Sin's Power Is Broken

Romans 6

1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

The NLT headlines this passage of Scripture: “Sin’s Power Is Broken.” And since we in the Restoration Movement love to cite Romans 6:3-5 in our defense of baptism as part of the salvation process, I wanted to put the whole thing in context. We die to sin when we are united with Christ. We are untied with Christ when we are immersed (baptized) into His death, and raised with Him into a new life. That is what Christian Baptism pictures. It is in baptism that we come into contact with the Blood of Jesus (His death), and are united with Him to be shed of our sin. Yeah, a little country-fied lingo there. We are dead to the power of sin when we unite with Christ and we unite with Him in faith through baptism. Doesn’t get much more simple than that, folks.