Jesus Christ will never Die Again
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Positional Sanctification

We Died with Christ

Consequently, Paul reaches a conclusion. He concludes that we Christians, therefore, of necessity, having been joined to His death, must also be joined to His resurrection life that followed that death. Where we once were spiritually dead and doomed in Adam, we are now, of necessity, spiritually alive and saved in Christ. Where we were once under the sovereign authority of the old sin nature while in Adam, we are now under the sovereign authority of God the Holy Spirit now that we are in Christ.

So verse 8 we may translate it this way: "Now, in view of the fact that we died once for all together with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with Him."

Then coming to verse 9, Paul takes up the concept of the authority of death over Jesus Christ. And He presses upon us a very significant fact which is going to be vitally important to you and me. And he begins with pointing out in verse 9 that there is no more dying for Jesus Christ. He says, "Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead." The word "knowing" looks like this in the Greek Bible: "oida." This is the word for knowledge that comes to us as the result of our thinking something through, or as the result of an intuitive idea. It is in contrast to knowledge which comes to us as the result of experience. When we do certain things, we learn certain things, but we also learn certain things just by thinking through.

Some great inventions have come about simply because somebody was thinking through. Some great discoveries have been made just be an intuitive conclusion – a knowledge which a person intuitively decided. That's how the source of the Nile River was discovered. In the 19th century, the thing that fascinated people was: where does the magnificent, majestic Nile begin? And they had all kinds of explorations; all kinds of attempts to find it; and, all kinds of solutions, and everyone proved to be wrong. It wasn't discovered until John Speke stumbled across that fantastic, marvelous emblem lake, Lake Victoria, in the heart of Africa, and he made an intuitive decision. He reached some knowledge intuitively on the basis of geographical facts that he had in his mind. And he said, "This is the source of the Nile." Speke had made an "oida" decision. He had made an intuitive, instinctive reach for a piece of knowledge, and he had come up with a right answer.

Now, the apostle Paul says, "Here is something that we don't have to sell you on. We don't have it to prove to you. We don't have to strain at demonstrating this to you. This is something that if you've got any sense at all, as a believer, and if you have any facts and any judgments relative to what you know about God and about the person of Jesus Christ, and His mission, and His life, here's something you're going to know." What he means is that Christians should know this beyond question, without any doubt.

This is in the Greek grammar in the perfect tense. But this was a peculiar kind of word. It doesn't have a perfect meaning. It has present meaning. Therefore, that indicates to us that this is something that Christians should continually know beyond any question. They should intuitively understand this. It's active voice, which means that every believer should personally possess this conviction beyond question. And it's in the form of participle, indicating that a spiritual principle is being stated.

The facts of Scripture about Christ's death for the sins of mankind lead to an inevitable, intuitive, reasoning decision about Him, and, consequently, about us as believers. And here it is: "We know intuitively that." The word "that" is the word "hoti." That is a conjunction which indicates a fact about the death of Christ. And he speaks about the man "Christos," meaning the God-Man, the Messiah. We intuitively know something about the God-Man: "That, being raised from the dead." The word "raised from the dead" is "egeiro." The word "egeiro" is used here of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which we have been told back in Romans 6:4 was performed by the omnipotent power of God the Father. It says, "Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory (by the essence, that is – particularly the omnipotent factor of the essence of the Father.

So, here's God the Son, and we know beyond any shadow of a doubt that he was indeed raised from the dead. This is in the aorist tense, which is always talking about something that happens in the past as a point action. And this is at the point of that first Easter Sunday morning. Therefore, since it is in the past, we should actually translate this: "Having been raised:" "knowing intuitively, without any question of doubt that the God-Man, Christ, having been raised." And it is a participle, which is a statement of a principle. But whether it is an aorist participle, that always tells us that it is giving us the order of events. It tells us what comes first, and then it tells us what comes second.

Christ Will never Die Again

Justification through the Resurrection of Christ

Death

He Will Die no More

So, Christ cannot start again at any time following His resurrection as the Lamb of God. Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us, can never again die once He has been raised from the dead, having died as the Lamb of God for the sins of the world. The aorist participle once more told us that He has been raised from the dead. That came first. Consequently, the second thing that follows (and cannot follow, because it's got a negative with this) is that He cannot die again.

