Life On The Highest Plane
By: Arvid Johanson

"I am crucified with Christ, no longer do I live."

The words written above are lifted out of Galatians 2:20 and are used to introduce a subject that is near and dear to the heart of God, namely, a holy walk by those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and born anew by
the Holy Spirit. Since this is of the utmost importance to Him, it should be of the same importance to us as well.

Truly, as those who have some knowledge of the revelation of the mystery, as those who are aware of the uniqueness of this present program of grace, we certainly have a great many things to talk and sing about, and commit to the printed page. However, in all of this it seems as though God's provision for true holiness, true spirituality, and living for God His way, has fallen by the wayside.

These days in which we live are days marked by spiritual deadness and moral laxity. Perhaps it is time to review briefly some of those grand truths that God has used to produce the spiritual giants of the past. Perhaps it is time to look once again at those God-breathed truths that can conform His own to the image of His dear Son.

Beginning with Romans Chapter 6:1, we have sixty-two verses of Scripture that unfolds for us the provision of God that enables us to live as He would have us live so that we might show forth the praises of Him who called us out
of darkness into His marvelous light. There are a number of ways that Christians attempt to live for God; however, the only way that works is God's way. Now let us begin with a definition of the Christian life. The first step toward spiritual living is identification with the death of Jesus Christ. The second step is that we are in the risen, living, and glorified Christ Who lives through us day by day. This is the Christian life as presented on the pages of the Book.

Romans 6:1 "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?"

Paul begins by doing what he does so often and so well in the book of Romans. He anticipates a question that might be raised, asks the question himself, and then answers it with such force that there can be no rebuttal. Paul puts before us the central issue--sin in the life of believer. If it were not possible for a believer to go on living in sin. Paul would not even raise a question such as this. Now at the moment, we are not talking about sins, plural. We are talking about the sin nature, singular, which is the root of sins, plural. If the root, singular, is dealt with then it follows that sins, plural, are also dealt with. For all sins have their origin in this evil Adamic nature we
received through inheritance from Adam.

Paul has told us in 5:20. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." So, someone might say, "O.K.. Paul, then let us go on sinning, in order that grace may continue superabounding." Paul, what do you say?

6:2 "God forbid! For how shall we who died to sin, live any longer in it?"

Paul is most emphatic in answering the question he himself has raised. "Let it never be! Away with such stupid and bone-headed thinking"! Paul is horrified at the thought that a believer who has escaped the fires of hell, continue in sin.

I feel the necessity of a question here. How many believers know that they died to sin? Do they know when they died to sin, where they died to sin, and how they died to sin? If hey do know these things, it is making a difference in their lives? Fortunately for us, Paul is going to spell it all out. Here on the pages of Romans, as nowhere else in the Bible, Paul touches every base as regarding a holy life. Beginning with the fact that at a point in time every believer has died to sin.

6:3 "Or are you ignorant that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?"

When Paul raises the question "Are you ignorant?" you can mark it down--the brethren are ignorant about something. Let us see if we can determine just what it is that Paul wants these Roman believers to comprehend.

First of all, I trust that a treatise on water baptism will not be necessary, for certainly there is no possibility of water anywhere in the sixth chapter of Romans. Rather, we have in verses 3-6 a sequence of events that took place nineteen hundred years ago outside the walls of Jerusalem. These events happened to our Lord in a physical sense, and at the same time happened to every one who would ever be saved in this age of grace, in a spiritual sense.

Do not let this terminology deceive you, for in God's sight this whole sequence was as real as if i were totally physical. Now, unless someone tries to convince me that they were water baptized outside the walls of Jerusalem
ninteen-hunded years ago, we will go with the premise that it is another kind of baptism entirely.

The context here is the cross that our Lord Jesus occupied, and then unoccupied, the tomb occupied and then unoccupied. We were all involved in this whole process, we who go by the title of "Christians." There is only one
way that this could happen, and this is one of the most precious truths in the New Testament. We are the Body of Christ and we have been made one with the very Son of God, joined to the living Christ for time and eternity, one in every sense of the word (1 Cor 12:12; Eph. 5:30; Heb 2:11; Rom 6:5). Since we are one with Him, His death has become ours, and His triumph over the grave has become ours, and to what end? Newness of life for us. If we were not baptized with water, then what kind of baptism? In Romans 6:2-11, we have the word "dead" and "death" thirteen times. This certainly gives us a clue as to the kind of baptism that is before us in verse three. In a kingdom setting the Lord raises the question, "Are you able to drink the cup I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" The Jordan River and what took place there is past tense. His question here is in the future tense as He faces the cross. Paul in a church setting speaks of the same event--the cross-death of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in addition, our death with Him. So then, it was at the cross where we died to sin.

