https://youtu.be/OJ4NZukzyuk
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans we finished the expanded translation: Rom 6:2; " NOT happening we who have died to the sin nature, how shall we still live in it?"
Based on that we have taken up a study of the ministries of God the Holy Spirit at salvation. When we left off last time we were noting the fourth ministry of God the Holy Spirit at salvation that is the sealing of the Holy Spirit referenced in Eph 1:13; Eph 4:30; and 2Cor1: 22.
The sealing of the Holy Spirit guarantees that once we are saved we are always saved. We are sealed with a guarantee from God and we can never lose our salvation.
This indicates eternal security and the fact that every Church Age believer bears an insignia as a member of God's royal family forever. No one was ever sealed by the Spirit before the Church Age. There are certain other things that are sealed after the Church Age including the 144,000 Jewish evangelists during the tribulation.
But the seal of the church specifically deals with the fact that we are irrevocably members of God's royal family forever. The sealing also indicates the identification of ownership; God owns us as of the moment we believe in Jesus Christ.
This also emphasizes the positional sanctification that is the basis of our relationship with God forever. Sealing ratifies the fact that God has a plan for our life and that we are in His divine decree and that God has taken it upon Himself to give us logistical support so that we can fulfill His purpose for us while we are in the devil's world.
The sealing of the Spirit is also the promise of super-grace blessing for God's royal family as described in Eph 1:13.
Reversionism is incompatible with the sealing of the Spirit Eph 4:30. The sealing of the Spirit is the down payment or guarantee of security for God's royal family.
The fifth ministry of God the Holy Spirit at salvation is the distribution of spiritual gifts described in 1Cor 12:11. At the moment of salvation God the Holy Spirit sovereignly conveys at least one spiritual gift to every believer.
Many spiritual gifts are not mentioned in scripture. The only ones that are, are those that relate to the function of the local church assembly along with a few extra ones to help us realize that these gifts really do exist.
The reason that the gifts related to the local church assembly are mentioned is so that the local church can be administrated in accord with God's grace and His directive will. The other spiritual gifts do not have to be mentioned because the only thing that is required for a spiritual gift to become functional is spiritual growth from doctrinal capacity.
This is why believers do not need to be concerned with what their spiritual gift is because the only thing that matters is to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the spiritual gift will automatically function under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
In verses 3-5 Paul discusses the problem of ignorance of categorical doctrine. Rom 6:3; starts with a challenge; "do you not know" The disjunctive particle (e) (or) is used to separate related or similar terms is translated "or."
Then the present active indicative of the verb "agnoeo" (not know) that means to be ignorant so it can be translated "or are you ignorant." The perfective present tense denotes the continuation of existing results.
It refers to ignorance of doctrine that started in the past but it emphasizes the ignorance of doctrine that is in the present as an existing reality. Right now they are still ignorant but they shouldn't be.
The active voice: the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb of being ignorant in a category of doctrine that is extremely important part of their experiential spiritual advance.
The indicative mood is an interrogative indicative that inquires about their ignorance by asking a simple question. The principle is that ignorance of doctrine was the most serious problem in the church, at Paul's time just as it is right now at the present time.
Cognizance of doctrine is the only means of spiritual growth, it is the only way to acquire capacity for direct blessing from God's justice, and it is the only way to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in time.
Everything hinges on inculcation of Bible doctrine through the consistent function of GASP. The first phrase, "Are you ignorant?" is a challenge to believers to learn Bible doctrine.
"that as all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ" the conjunction "hoti" (that) is used after verbs of thinking or non-thinking. In this case it is used after a verb of ignorance or lack of rational thought to indicate the failure to recall and therefore the failure to apply the rational thought of God's viewpoint based on God's Word of truth to their Christian experience.
With it is a correlative adjective "hosos" (many); the nominative plural is used as the subject. The adjective is used for a substantive to refer to all believers in Christ and is translated, "Or are you ignorant that all those who" or "that all of us who" or" as many who."
Plus the aorist passive indicative of "baptizo" (immersed) that is transliterated (baptize) in the English. This refers to spirit baptism not water baptism. The aorist tense is a constantive aorist for a momentary action that occurred at the moment of salvation adjustment to God's justice through faith in Jesus Christ.
The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb at the moment of salvation adjustment to God's justice. It is part of the salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine; "into Jesus Christ" is "eis" (into) plus the accusative of "Christos Iesous" (Christ Jesus) Or are you ignorant, that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus."
"were baptized into his death" in the Greek the word order is reversed, "into his death we were baptized." It begins with the prepositional phrase "eis" (into) plus the accusative singular of "the thanatos" (the death). With the article it is monadic referring to the spiritual death of Jesus Christ on the cross where the sins of the entire world were judicially imputed to Him and judged by God's justice.
This is the predicate for propitiation and reconciliation in salvation. The accusative singular of the definite article before the noun is used to denote a previous reference. The definite article may be used to point out an object such as spiritual death which has been discussed and defined previously, as in Rom 5:14, 17, 21.