You can see what blasphemy is taking place all over the world today as Roman Catholic priests walk up to their altars and perform a so-called ceremony of the Mass in which they are putting to death Christ once more. All those who take the trouble to come out to be in that room at the time when Jesus Christ is sacrificed on that altar once more, think that they receive benefit that will accrue credit to them toward salvation. Anybody who knows anything at all about the Bible, right here, all you need to know is this. The thing that the Bible stresses very, very carefully is that Jesus Christ, having once been raised from the dead, can never again be sacrificed. That is one of the most satanic things that takes place in the Roman Catholic Church system.

We're talking about truth vs. error. I'm not talking about all those nice Roman Catholic priests that I know who are personable men; who are attractive men; who are good men; who are kindly men; and, who would treat you nicely and do kindnesses for you. That is beside the point. When we talk about these religious systems, we are talking about the fact that a person goes to heaven or hell on the basis of something up in his head. And I hope you've got that by now. He does not go to heaven and hell on the basis of something that he's associated with on a human level: a church; an organization; or, a family. He does not go to heaven on the basis of something he has performed on a human level.

A person goes to heaven or hell strictly on what's up in your head in the form of a belief; in the form of a conviction; and, in the form of a conviction to which you will entrust your destiny. And if you entrust your destiny to a priest standing before an altar, going through a ritual with bread and wine, and telling you that he is killing Jesus Christ all over again, and your presence there, and eating that body which he has just slaughtered on that altar once more in behalf of your sins, will now merit you eternal life, you will go straight to hell if you believe that. And all the nice priests and all the nice Catholic people are the ones who are going to suffer the consequences.

It is fantastic how Christians get all tangled up in the nice, personable, human relationships that can exist with people who are wrong, and who are headed for the lake of fire, and they equate that with those people being acceptable with God. Because someone is personable as a human being does not make him acceptable with God. Because it crushes you to think of somebody who is a good friend, and such a kind friend perhaps, as someone who is going to hell, does not change the picture. Unless this person has accepted God's one and only way, then that person is doomed.

This part of the book of Romans could not make more clear to us that Jesus Christ cannot be killed again. He cannot die a second time ever again for the issue of sin. This word "apothnesko" is in the present tense, which indicates continually true. When the Greek has present tense, it means that it's always true that He can never die again. It is active, which refers to the personal status of Jesus Christ. He can never again undergo death. It is indicative – a statement of fact.

In other words, there is nothing more that needs to be done to preserve the integrity of God in taking sinners into heaven. If you say that Jesus Christ has to die, either in some ritual symbol or some actuality, you're saying that something more needs to be done to satisfy the integrity of God. That is the very thing that God says does not have to be done. He has secured that provision once-for-all.

So, we would translate this simply as "dies no more:" "Knowing intuitively, and without the shadow of a doubt, that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more."

Eternal Security

Verse 9 explains why the union with Christ in His resurrection ensures our permanency in salvation. As long as a Christian possesses the resurrection life of Jesus Christ, he cannot again revert to a position in Adam, and thus be doomed to hell. As long as you possess the resurrection life of Jesus Christ, you cannot again be doomed to hell, and you will always possess that resurrection life. Once you are in Him, it's a permanent relationship. So, for you ever to be doomed would require that Christ loses His resurrection life, and then comes under the condemnation of sin once more.

However, since Jesus Christ has died once-for-all for the evil of mankind (in toto – as a whole – past, present and future), there is no more evil whose penalty has not been paid. That's the thing you must remember. The death of Christ covered everything past, present and future. So, what in the world could he die for again? What in the world could reverse His resurrection, and put Him back into the position of death? He has already paid for every possible sin that any human being could be guilty of.

So, Jesus Christ can die no more for the sins of the world. Thus His resurrection life cannot be terminated. Since the resurrection life of Christ cannot be negated, neither can it be negated for the believers who are in Him and who are joined to that resurrection life. The Christian's position in newness of life thus is as abiding as is the resurrection of Christ Himself. There is no basis whatever for our ever being returned into Adam.

Now that is the impact of the first part of verse 9:"Knowing intuitively, on the basis of knowledge we arrive at by judging what we know from the Word of God, Christ, the God-man, having been raised from the dead, dies no more, no more, never again. Death has no more dominion over him. The word "death" is our word "thanatos," referring both to spiritual and physical death for sin, with the emphasis particularly on the physical death here, since the context deals with the resurrection. And gain, we have the word "ouketi." Paul loves this word. He keeps shoving it in there. You've had it once. Now you have it again, within the same verse – twice. No more. Do you remember what I said it means? It's an adverb of time. It relates to the fact that a thing can never be repeated in time.

