Why the Resurrection Matters Daily (Rom 6:1–11) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

I love to celebrate Good Friday and Easter Sunday. To meditate on what Jesus did on the cross on Good Friday and to think of the divine affirmation of His cross work in the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, leads to worship, thanksgiving, and humbling dependence upon Christ.

But despite the wonder and celebration, there’s a huge problem with this weekend of worship. And I’m not talking about over indulging on Reese’s chocolate covered eggs. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are good and wonderful, and admittedly, needed to turn us from the trap of a dead, ceremonial religion to trust in the crucified and resurrected Christ. Yet the massive problem arises when we give attention to the redemptive works of Good Friday and Easter only one weekend out of the year. What happened on Good Friday and Easter Sunday are not once a year celebrations. The death and resurrection of Jesus affect us daily.

Here’s what I mean. If we treat the death and resurrection of Christ as some kind of insurance to keep us out of hell while we continue living daily for ourselves, then we’ve missed what Jesus Christ came to do. He came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). He came “to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:14). He came so that we might have life, and have life in abundance (John 10:10). He came to take away sins (1 John 3:5). He came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). He came to do what the Law could not do, to justify us before God and satisfy eternal justice on our behalf (Rom 3:21–26). He came to redeem us from the penalty and slavery of sin, and to adopt us as God’s children, so that He might send forth His Spirit to dwell in us (Gal 4:4–7).

That’s where Paul heads in our text. He shows us that what Jesus did once affects believers daily. His death and resurrection were one-time, never to be repeated events, with countless daily implications and applications. What does it mean for the death and resurrection of Jesus to affect us daily? That’s what we will consider in these verses.

To catch us up to Romans 6, Paul wrote to the Romans in order to unpack the gospel of Christ (1:1–17). We need the gospel, he points out, because of two things that are true of everyone: (1) we’re all sinners through and through, and so under the judgment of God Rom 1:18–3:18); and (2) we’re accountable to God as those who by the works of the law can never be justified in the sight of God (Rom 3:19–20). So, rather than skirting the Law, God fulfilled it on our behalf through Christ (Rom 10:4), by displaying Jesus, His sinless Son, publicly on the cross in a bloody death to satisfy every demand necessary for sinners to become children of God (Rom 3:21–31). Through faith in Christ, God transfers His righteousness to us so that He counts us righteous in His sight through Christ (Rom 4:1–25). Then, in Romans 5, he introduces the subject of our union with Christ. Just as we were in union with Adam in his sin, resulting in our fall into sin and condemnation, by the grace of God, those who trust Christ God unites with Him to receive the gift of grace and righteousness through Him (Rom 5:1–21).

Since all of that happens by grace, some suppose that they can play loosely with sin. Some think, if God gives grace in the place of our sins, then more sins means more grace—so sin big, often, and abundantly.

But Paul’s retort brings up what we celebrate on Good Friday and Easter Sunday as the certain way to live for God and not for sin and self.

I. God shows grace to change the way that we relate to sin

By grace, we mean the loving, generous, and unmerited work of God on our behalf to save us, transform us, and keep us. It’s God’s work for us. Grace is never something that we have a right to, as though we’re so special that we deserve God’s gifts. Instead, God gives grace [...]