knowing that Christ having been raised up from among [the] dead dies no more death has dominion over him no more.
Paul has just said that we died with Christ and will live with Him. Verse 9 rests that hope on one fact: the risen Christ stands outside death's reach forever, and our position hangs on His.
The verse opens with what we know. One writer separates two kinds of knowing in this chapter.
We know that our old self has been crucified with Christ only because we are taught it, as a truth outside us. Many would like to make this a matter of inner experience, but it is not. That would flatter the flesh in its religious moods and longings, instead of honouring the grace of God in the death of Christ. On the other hand, we have an inward, conscious knowledge that Christ, being raised, will never die again: death no longer has dominion over Him. This is not just an outward fact we are told. We feel in our soul that it is so, and must be so. Sin never had dominion over Him, but death did — so that God would be glorified, sin judged, Satan's power destroyed, and we set free.
The words "no longer" imply that death once did hold Him. But it never held Him against His will.
So death had no dominion over Him except as He submitted to it. Having done so, He is finished with that responsible order of life which death applied to — the order that sin attached to in you and me. The Father raised Him from the dead by His glory, and He has left forever the condition that death's dominion belonged to — a condition He had once entered by His own choice.
Others in Scripture were raised and later died. This verse rules that out for Christ — and, by the same pattern, for those who belong to Him.
The resurrection of God's people will match their Lord's in character. Lazarus died again — otherwise he would be on earth today. But Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him (Rom. 6:9). And Scripture says of God's people: "those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore" (Luke 20:35-36).
The verse says He will never die again. One writer explains why He had to die even once.
He came about sin, to take our place as sinners, and He died to sin. He died out of grace toward us, and He died with sin in view. He did it once, when, for our sakes, He needed to do it — and He did it once for all. It was a work He had to do about sin, and He has done it. He has nothing more to do with sin. He will judge sinners, no doubt, but He is finished with sin, finished with being occupied with it, once and for ever. Up to the cross He, the sinless One, had to deal with sin. On the cross sin was the whole question, though it was for the glory of God that He was made sin. But now He has done with it once and for ever.
Verse 8 said we shall live with Him. Verse 9 tells us what that life is like, because His life sets its measure.
"Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him." The life that has now begun is bound up with His life and depends on it, just as the death we have been considering is bound up with His death. So that life is changeless, eternal, beyond the power of death.
Commentators press this beyond the future and into the present.
He no longer lives under sin's dominion. In grace He once came under it, but by dying and rising again He now lives in eternal deliverance from sin's power. As people who are under grace — as being in Him — we are in the same sphere of life He is in, where sin cannot enter. It is not simply that we have life in Him; we live with Him. And living with Him means living in practical deliverance from sin's dominion.
- Dominion, submitted to. Sin never ruled Christ. Death did — but only because He chose to enter that condition, for God's glory and our freedom.
- Dominion, broken. Lazarus died again; Christ never will. He has left death's order of life behind forever, and His people's resurrection will match His.
- Dominion, done with. He dealt with sin once for all at the cross. Now He has nothing more to do with it.
- Dominion, shared. Our new life is tied to His life, and so carries His character: changeless, eternal, beyond death's power.
- Dominion, in practice. We live with Him where sin cannot enter. So freedom from sin's rule is meant for today, not only for the resurrection.
For in that he has died, he has died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.