"No more at any time can (what?) something have dominion. The word dominion is "kurieuo." This means "to be Lord over" or "to rule over" Him; that is, Jesus Christ. This is present tense. This is continually true of Jesus Christ. It is active – the status quo of Christ relative to death. It is indicative – a statement of fact. He is telling us that there is never a time when death can again exercise dominion over Jesus Christ.

The Sting of Death is Sin

The Death of Jesus Christ

Now, the principle of death through sin is in the last part of 1 Corinthians 15:56 where it says that: "The strength of sin is the Law. The Law, particularly as expressed in the Law of Moses, you remember, expressed the absolute righteous standard of God. And that absolute righteous standard decreed that the penalty for sin was death.

So, the strength of sin is the fact that God, as judge, has passed a law that says, "If you sin, you die." Therefore, the Bible says, "The wages of sin is death." Now, if Jesus Christ is going to die, He must come under the penalty of that law which says that you die for sin, and therefore, sin had to be imputed to Him from others.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Now, with the holiness of God satisfied relative to our human evil, the Father raised the Son from the dead because the Son had no guilt of His own to keep Him in the grave. The only thing that put Him there was our guilt. That having been paid for, there was no way that death could hold Him. There was no way that the law that God passed for the penalty of sin could hold Him. Therefore, He was raised. Death can never again act as Lord ("kurieuo") over Jesus Christ. So, His status in resurrection is permanent. For all those who are in Christ, who share that status of resurrected newness of life, your position is permanent.

That's Paul's line of thinking here. If there's any way that Jesus Christ can be taken out of that status of resurrection, having been raised after paying for sin, then you can lose your salvation. But if there's no way that He can be taken from that resurrected life, then neither can you be taken from resurrected life. As long as you're in that resurrected life, you're saved. When you lose that resurrected life status, then you would be lost again.

So, dying and rising with Jesus Christ is not a process repeated many times, but it's a decisive event, just as decisive as was the death and resurrection of Christ for all. There is no ground, therefore, for any apprehension that our position in newness of life can ever be terminated. The perpetuity of Jesus Christ in resurrection is one of the points in which the Christian life is to be conformed to His. As He has perpetuity in resurrection, so do we. The physical resurrection of believer is, therefore, equally assured on the basis of Christ's resurrection. Because He was raised, we will be raised. So, Jesus Christ has destroyed forever the authority of death which was possessed by the devil.

Here's another thing. Hebrews 2:14 explains to us that it is the devil who exercises the authority of death: "For as much then as the children are protectors of flesh and blood, He also, Jesus Christ Himself, likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death; that is, the devil. One of the things that happened on the cross was that the devil's power to exercise death over you has been removed.

So, Jesus Christ came to the earth; He dealt with our sin; He dealt with our death; it's forever done with; He's in glory in heaven; and, we have nothing to worry about anymore.

Now, Romans 6:10 finishes the picture. It says, "For in that He died, He died unto sin once, but in that He lives, He lives unto God." The word "for" is this Greek preposition "gar." It introduces a summary statement. The words "in that" are the Greek relative pronoun "hos." Here, this word means "as regards" or "as to that." And it has reference, by the context, to Christ's death on the cross: concerning His dying. We might say, "For the fact that He died means this." "He died" is that same word we've had before: "apothnesko." This refers to the payment of spiritual and physical death for sin. "For" means in regards to the fact that He (Jesus Christ) died. It's aorist tense. It's in the past, looking at that moment on Calvary when He died. It's active. Christ did the dying. It's a statement of fact so it's indicative.

He died, and then the same word is repeated again. And it's the same aorist active indicative – in the past. When He died, He died in regards to sin. And that's the word "hamartia," which refers to that control of the sin nature within man, and the products of individual sins. The word "hamartia" in the grammar is a dative of reference, so it means "with respect to." And that is the way to translate that. He died to the control of the sin nature over us.

How Permanent is this Death?

