What does Romans 6 mean when it says we have been planted in the likeness of Christ's death?
It means that being planted in the likeness of His death is a burial with Him, and unless that happens, there cannot be new life. Paul uses the seed analogy: the kernel must be planted and buried before it can bring forth life. Death must come before resurrection life.
Les explains that Paul uses the seed analogy in Romans 6 to show that a planted seed is buried, and out of that death comes new life. He says unless we have been planted in the likeness of His death, and unless we have been buried with Him, we cannot have new life. There has to be that experience of death before you can have new life. Les connects this to Jesus explaining that up until His death, burial, and resurrection, He could not be the true object of faith to a Gentile, because He was on covenant ground and dealt only with the Jew.
According to Paul in Romans 6, what must we do in relation to Christ's death?
Paul makes plain in Romans 6 that believers must identify with what Christ accomplished on their behalf on the cross. This identification means recognizing that He died our death, fulfilling God's demand that the soul that sins must die, and that the old self was crucified with Him.
What does the seed analogy teach about the believer's death, burial, and resurrection with Christ?
The seed analogy teaches that just as a planted seed must die before it can produce grain, believers died with Christ, were buried with Him, and arose with Him. His death, burial, and resurrection are applied to them, bringing them out of old Adamic sin into new life.
More Questions
What does Romans 6 teach that we must do with Christ's death?
In Romans 6 Paul makes plain that we have to identify with what Christ accomplished on our behalf on the cross, and that this identification happens through what Christ did.