Romans 6:8–11 (ESV) — 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

For centuries, the church has celebrated the monumental event of Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. Without it, we have nothing, and our faith is futile (1 Cor. 15:17). But with it, we have a realm-altering, world-changing, hope-giving, life-transforming faith.

It is this impact we celebrate each Easter. Death has plagued humanity from the beginning, and the resurrection gives us confidence it will one day end forever. We groan along with creation for that day to come (Rom. 8:19-23). New life is possible because of Jesus; his resurrection is the first resurrection, but we expect the resurrection of God's people and God's planet one day (1 Cor. 15:20).

Mankind was on its way to either self-destruction or a winding down of the cosmos, but the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the centrifugal force that spins us out into a forever newness with him.

When Jesus came, he often talked about the coming of his kingdom. He gave us glimpses of that kingdom throughout his life. He healed sickness and disease. He cured injury and infirmity. He removed shame and brokenness. He overthrew the powers of darkness. He confronted evil and injustice. He pulled in far-off people groups. He spoke with clarity and conviction. He brought truths man had hidden into the light. And he loved.

All these elements are characteristics of his kingdom that he said was at hand (Mark 1:15). And with his resurrection, his kingdom was released upon the world so that all who trust in Jesus can experience its elements—now (in part) and in the future (in full force).

But at the cross, while Jesus was dying, the disciples would have wondered. Would all the love and power and grace and conviction and truth and victory Jesus exemplified die with him? Was it all over? Would he be lost to history—a great man who had a great moment but who could not truly change anything? Was his embarrassing and brutal death on Calvary's cross the utter end of a good run?

Not at all. Because of a power deeper than death—resurrection power—our Lord's burial in that tomb was not an end but only a beginning. And I want to declare to you today that his resurrection set off an avalanche of events that have continued all the way to your doorstep today. What happened to Jesus has life-shaking implications for what can happen to you today.

Better yet, if you've trusted in Christ, Jesus' resurrection has unalterably altered your very being. Right now. Because of what happened to him, something massive happened to you.

What Happened to Jesus?

He Died to Sin

So what happened to Jesus, behind the scenes, when he died on the cross and rose from the dead? When they bound him in the Garden of Gethsemane, delivered him to a night of interrogation by the religious leaders, and convinced Pontius Pilate to crucify him, what was happening in the spiritual dimension? When he spent those six hours naked on the cross, nails piercing his hands and feet, life draining from his body, was something more taking place? When they wrapped him in linen and placed him in a sealed and guarded tomb, what was God doing? When some of his followers came to the tomb early on Sunday morning to complete his burial preparations, only to find it was empty, what happened? And when—beginning with Mary Magdalene and continuing with hundreds of others—Jesus appeared in resurrected form, what did it mean?

Our passage this morning tells us two major things that happened to Jesus through his death and resurrection. First, we learn that Jesus died to sin (10).

To understand what it means that Jesus died to sin, we must first understand sin. In the story of the Bible, sin is presented as the realm humanity lives in right now. It generates an impulse to live without God, leading to individual sins of various kinds. But in its singular form, it describes a dimension void of God and his effects.

God brings life, light, and love, but sin produces death, darkness, and division. God generates health, joy, and freedom, but sin creates shame, separation, and slavery.

Sin is the factor that holds humanity captive to self-serving interests, creates an ever-present element of war and hostility, pits some against others, generates confusion and depression, and wraps us up in the bitter feeling that we cannot find satisfaction.

And inside sin's realm is death—it is the ultimate power principle at play in sin's domain. Death runs its wicked course in more than mere physical expiration at the end of life—it is more than a bodily event.

Death is also relational—relationships hurt and broken by sin.
Death is also emotional—souls and psyches dampened and pained by sin.
Death is also spiritual—our ability to know and live in harmony with God destroyed by sin.

