For the death that He died, He died to sin once; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Truth to Learn
We have identified ourselves with Jesus Christ in His death to sin. We should also identify ourselves with Him in living for God.
Behind the Words
The word translated “once” is ephapax, which means “once and only once.” Though some translations seem to indicate that Christ died once for everyone, it really says that He died once and only once for all of time and eternity.
Meaning Explained
Paul makes a couple of key points in this verse that we all need to learn. The first is contained in the expression, “For the death that He died, He died to sin.” Paul is explaining the meaning and purpose for Christ’s death. The purpose of His death is that he died to sin. That is, he died paying the penalty for sin so that sin should no longer have dominion over any of us. His death paid for all our sins so, even though sin used to be our slave master, that bond has been destroyed and we are now free from the dominion of sin.
But his death means more than just that we are freed from sin. Paul says that He died once and only once. In other words, He will never have to die again because the sin penalty has been taken care of forever by His onetime death. Since the sin penalty has been taken care of once and for all, we will never have to die after we leave these mortal bodies. We will have to die physically (unless we are raptured) in order to shed these mortal bodies, but we will never have to die spiritually because our sins have been completely paid for.
Remember that death means separation, so we will never again be separated from God – for all eternity. This is not true for those who will be cast into the Lake of Fire. They will be eternally separated from God. That, in fact, is one of the worst torments that they will face in Hell, being eternally separated from God (eternally dead!).
The second half of this verse now tells us what’s on the other side of the coin. Since Jesus Christ will never die again, He lives with respect to God the Father who raised Him from the dead. That is, His life is a testimony to the power of God the Father. Likewise, we who have had our sin penalty paid once and for all (which, incidentally, becomes a problem for those who think they can lose their salvation since it was taken care of once for all time, not just until the next big sin). We now owe this eternal life that we possess to the one who paid our penalty for us.
Paul’s point is that when we were baptized we were identifying with Christ’s death, which He died to sin. And our baptism also identifies us with His life which we should now live to God.
We are indebted to Christ for paying our penalty and we are indebted to God the Father for graciously declaring us righteous. In gratitude and in debt we should now be living our life for God and not for ourselves.
Application
Now that you have identified yourself with Christ in dying to sin, are you being identified with Him in the way you live? Or, put another way, for whom are you living your life now? And, how thankful are you for the eternal life that you now possess?
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2018 Will Krause. All rights reserved