am no longer under the old world order of Adam. I am now in Christ and under the new world order of Christ.

What is the purpose? Look at the second part of verse 6, “in order that our body of sin might be done away with.” What is the body of sin here? I think he is talking about our body. As long as we live here in this mortal frame, there will be sin. We will be constantly fighting with sin. By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we should not come under the influence of sin. But the phrase “done away with” here means inactive, ineffective. The body of sin might become ineffective or to be brought to nothing. So from the context of chapter six

we can say that our body which was under the reign of sin may now in Christ cease to be an instrument of sin. That’s a possibility in Christ. Our bodies should no longer be bodies of sin. Therefore we are freed from the rule of sin. Our death in Christ or our union into the death of Christ releases the hold sin has over our lives.

And this is a precious truth that we, you and I, need to remind ourselves every now and then. And because of which we have misplaced identities and we have, you know, that’s the reason we behave unchristianly at times. So the moment we do like that, it’s a reminder that we need to run back, come back to Christ. Because Christ has died to sin, we can be free from its influences.

Sin continues to indwell us, but because we are united to Christ, we can battle against these influences. We are no longer friends with sin. It cannot and should not reign over us. The grace of Christ now reigns in us, which leads us to righteousness and eternal life.

Commenting on this verse, Sinclair Ferguson says, “In this instance, Christians belong to a category sharing this defining feature. Now Christians are those who died to sin people. They cannot still belong to the opposite category of those who continue to live in sin people.”

You get the difference? We now belong to a altogether different category. And the category as those who died to sin people. Not to those who continue to live in sin people. That is our identity brothers and sisters. And let that identity remain with us. And look at verse 7, and he says, “For he who has died is freed from sin.” I think the proper translation is, “For he who has died is justified from sin.” He is free from sin, has no binding on a believer. Therefore we must no longer contemplate living in sin. If we walk in our union with Christ, then sin shall not master over us.

So, what are the implications of our union with Christ? What are the implications of our union with Christ’s death? Number one, look at verse 11. It says, “Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Now what is the command here? What is the imperative here in this verse? Consider.

Or in some verses, reckon. What does it mean? Take into account. Judge yourselves. As what? Dead to sin. And alive unto God. So it is our action. It is something we are called to do. We are called to reckon, consider ourselves consistently as people who are dead to sin and alive to God. Again here, the word “dead to sin” is personified. There is a definite article in the original language. It is the sin. Sin, the body of sin, right? And here, no. So it is considered as the power. We are to consider ourselves as people dead to the power and the reign of sin, which means sin shall not rule over us. How do we consider ourselves dead to sin and alive unto God in Christ? By

the virtue of our incorporation into Christ. And this doesn’t mean that believers are unable to sin, but we must remind ourselves and know that sin is no longer the master. There will be a pull from our sinful nature. Sin may be tempting at times. We want to behave, act, talk like that or respond to situations in a particular manner according to our sinful nature. And even naturally, sins may flow out of us, but we must know that it is no longer the master. We are not called to live there. We no longer belong to sin. We have nothing to do with sin. We have no— the— and the word “consider” here or “reckon” here is a

present imperative tense, which means it commands ongoing action that calls for a ongoing lifestyle. It's not a one-time action. We are called to reckon, we call to consider dead to sin on a regular long way of acting, which means we need to keep on doing this. That is what must happen habitually, continuously, progressively, as a lifestyle. And the second thing is, first thing, first implication is that we must reckon ourselves dead to sin. The second implication that we see here is in verse one. Paul asked a re— he asked a rhetorical question, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in

sin so that grace may increase?” What's the answer? No, an emphatic no. Paul describes here fundamentally what is to be a believer. What it really meant to be under grace. Law could only show that a man is only a transgressor. While grace delivers us from being a transgressor. In chapter 5 we have seen about Adam and Christ. We all originally belong to Adam. In Adam we receive sin, curse and death.

reigned, they were the masters. And why a believer cannot continue in sin? Because we are in Christ, we are united with Christ. Now we are no longer in Adam, we are called out of our union with Adam, we are called out of that union, and we are called into the union with Christ. Reign of death gave way to reign of life. That is our identity. Sin and death were a reality in Adam, grace and life are reality in Christ. And verse 2, you see there, Paul says, ask another question, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

Still continue in it? In other words, we who have died to sin, how can we dream, fathom to continue in sin, in rebellion against God? We embrace sin and we cannot love and embrace the Lord at the same time. Either we are embracing sin or embracing the Lord.

Either we are embracing godliness, either we are embracing ungodliness. The moment we realize that we are embracing ungodliness is a time to leave it. There will be moments where we'll think and act ungodly, but the moment you realize that's ungodly, we must leave it. We should not continue with it. That's not our character. That's not our identity.

In the realm of Christ, sin should be detestable. It should be ugly. Do away with the thought that God is okay with sin. Do away with the thought that God, you know, it's okay to tolerate certain sins. We shouldn't make pact with any sin. We cannot be strong and resistant to certain sins and lenient towards some sins. Like, let's say, adultery, murder, us no, grievous, no. But lies, okay, white lies, blue lies, whatever lies are okay. No, sin is sin. So what should we do as believers? We should consider, according to our union with Christ, we should consider ourselves as dead to sin.

That's the number one thing. Because Christ died to sin, not only for our sins, he died to sin. As a federal head, he died to sin, to the reign and control, dominion of sin. And in Christ we also died to sin. So what we must do? We should reckon, we should consider that act of Christ's death as ours. That is our union. And then, as weak as and when we consider, the next thing that we need to do is we should no longer continue in sin. Let's pray. Examine your own lives in the light in what we have heard, what we have read.

We are incorporated into Christ, his humanity, his death. Only in Christ we become true humans. Our true humanity is only in Christ. We are progressively, slowly changing into that true humanity. Only in Christ, imitation of Christ is possible. And in order to imitate, one of the marks is repentance.

Always repent. And once you repent, do not carry the weight of sin. The Lord has forgiven, that there be joy and gladness. And in Christ died for our sins, not only for our sins. As a federal head, he died to the reign of sin. He died to the reign of sin. And in his death we also died to the reign of sin. So we must reckon, consider ourselves as dead to sin. And we must no longer continue in sin. We must no longer yield the members of a body as instruments of sin.