So the pinnacle power of sin is death, and our passage tells us that on the cross, Jesus died to sin, once for all (10). And through his death and resurrection, Jesus departed the very realm of sin: death no longer has dominion over him (9). What this means is that when Jesus died on the cross, sin and death lost their presence and impact in Jesus' life.

Before he died, Jesus mourned the death of loved ones, experienced brutal temptation alone in the wilderness, and felt sorrow over the plight of humanity. Before the cross, Jesus was surrounded by death and decay. When he became one of us, he lowered himself to engage with the broken world that had fallen prey to the impact of sin. When Jesus came here, he entered into sin and death's domain. But when he died, he died to sin, and death no longer has dominion over him.

He Became Alive to God

This leads us to the second major thing that happened to Jesus when he died and rose. Paul said, "The life he lives, he lives to God" (10). What does this mean?

It does not mean that Jesus began living for God only after the resurrection. We know Jesus lived in complete obedience to God the Father. Jesus always did whatever pleased the Father (John 8:29). He was always only obedient, so when it says that "the life he lives, he lives to God," it cannot mean that Jesus started obeying or living for God only after he rose. His whole life, and all of Scripture, says otherwise.

What this morning's passage makes clear is that something changed when Jesus rose from the dead that enabled him to—in some fresh way—live to God. Something new occurred. What was it?

When Paul said, "The life he lives, he lives to God," he meant that the resurrection brought Jesus into a new realm. While on earth, Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, who warred against temptations (Is. 53:3, Heb. 4:15). Though he lived for God while on earth, his entire earthly life was in the shadow of sin and death. But, through his resurrection, he now lives in the realm of God. He left the territory of sin and death—they no longer have any power over him. He is alive to God.

And I should point out that Jesus' risen state is an unalterable state. As Jesus said in Revelation: "I died, and behold I am alive forevermore" (Rev. 1:18). Paul said here in Romans: "We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again" (9). He died, as Paul said, once for all (10).

In other words, Jesus' position outside the sphere of sin and death is permanent. He lives before God, and unalterably so. He can tauntingly ask, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" because he has been transferred from death's realm and into God's (1 Cor. 15:55).

So what happened to Jesus on that first Easter almost two thousand years ago? Paul tells us that Jesus died to sin and became alive to God. And that's Jesus' experience at this moment. Though he suffered at the hands of sin and death while here, they no longer have any effect on him. And there is no distance whatsoever in his connection to his Father.

Jesus is totally and finally separated from sin's realm. And he is totally and finally enjoying life as the Son of God before Father God with the Spirit of God. God, who is One, in perfect, unbroken, and unalterable harmony within himself.

What Happens to Us?

But if that's what happened to Jesus, does this passage have anything to say to us on this Easter Sunday about what happened to us when Jesus rose from the dead? Does it give us any hope or inspiration or guidance?

I once heard someone giving advice on how to build an "about" page on a website. They said that a good about page tells the reader everything they stand to receive from the organization, product, or person the website is about. Instead of giving a long biographical presentation or a dry retelling of the company's history, the advice was to instead focus on what they could do for the person visiting their site.

In a similar way, we might be present today, celebrating what Jesus did in rising from the grave. We might have an understanding of the crucial nature of this event on Christianity and even our own relationship with God. But this passage tells us one of the most astounding things that Jesus ' resurrection does for us. It is Paul's strategically oriented "about page" announcing to us something nearly unimaginable about Jesus' resurrection.

What he tells us is that what happened to Jesus is what happens to us when we trust Jesus. He drives at this both in our passage this morning and also in the larger passage surrounding it.

In verse 11, he said, "So you also," indicating that the things that happened to Jesus also happened to us (11).
He then said we must consider ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God just like Jesus is (11).
And he told us that this is true because—by faith—we are in Christ Jesus (11).