Spiritual living begins at the cross of Jesus Christ where we are identified with Him and His death.

6:4 "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"

We are also identified with Jesus in His burial and resurrection. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the answer to the question of how and where we died to sin. God identifies those who believe in Jesus with His baptism at the cross, and this is where spiritual living begins.

We are in the midst of a section that sets forth the very basic principles of true holiness, true spirituality, and a life truly pleasing to God. If this is our goal, we must begin where God begins, and God begins at the cross upon which the Prince of Glory died on behalf of sinners. He died once, He died for all, and He will never die again, for, in His one-time death, He accomplished all that would ever be necessary.

When , 1900 years ago, our Lord died for sin in a physical sense, everyone who would be saved this age of grace was seen as dying to sin, in a spiritual sense. In Romans 6:2, Paul says, "we died to sin." In the statements made thus far, we see where, when, how, and why this event became reality.

Rom 6:4 "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

First of all, we focus upon the two words "with Him." This further establishes the time frame when these things took place. As we come to verse 4, death has already taken place. What follows is what one would expect to take place: burial, and then coming forth from the tomb in resurrection life. This happened to the Lord Jesus physically, and to His church, spiritually, to the end that now, some 1900 years later, children of God might "walk in newness of life."

Anyone who has attended a burial will have to agree that the occupant of the grave has been cut off from the old life. In like manner, in our burial with Christ, we can say that provision has been made to escape the bondage of sin, to be cut off from the Adam-life, and to be enabled now to live the life He would have us live--the very life of Christ.

Death and burial having taken place, we consider the next aspect: the physical resurrection of Christ and, at the same time, the spiritual resurrection of all those who would be saved in this age of grace. The greatest demonstration of power this universe has ever witnessed took place 1900 years ago when God raised His Son from the dead. That same power was effected in us as we were raised spiritually from the dead--that power being "to us that believe" (Eph.. 1:19-20)

The greatest consideration in heaven, and among His own that dwell upon the earth, is the glory of God. In the eternal purpose of God, which He purposed in Christ before the world began, everything He has ever said a everything He has ever done has been to the end of bringing present and future glory to Himself. I our present verse, "raised by the glory of the Father" indicates that the glory of God was in view as He brought His Son back to life, and, at the same time, the "church which is His body." It would appear that the crown jewel of the purpose of God centers in the one who is "the Head over the body" and those blessed ones who make up that body, that single entity called "the Christ" (1 Cor. 12:12).

Paul goes on to inform us of the blessed result that comes from laying hold of the previously set forth truth by faith: "we should walk in newness of life." The life spoken of here is not a reworked remodeled, or rehabilitated life. Paul is speaking of something band new. Something totally unknown in times past or times future. The life here is the very resurrection life of the risen, ascended, glorified Christ, ministered to us and through us by the Holy Spirit of God day by day. As yet we have not touched every base, but we do see the purpose behind our death, burial, and resurrection together with the Lord Jesus Christ "that we should walk in newness of life.

Rom 6:5 "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection."

Paul is not talking about future resurrection, though that resurrection is certain but he is talking about living resurrection life now, as those who are alive from the dead. The resurrection life that Christ is living now at the right hand of God, is the life lived out through believes day by day (cf. Col. 3:4), and it is that truth which Paul is putting before us in verse 5.

The suppositional if here may pose some questions. Paul never assumes that everyone in the local assembly has a relationship with God through the living Christ. He just does not know, so he adds the word if to distinguish between those who have a relationship and those who only have religion. The latter group have no part whatever in the things we are discussing here in Romans 6.

One of the most precious truths associated with this present program of grace is set forth in the words united together. It speaks of the union that has taken place between the Lord Jesus Christ and all of those who will be
saved in this age of grace. It is a union that will endure forever, and, because of this union all the blessings of God become ours, including the God-given ability to live as He would have us live.

We have various words and phrases that describe this union, some secular, some Biblical. Some use the phrase identified with Christ. What does that mean? It means united together with Christ. Some ninety times in Ephesians (twenty-eight times in the first chapter alone), we have phrases like in Christ, in Christ Jesus, and in Him. What do these phrases mean? They mean united with Christ. In the next article, we will provide the Bible verses that confirm the before-mentioned statements.