Now, if you are related to Him, which you are (you are in Him), therefore, Paul is saying you have died "ephapax" – once-for-all, never-to-be-repeated. And you have been raised again to newness of life once-for-all, never-to-be-repeated. You will never be able to look back in your experience, like some of these poor people in various churches say, "I have died to sin, and then I got raised to spiritual life, and then I sinned, and then I died again to sin, and then I went back to the Lord, and I got raised back to spiritual life, and then I fooled around (a little hanky-panky, and I died again in sin, and I again was in death, and then I came back to the Lord, and I pled for forgiveness, and He took me back in the family, and I rose again."

That's the nonsense that they are tell you about: dying and rising to newness of life; and, dying and rising to the newness of life again. Anytime anybody says that, you could almost be sure they're headed for hell. Nobody would talk like that if they understood the gospel message as Paul has presented it. That is a sure sign that that person is headed for hell. If he thinks he can lose his salvation, you can almost count on it that he doesn't have any, because Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, knowing this, keeps driving home this word. And we've had this other word "ouketi" earlier. He use that one to hit us once-and-for-all. Now he comes up with a really stronger one – one more intense. He says, "I don't know how to say this to you people any more decisively: there is no repeat. When Christ died, it was a finished job. When He was raised, it was once-for-all. He's never going to do it again. And if He doesn't do it again, you cannot do it again.

Jesus Christ can't Die for Sin Again

So, He has been forever separated from the issue of the sin of mankind, and of the guilt of mankind. And for that reason, he has told us, in verse 9, that death can no more lord it over Christ. The law of absolute righteousness has been perfectly satisfied. There is no further penalty that could be demanded. The sin question has been forever permanently disposed of.

You have this same idea that you can run down on your own in Romans 6:2 and Romans 6:6-7. This is the whole idea that Christ is separated from the realm and the authority of sin. It is not dealing with justification. It's dealing with the fact that he can't ever face the issue of paying for sin again.

This word, "ephapax" is used many times in the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews 9:12, this word is used to indicate once-for-all offering of His blood for sin: "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, nor by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."

In Hebrews 9:25-26: "There's one sacrifice for sin for all time. Nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with blood of others. For then, must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now, once in the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."

In Hebrews 9:28, "ephapax" is used to indicate that He is offered as Savior only once: "So, Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him, He shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation."

In Hebrews 10:10, Christ, as Lamb of God, is offered only once: "By which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once-for-all."

Hebrews 10:12: "There's one sacrifice for all time for sin on the part of Jesus Christ. But this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God."

Hebrews 10:14: "Sinners are once-for-all perfected, for by one offering, He has perfected forever them that are sanctified."

So, the first part of verse 10 would be translated in this way: "For as regards the death He died, He died with respect to our sin nature once-for-all."

Then the other side of the story is balanced out. In the second part of verse 10, we have the word "but," which is the Greek word "de." This is a conjunction. It introduces a contrast to the status of Jesus Christ in the first part of verse 10 – the contrast with His position in death now with His position in resurrection: "But in that," and here you have again that same expression that we had at the first part of verse 10 – the same word "hos." Here, it means, again, "as regards to something else,"

This is the other side of the picture, and it has reference here, by the context, to Christ's resurrection life: "He lives." And that is the word "zao." This refers to Christ's own resurrection life. It is present tense. He is continually alive as a resurrected God-Man. It is active. This is what is true about Christ Himself – His own life is a resurrected life. It is indicative – a statement of fact.

Now that he is alive, and now that He is in resurrection life, what is the purpose of that life? "He lives." And again, the words "zao" is repeated, just as we had before. The word for death "apothnesko" is repeated twice back-to-back. So, now back-to-back in the Greek Bible, you have the word "zao zao" coming twice in a row: "He lives" in contrast to what precedes about dying to sin. There follows death, a permanent resurrection life. He lives unto God. And the Greek has the word "theos" for "God," but it's preceded by the definite article "the." So, it's "the God, meaning that it is a reference to God the Father.

Therefore, as Christ now lives in perfect harmony with the holiness of God the Father, so you and I are to live exclusively in the realm of newness of life. That is our status.

Now, how to go about doing that in practice is what we are going to come to. But the whole issue here is that all of this is contingent upon one very important point – the great contrast that we have in verse 8-10 between the death of Christ and the resurrection status of Christ. There was a time when Jesus Christ was in the realm and under the reign of sin and death; that is, the authority of our guilt was upon Him – the authority of the sin nature. But now Jesus Christ is in the realm of the reign of absolute righteousness and eternal life that is under the authority of God the Father.

