A certain man was accustomed to rising at six o'clock to catch a train each morning at seven. His wife usually saw him off to work; but one night the little ones had been particularly restless and his wife was just settling down to a deep sleep when the alarm clock went off. "Oh, dear," she groaned, "is that six o'clock?" When her husband told her it was, she said, "It doesn't feel like six o'clock." Now here's the point. It didn't feel like six o'clock but the sun, the moon, and the stars, the earth on its orbit, and the whole machinery of the heavens declared that it was six o'clock. But it didn't feel like six o'clock! It is the same with this great biblical truth that the believer is dead with Christ. He may not feel very dead, but that is beside the point. God says that he is, and the whole machinery of redemption declares it to be a fact.

How slow we are to believe this great, basic fact which opens for us the door to victorious Christian living! The story is told of two Irishmen, Pat and Mike, who found a most unusual turtle. The animal's head had been completely severed from its body, but the turtle was still running around as though nothing had happened. Pat maintained that it was dead, but Mike denied it stoutly and the argument waxed louder and louder until presently along came O'Brien. They decided that O'Brien should arbitrate the matter and that his verdict would be final. O'Brien took one look at this remarkable turtle and said, "It's dead-but it don't believe it!" That is exactly the problem with many Christians: they are dead but they do not believe it. This is a tragedy, for it is the truth of this verse fully and unreservedly believed that breaks sin's stranglehold in the life once it is believed.

C. The Results of Our Death with Christ (6:8-11)

God has made death to work on our behalf. It swings open for us now the door to victory, just as later, if the Lord has not come, it will swing open for us the door to glory, The resurrection of Christ from the dead is a liberating truth. We must learn to (1) appreciate the victory of Christ. "Now if we be (lead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him" (vv. 8-9). Paul wants us to grasp the significance of Christ's death and resurrection. It stands to reason, he argues, that if we are identified with Christ in His death, then likewise we are identified with Him in His resurrection. The two go together. The same mighty power which raised up Christ from the dead (1:4) is at work in the believer's life today. This statement does not refer primarily to the coming resurrection at the last trump, but has immediate application to the present power of the indwelling Holy Spirit who ministers to us the blessings and the benefits of Christ's resurrection. Paul returns to this theme in Romans 8.