Rom 6:3; Plus the possessive genitive singular from the intensive pronoun "autos" (his) that is used here as a possessive pronoun to emphasize the uniqueness of Jesus Christ's spiritual death on the cross. This unique spiritual death was taking all of the sins of the entire world by imputation and being judged for all of them, and at the same time rejecting good and evil, therefore separating good and evil from sin that was the target of His efficacious work on the cross.
"were baptized" is the aorist passive indicative of " baptizo" (immersed) again translated baptized referring to the baptism of God the Holy Spirit. The aorist tense is a constative aorist that describes the momentary action at the moment of salvation adjustment to God's justice on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ. The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb at the moment of salvation.
Expanded Translation Rom 6:3; "Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ, into his spiritual death were baptized?"
We see here that the baptism of the Holy Spirit specifically places the believer into union with Jesus Christ, establishing positional truth. This verse emphasizes union with Jesus Christ in His spiritual death on the cross. The next verse will emphasize union with Christ in His physical death and burial.
Union with Christ in His death has two applications; first, all personal sins were judged at the cross and second, good and evil were not judged because they were not imputed.
Personal sin had to be judged for the grace provision of salvation but good and evil could not be imputed and could not be judged for salvation, and will not be judged until after each of the resurrections.
This means that good and evil continue as satan's policy that is the issue of the angelic conflict until the end of human history.
First the old sin nature's ruling power over human life was broken and believers are identified with Christ when He destroyed the sovereignty of the old sin nature over human life.
Because of the baptism of the Holy Spirit every believer is positionally separated from good and evil so they can also choose to reject human good and evil. Being separated positionally from good and evil the believer can walk in newness of life that is the environment for the a fortiori blessings that were noted in the previous chapter.
Those blessings are received directly from God's justice at spiritual maturity along with the environment that is provided through the baptism of the Spirit that results in the mature believer possessing greater blessing than Adam and the woman had in the Garden of Eden, and having an encapsulated environment that God establishes to enjoy those blessings.
The newness of life that is provided through the baptism of the Spirit also includes positional freedom from producing good and evil. Not only are believers free from the tyranny of good and evil but they are also free from being required to produce good and evil.
This means that the believer has no obligation to improve the devil's world through social action, socialism, the welfare state, communism, environmentalism, or any social gospel, social action, or by getting involved with anything that improves the devil's world.
The human race is protected from satan's policy of good and evil through the laws of divine establishment that promotes freedom instead of so called improvement of hope and change at the expense of freedom.
In addition to the laws of divine establishment the baptism of the Holy Spirit positionally insulates believers from good and evil so they can choose to reject it experientially.
The newness of life mentioned at the end of the next verse includes freedom from the production of human good and evil. While the production of divine good is not the means of blessing and reward from God's justice it is the spiritual result of the spiritual advance to maturity.
The more the believer grows spiritually the more the believer produces spiritually but production is always a result, never the means.
Separated from the useless activity of producing human good and the function of evil, the life of the believer can be devoted to glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ through maximum knowledge of Bible doctrine, that requires the consistent and persistent function of GASP.
The result of this is spiritual maturity and maximum blessing from God's justice that glorifies God to the maximum in the angelic conflict.
Rom 6:4; "Therefore we have been buried together with him." The idea of being buried with a dead person may not appeal to a living person but this is a spiritual concept that explains a principle that occurred at salvation.
The aorist passive indicative of the verb, "synthapto" (buried together) means to be buried with someone. This is a constantive aorist that refers to a momentary action that occurred at the point of salvation. It is a momentary action that is related to our Lord's physical death and burial.
He died physically on the cross and was buried shortly thereafter in Joseph's tomb. In Christ's physical death He was still perfect because He was impeccable. He still had a cell structure that was not contaminated by the old sin nature; therefore He had no trends toward sin or toward good or evil.
He did not have a body of corruption. The judicial imputation of all sins had occurred, they had been judged by God's justice as a part of His substitutionary spiritual death. At the same time as the saving work on the cross occurred satan's policy of good and evil that are the production of the sin nature was rejected.
Good and evil were not judged on the cross because good and evil is satan's policy that must continue throughout human history as an issue in the angelic conflict.
Jesus was totally separated from good and evil in His death and burial.
Believers are identified with Jesus Christ in His death and burial through the baptism of the Spirit through retroactive positional truth. That means as believers we are also positionally separated from good and evil. Since good and evil was rejected positionally good and evil can also be rejected experientially.
A phrase that describes this is "Walk in newness of life." This is the positional break with good and evil that makes the experiential victory over good and evil possible while we live in the devil's world.
Identification with Christ in His physical death and burial is positional separation from good and evil. Identification with Christ in His physical death and resurrection is positional victory which breaks the power and the authority of good and evil, both as the policy of satan as the ruler of this world and as the function of the old sin nature as the ruler of human life.
Walking in newness of life by means of the Spirit in the devil's world is experiential rejection of good and evil.