And in the surrounding passage, Paul went to great lengths to say that what happened to Christ happened to us:

In verse 8, he said, "We have died with Christ, so we believe that we will also live with him" (8).
Before that, he said, "If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his" (Rom. 6:5).
He used the words "with" and "like" eight times in this section—meaning we experienced something with and like Christ experienced.
He made twenty references in Romans 6:1-14 to crucifixion or death, and twelve of them are about our experience.
And he made another fifteen references to resurrection or life in this chapter, and half of them are about us.

In other words, because Jesus died to sin and is alive to God, we died to sin and are alive to God. If we have trusted in Christ, what happened to Jesus has happened to us! When Moses crossed the Red Sea, all of Israel crossed the Red Sea. When David defeated Goliath, all of Israel defeated Goliath. And when Jesus died to sin and became alive to God, we died to sin and became alive to God.

Dead to Sin and Alive to God

But what does it mean that Jesus' death and resurrection make believers dead to sin and alive to God?

Though this truth very much impacts our present-day experience, we intuitively know Paul cannot mean we will never sin if we are true Christians. He cannot mean that we will always feel alive and responsive to God.

If that is what he meant, it would fly in the face of his own writings and the rest of the Bible. And it would fly in the face of our experience. But it would also ruin the comparison Paul makes between Jesus and us. What happened to Jesus happened to us. Let me explain.

Jesus died to sin. That does not mean Jesus stopped sinning—he never sinned in the first place. But something changed in Jesus' relationship to sin when he died and rose. He left its realm. And what happened to Jesus happened to us. Because he died on the cross—if we've trusted him—our relationship to the domain of sin and death has radically changed!

And Jesus became alive to God. That does not mean that Jesus didn't walk with and enjoy God while on earth. It does mean that he left death's dominion and went back to God's after his resurrection. He is in God's realm. And what happened to Jesus happened to us. Because he rose from the dead—if we've trusted him—our relationship to God was radically changed!

No, when Paul says we should consider ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God, he does not mean that we are free from sins and always only godly. Nor is Paul advocating for wishful thinking—pretend you are dead to sin and alive to God!

What he is saying is that we have been transferred with Jesus from the realm of sin's power to life with God. Positionally, before God, because of Jesus' death and resurrection, all Christians are dead to sin and alive to God. The moment you become a Christian, you are no longer under the reign or ruling power of sin and are transferred into God's realm.[^1]

All this has nothing to do with experience—though it will impact our experience if we consider it—but everything to do with reality as God sees and declares it. "If anyone is in Christ," God says, "he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come" (2 Cor. 5:17).

So even though, as Christians, we will often succumb to temptation, God sees us as dead to sin and alive to him.
Even though there will be countless moments we feel far from God, and close to sin, Jesus has made us dead to sin and alive to God.
Even though we often struggle to evidence meaningful change and wonder if God is working in our lives or not, we are dead to sin and alive to God.
And even though there are thousands of moments where we feel like we're being tossed in a deluge of evil and that God is galaxies away, we are very much dead to sin and alive to God.
We are positionally, categorically, and fundamentally changed. We are in a new realm, dead to sin and alive to God.

Something has drastically changed about us, so we must consider ourselves to be radically connected to Christ's death and resurrection, making us dead to sin and alive to God (11). This consideration process makes the historical fact of the resurrection beautiful for life today. We must pause to consider who we are. What happened to Jesus changed us. The gospel has changed us. The true you is dead to sin and alive to God because Jesus Christ died and rose again.

When Jesus rose, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene in the garden outside the tomb. He told her to tell the other disciples that he was going to ascend to his Father and their Father, to his God and their God (John 20:17). It is his death and resurrection that secured God as theirs, making him their Father in heaven. And it is Jesus' death and resurrection that secure us that same position with God, that transfers us from the realm of sin to the realm of God. Every one of us here today—if we've trusted Christ—has been moved by the resurrection power of God into his realm.

[^1]: Keller, Timothy. 2014. Romans 1-7: The Gift of God. New Malden, England: Good Book Company.