Now that is what is the implication of the end of verse 10: "But in that He lives, He lives unto God." What does it mean that He lives unto God? It certainly doesn't mean that He's obedient to God. He has always been that. It certainly doesn't mean that He is fulfilling God's plan (God's mission) that He has been called for. He always did that. He is now living unto God. And you must put that in the contrast that verse 10 puts it in. The Lord Jesus Christ came out of the realm of glory in heaven, with the Father that He shared, into the realm of death on earth with sinful man. So, Jesus Christ, for a time, became a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Hebrews 5:7-8 describe that for us.

Jesus Christ, as the God-Man, suffered temptations of evil in the realm of death, but He never sinned. Hebrews 4:15 makes it clear that He never sinned. That was once a time when he was living in relationship to God in the realm of glory. He came down to the realm of sin and death. He suffered the consequences of that realm, and became a man of sorrows and a man of suffering, but never once yielded to sin. The contrast to the realm of glory and the realm of death was brought to a climax on the cross when He cried out in that agony to the Father and to the Holy Spirit about forsaking Him at that point, when he was under spiritual death. Mark 15:34 records. That agonizing cry.

That was the epitome of the contrast between the realm of living with God and the realm of living with sin. Following the payment for sin, Jesus Christ then returned to the realm and the authority of God the Father, that original glory that He shared in heaven. You perhaps will remember that in John 17:5, when He is praying that great high priestly prayer the night before His crucifixion, he prays specifically that what Paul says at the end of Romans 6:10 would come about: "In that He lives, He lives unto God. He lives in the realm of the glory of His deity once more.

In John 17:5, the Lord Jesus Christ prayed: "And now, O Father glorify Me with Your Ownself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was." There Jesus is asking: "Father, return Me to that realm of life with You that I had before I came to this earth."

Well, today that prayer has been answered, and Jesus Christ is now again in the realm of His divine glory. And that's what Paul means when he says that He is now living unto God.

This same point is referred to, in effect, in Ephesians 1:19-23, where we read, "And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe (that is, God's power), according to the workings of His mighty power which he wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principalities and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come, and has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that fills all."

This, again, is talking about the fact that He has a realm of glory, and that is the realm of glory to which He has now returned. Please remember incidentally, that Ephesians 1:21-23, we pointed out before, should really be in a set of parenthesis. And the way this reads is from Ephesians 1:20 down to Ephesians 2:1. And that's the great statement that you and I are also in that realm of glory: He set Him in that realm of glory in heavenly places, and you also who are dead in trespasses and sins." And when you connect the thought in the Greek language, you see that what he is saying is that you too are in that realm of glory, and that's a tremendous, exciting statement.

So, Christ's relationship to sin and death was temporary, and it has been fully terminated by His resurrection. That's what Paul means in this contrast in Romans 6:10. When He died to sin, it was once-for-all. That realm of sin and death that He came into is terminated. And He has returned to the realm of glory and absolute righteousness in eternal life, which was His originally.

So, Jesus Christ in His resurrection life is again experiencing unbroken fellowship with His Father, and it is never to be broken again, because there is no more possible sin in the universe which has not been paid for. That is very important. This is a complete and absolute atonement. If that were not true, you could never be sure that Jesus Christ would not have to die again. And the very implication of this logic forces us to the realization that He can never die again, only because there's never been an unpaid-for-sin left in the universe.

The next time Jesus comes to this earth, it's going to be in this glory, in His realm of deity, as the resurrected Son in whom the Father is well-pleased.

Now, the implications of all this for you and me as a believer is simply this: that as Jesus Christ is freed from sin's authority and living to God the Father, so too are we free and living in that (what the Bible calls) newness of life.

The contrast here is with the pre-resurrection and the post-resurrection status of Jesus Christ, and thus for us. Now, the Greek Bible, I hope you have seen, has made this very clear – that as Jesus Christ died, He died to sin forever. He couldn't do it again. Since you are in Him, you can't do it again. On the other hand, since He is in resurrection life, if He can't die again, He can't leave that resurrection life. Since you are in Him, you can't leave that resurrection life.

Christ is now living in perfect harmony with the holiness of God the Father. He lives exclusively in the realm of newness of life. So, because we are in Him, that's where we live as well.

So verse 10, once more, is translated in this way: "For as regards the death He died, He died with respect to our sinful nature once for all. But as regards the life He lives, He lives it continually with respect to God.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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