Romans 6 & The Old Man Crucified With Christ — Finally Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, good to have everybody back with us again, and we trust you've enjoyed your coffee break, and now we'll get into this next half hour. And again, for those of you joining us in television, there's nothing we like better than to hear that you feel you're just part of this class, because that's what we hope to bring across, that you're just right there in the back row someplace, and you're just part and parcel of our class ministry. And again, we always like to emphasize we are not part and parcel of any group. We are totally independent. We have no ax to grind. We're not trying to build any kind of an organization. We just want to get folk interested in the book and start searching its pages to find out what it really says. And of course, we are totally dependent upon the prayers and the love offerings of God's people. And again, we always like to thank you for that. There's nothing that thrills my heart more than when someone writes and says, we pray for you three times a day or twice a day or whatever. And I know all my class people here in Oklahoma certainly do, and we know the Lord is blessing it. All right. I guess they'll probably show the books on the screen for just a moment. We like to constantly remind folk that all these programs have been transcribed. Jerry Poole has just done an amazing job of transcribing, I lost my word, transcribing these from the tapes and to the print. And then Keith Dexter, of course, goes through and gets it ready for the publisher. And we appreciate all these people being a part of it. And our bookkeeper and her husband are here today, Margaret and Harold. And we don't know what we'd do without her either. And I always like to give her credit for doing a fantastic job. All right. Let's drop right back again, if you will, to Romans chapter 6. And we were on verse 3 for most of the last half hour. And now we'll leave that and go right into verse 4, because the thinking is still the same. We have the same kind of language. So let's read verse 3 as we go into verse 4. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, and remember we look back at 1 Corinthians 12, verse 13, that that was the work of the Holy Spirit, who placed us, baptized us, inundated us, is the word I like to use, engulfed us, into the body of Christ, which in this case, Paul just simply uses the term Jesus Christ, and we were baptized or again engulfed or inundated by His what? His death. Now, that's the gospel, remember, that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He arose again from the dead. That's the gospel. And we have to go through spiritually, at least in the mind of God, and we experiencing it by faith, that as He died, we died. As He was buried, we were buried. And as He arose from the grave, we arose in newness of life. And again, like I said, last half hour, this goes way beyond what water baptism can do. This is the work of the Almighty Himself, and now as you come into verse 4, therefore, we are buried with Him by baptism into death. Now I don't know of any denomination that teaches that when they baptize with water, they are baptizing you into death, rather they're baptizing you into the church or into the denomination, but see, this is into something far different. Now this means that as Christ was really dead, and see, this is why it was three days and three nights in the tomb, to prove that it was not just an unconscious state, He did not just put on a Houdini or something like that, but He was really dead. And the same thing has to happen to us in the realm of old Adam. Old Adam has to die, and we have to be sure he's dead, and so as he died, we died. As he was buried, we were buried in the mind of Christ, the mind of God. He saw us in the tomb, and that's the baptism He speaks of in verse 4, that again, as we were engulfed in that three-day in the tomb experience of Christ Himself, so also we have died, and we're going to see that now as we come on into the book of Romans, all right? Now in order for us to experience the resurrection from the grave, from the tomb, we naturally had to go into it, but we're not going to stay there any more than Christ did. We are resurrected out of it. Now let's turn for just a second to Ephesians, because this is a theme that Paul never drops. All through his epistles, this is what he keeps hammering home, that Christ died for our sins, and that as He died, we have to die, Ephesians 2, verse 1, and out of that death we get new life, eternal life. It's not going to be just for this life, for this 70, 80, 90 years, but forever. All right, Ephesians 2, verse 1, and see how this all fits together, where now he writes again to believers. Now just so that you see what I'm talking about, when I say he writes to believers, turn back to chapter 1. Now this is the way I do in my classes, you know, we just have a ball. We just jump all over this book, and sometimes I think I leave them totally confused. The other night somebody said, now I've got four fingers in different places. I said, well, this is Bible study. I'm not here to preach a sermon. We're here to search the Scriptures. All right, flip back to Ephesians 1 to make my point. Verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, what's the next word? To. So what does that mean? That's who he's writing to. He's writing to the, what's the next word? The saints. Well, who are the saints? Well, not the three or four or the most elite, but every believer, see? Every believer is a saint, according to Scripture. And so these Pauline letters all start the same way, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the saints, or to the church of God in such and such a place. So that's where I get it, that Paul writes only to the believer. All right, now let's come over to chapter 2. So to us as believers, again, he writes, and you, as a believer, he hath, past tense, it's already done. What's the next word? Wicked. And that means made alive. And so you he hath made alive with eternal life, not just a temporary thing, but he has given you eternal life, and again, I'll put in the subject, you who were, what's the next word? Dead. Dead in trespasses and sins. In other words, the unsaved world, in all of their activity, as they go barreling up and down these freeways, and as they are in their offices, and as they are in all of their fast lane experience, what are they? They're dead. It's a world full of dead people. Oh, not physical dead, but spiritually they're dead. They are wrapped up in the spiderweb of Satan, and I'll show you a verse for that in just a moment. But now in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1, reading on, and so we were dead in trespasses and sins, plural, which is the result of sin, singular, the old Adam. Verse 2, wherein, in that life of sin, in that life of spiritual deadness, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, who's that? Satan. And the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, verse 3, among whom also we all—you and I, everyone else, every believer—has come out of that kind of a lifestyle, among whom also we all had our conversation or our lifestyle in times past, the lusts or the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature—those of you who are older, you remember way back, I think, in the early 40s or 50s, there was a popular song, and it went something like, doing what comes naturally, huh? Do y'all remember that one? That's what it means here. When you do what comes naturally, who are you abiding by? Well, the old nature, see, under the control of Satan. And so this is exactly what he says, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature, or doing naturally, as the children of wrath, even as others. And then verse 4, the flip side. What? But God. See? The flip side is, we are no longer in that old lifestyle. We now, because of God's grace and His mercy, are now experiencing His love. And then, of course, those tremendous verses. All right, I was just going to show you another verse. Where was it? Already forgot it, didn't I? You hath he quickened, and I was going to show another one. Oh, well. Guess I wasn't supposed to use it. Come back to Romans, Romans chapter 6. And so, we've been engulfed in the very death of Christ Himself. We have to identify with that. Old Adam has to die, and we have to be separated from Him, even as His three days and three nights signified that Christ was really dead. Now, verse 4, reading on, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so. Now, what does that mean? Well, in the same way, in the same manner, we also are going to come out of a deadness, and we're going to experience a new life. Second Corinthians. This isn't the one I wanted a moment ago. That'll come later, I guess. Second Corinthians, chapter 5. Because these are concepts that too many people are not hearing, they're not aware of, and yet it's so fundamental to our Christian plan of salvation. Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 17. Second Corinthians 5, verse 17. Therefore, if any man—now, that includes the female gender as well, of course. See, I don't need a politically correct Scripture. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. It's a better word than creature. Because our salvation is a work of creation, it's a work of the power of God. So, any man who is in Christ—now, you see that positional term again? That person who has been baptized into the body from the last program? That person who is now in Christ and hid in God? Well, this same person, same thing that Paul is talking about. For that person who is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And in the next verse, all things, everything in our life, whether it's good or bad. And I've always stressed, you know, the believer can never get the idea that just because we're a Christian, all of a sudden we're going to have a rose-petal-strewn pathway. No way. We're going to have just as many trials and testings as the world. The only difference is we have a stabilizing power that's going to see us through it. But anyway, all things are of God, who hath reconciled us unto Himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry—in other words, it's our responsibility now to share this with those around us, the ministry of reconciliation. All right, now if you'll come back to Romans again then, if you will. So now we've been raised from the dead, even as Christ was. We are now quickened. We've been given new life. We've been given a whole new set of principles and values. And then verse 5, he's going to explain it with even a more simple explanation, and it's the word planted. You know, I can't help it, I hope I'm not way out in left field, but whenever I read this verse 5, and of course that gives away my age, how many of you remember the old radio comedy team? I think it was Ferb McGee and Molly, and one of the characters in their program was the old undertaker. Remember that? Yeah, I've got enough older people—Old Digger Odell. I can't help but think of Old Digger every time I see this, because he was always going out to do what? He was going to plant somebody. Well, we used to laugh at that, but you know what? It was so scripturally true. That's just exactly what we do, and I'm saying this seriously. When we take a loved one to the cemetery who's a believer, and if the Lord carries long enough and I go the way of the cemetery, they're going to do the same thing with me. They're going to plant me. And I'm not saying it to be funny, because that's exactly what Paul is alluding to, that when the body is placed in the earth in death, what's it waiting for? The resurrection day, see? And out of that death will come resurrection life, and that's why he uses the term. Now, I'm going to take you back, and Jesus used the same analogy. All right, verse 5, for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death—now, what's it talking about? The tomb, see? If we have been in the tomb as he was, if we have been buried because we were dead, and old Adam is now crucified—got the picture? So if we have been planted—see, there's the condition—in the likeness of his death, here's the guarantee, we shall be also in the likeness of his—what?—resurrection. Just as surely as he rose from the dead, we're one day going to rise from the dead if we have to go that route. I'm trusting that before that happens, the Lord's going to come and we're going to be out of here. But whatever, if everything goes long enough, that some of us here will go the way of the cemetery, it's just waiting for the new life of resurrection, see? All right, verse 6. Now he's going to recap. How is all this possible? What's he talking about? Knowing this, that our old man is—now, what's the word?—crucified with him. What does crucifixion do? It puts to death. It kills. All right, come back with me to John chapter 12, and I'm going to show you that Paul is not out in left field with all of this. He is following right in the concepts of Christ himself, as he spoke just before he was crucified. Matter of days. John's Gospel chapter 12, and come down to—oh, I think we'd better start at verse 20, honey. Verse 20. Here it's building up for the week of the Feast of Passover. Multitudes of Jews have come in from all over the then-known world for this Feast of Passover. But just like when we go to Israel, we like to go down to the Wailing Wall, and just as curious Gentiles, we like to watch the carrying on of these Jews at their Wailing Wall and all that. And I imagine it was much the same back here, that some Gentiles who may have been visiting Jerusalem on business and so forth—I don't think these were proselytes, but I think they were just curiosity seekers, and they were just watching these Jews and all of their Passover celebrations and activities, and they had been hearing about this Jesus of Nazareth and all the miracles He'd been performing. And so now as you jump in at verse 20, it picks these Gentiles up in the midst of all these Jews, and it says, And there were certain Greeks—Gentiles—among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same—that is, these Greeks, we don't know how many they were—two, three, four, who knows—the same came therefore to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired Him saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. We'd like to talk to this fellow. Mar, we've heard a lot about him. We'd like to have a few words with him. Well, you know, this shakes people up when I say this. You know, Philip had a hot potato, and he didn't really know how to handle it, because he knew that Jesus had nothing to do with Gentiles for three years—two exceptions, and they were tough ones. But it was a hot potato. How am I going to handle this, Philip says. I don't want him to embarrass these people, and he's not going to see a Gentile. So you know, he cops out by taking it over to Andrew. And that's the next part of the verse. And so, Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, can't you just picture that conversation? Andrew, these Gentiles want to see Jesus, and we know He's not going to see them. We don't want to embarrass these people. What are we going to do? Well, I imagine Andrew said, well, now wait a minute, Philip, we can't take this responsibility on ourselves. We'd better at least go in and ask Him. We'd better go in and see what He wants to do about it. And so, I picture Jesus, in my own mind, is probably in one of the ante -rooms of the temple area. And so, Philip and Andrew pick their way through that massive crowd, and they find Jesus. Now look, verse 22, again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus, and then verse 23, now remember what they told Him. Hey, there's Gentiles out here that want to talk to you. And Jesus answered them, saying, bring them in, take me to them? No. He said, the hour is come. Now remember, they're only a matter of, I'd say, 48 hours until He'll be on the cross. The hour is come that the Son of Man should be, or shall be, glorified. Speaking of His death, burial, and resurrection, verily, verily, I say unto you, accept a kernel of wheat. Now, He's using a common, everyday example. Accept a kernel of wheat, fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit. Now what's He talking about? Well, if you take that kernel of wheat and leave it in a granary someplace, it'll never reproduce. What does it have to do? It has to be planted. And when you plant something, literally, what are you doing? You're burying it. That's what you do when you plant something. You bury it. Now, as a result of that burial, the moisture, the sunshine, and all the activity in nature, what happens to that kernel of wheat? It dies. It rots. It dies. But out of that death will come that new green shoot. Out of that little green shoot will come the stem and maybe a hundred kernels. Now Jesus is using that simple illustration in reference to His own death, burial, and resurrection. That unless He were to die and spend those three days and three nights in the grave and be resurrected from the dead, there was no salvation for those Greeks. See, He's already looking forward to the time when the gospel would go to the Gentiles. Now, I know a lot of people don't understand this, but all the way from Genesis chapter 12 and all the way in almost until you might say the Apostle Paul, how many Gentiles had access to salvation? Practically none. Now there were exceptions. I always make that rule. Nineveh was an exception. And Ruth, the Moabitess, was an exception, Rahab. So we had a few exceptions. But for the most part—and Paul makes that so plain in Ephesians—in fact, let's look at it. Honey, again, Ephesians chapter 2. If Iris hasn't learned anything else in five years, she's learned where the books of the Bible are. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 11 and 12 and 13. Ephesians 2, coming in at verse 11. And again, remember, Paul is writing to the Gentile believers at Ephesus and in that area of the world, and he says, Wherefore remember that you being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hand. In other words, the Jew would refer to his Gentile as uncircumcised. Verse 12. Paul says, as he writes now to Gentiles, that at that time, when God was dealing with the circumcision, and the circumcision had no time for Gentiles in spiritual things, you Gentiles were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. So that left them out of the covenant promises. Strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. Now that was the lot of those Greeks. But they weren't without hope, because what was soon to take place is death, is burial, and is resurrection. And then as he would come forth from the grave, just like that wheat that would grow up, it wouldn't just come up with one kernel, it would come up with maybe a hundred or so, see? And so this is the whole concept of Scripture, is this whole idea of death, burial, and resurrection. And I think that's why God has saturated nature with it. Every place we look, we are reminded of death, burial, and resurrection. As we live in a temperate climate, the seasons speak of it. We go into winter and everything is dead and dormant. But come springtime, new life. See, that's resurrection life. I think that's why the Lord planned to have Easter, as we call it, in the springtime. And of course, that's what gave Satan then his option to adulterate all this. But nevertheless, we're to look beyond the adulterations of Satan and look at the truth of Scripture, that everything is wrapped up in his death, burial, and resurrection. All right, now then, if you'll come back with me to Romans chapter 6 again. Romans chapter 6, and coming on down into verse 6, Knowing this, that our old man... Oh boy, who's that? Old Adam again, see? We're still dealing with old Adam. Knowing this, that our old man or our old Adam or our old sin nature is crucified with him. Now, you got the with him? That's the crucial part. That's when our old Adam was crucified, when Christ was. Now, I'll never forget, a gentleman came to my home quite a few years ago. And he was a fellow rancher, and so he came, something with regard to our ranching business, cattle or whatever. And we got into the subject of the Scriptures, and I remember that was one of his questions. Well, what in the world do I have to do with someone who died almost 2 ,000 years ago? And for a lot of people, that's a logical question. How could something that took place 2,000 years ago be relevant for me today? Well, it has everything to do with us today, because, you see, it was God himself who was there on the cross. And God's eternal with God 2,000 years is like a snap of the finger. So, so far as he's concerned, his death, burial, and resurrection was almost contemporary with us. So, coming back to the text now, then in verse 6, our old Adam is crucified with Christ. And that's the thought I want to leave with people as we wind down this program, is that as Christ died on that Roman cross, every believer of all the ages, God saw in Christ. I mean, that's one of the miracles of Scripture. This is one of the miracles of salvation, that regardless of whether it was Adam, or whether it's the last person that will find salvation at the end of time as we know it, every one of them, God saw in the person of Christ as he hung on that cross. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.