“We Are Free from Sin” Romans 6:1-14

One of life’s harsher statements to say to someone is, “You’re dead to me.” The intent is to say that any relationship that may have existed between two people is now over. It is as though the offending person had died. There would be no reconciliation.

But what if we turned the phrase on its head and said, “I’m dead to you now?” I can just see that person’s face when he or she was told this. I imagine a puzzled look, followed by a frustrated, “What?”

I do not advocate either statement when it comes to the way we relate to one another. Jesus calls us to a ministry of reconciliation, and God extended the grace of reconciliation through Christ to us.

However, as the Bible tells us in today’s passage, it is more than appropriate for us to tell sin: “I am dead to you.”

Background

As we discussed last week, this letter is written by Paul to introduce the Romans to himself. He is basically writing a theological treatise to the Romans so they can know what he believes regarding Jesus.

Having taken the first three chapters to state that salvation only comes through God’s grace and mercy, Paul then goes on to write about the issue of faith in Chapter 4 and what faith means to us in our relationship to God in Chapter 5.

Chapters 6-8 dig deeper into what it means to live a life of faith and redemption, beginning with the passage we read a few minutes ago. In today’s passage, the Bible tells us that we are dead to sin in Christ, and then addresses what it means for us.

Central Truth: Since we are dead to sin, we are free to live for God.

We Died to Sin (1-4)

It is very likely that what Paul is writing to the Romans is something he had said to others before. We know that whenever Paul went to a new city, he began to preach and proclaim Christ. It would be reasonable to assume that during his stays in the various places where God led him, Paul would get into discussions with non-believers. It is also easy to believe that when Paul spoke about the forgiveness of sin, someone wag would make the comment, “Well, if grace is so great, why not sin more to experience grace more?” Paul writes this very same statement at the beginning of the passage. And the next sentence tells us how absurd Paul considered such a statement.

“By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (v.2). Paul bases his belief that we died to sin in the fact that we are crucified with Christ and are baptized into His death.

One of the reasons I believe Baptists are correct in insisting that baptism be by immersion is because of the Bible’s words in these few verses. Paul is very clear that Jesus died at Calvary. This death was an atoning sacrifice for our redemption and justification. But just as Jesus died, when we profess Him as Savior, we also die to the power of sin in our bodies. According to these verses, we had to die with Christ in order that we can live in our new lives we are given when we are made a new creation justified by God through Christ. Our baptism is a symbolic witness of our dying and our burial in Christ. We are “buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (v. 4).

When we die, we cut off all connections to the old life. My days of talking with my parents are no longer possible because they died. My times to fellowship with all my uncles and all but one of my aunts is gone, as well. Death is the permanent severing of all connections to life on earth.

The death Paul is writing about here is the “old has gone” of 2 Corinthians 5:17. The way we used to relate to our world is no longer valid, because we are dead to that old way of living. We are dead to sin, and therefore sin has no more power over us.

What We Know (5-7)

The next statement in vs. 5-7 speak to the other side of the coin. If we are buried with Christ through baptism, then it stands to reason that we are also resurrected just as He was—“the new has come” from 2 Corinthians 5:17. That’s Paul’s entire argument in v. 6: “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”

This is an important part of living the new life. We need to embrace this truth, a truth that you and I should know. And it goes to the way Satan tries to draw us away from God’s will and try to relate to our world in our old ways, our dead ways. Our old self was used to dealing with things by ourselves. We tried to solve all of life’s problems on our own.

We have come to the realization that we are not very good at solving life’s problems on our own. That’s why we came to Christ. By the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, we were made aware that we needed another way of dealing with the world and with life, and we realized that the new way was through Christ.

But here’s the problem. Too many of us have embraced a new life in Christ, but we’re still trying to do it ourselves. We’re still trying to earn God’s acceptance, just as we have spent most of our lives trying to earn everyone else’s acceptance.

And the Bible is telling us that that doesn’t work and that’s not how we should look at things. Know this: We are dead to sin. It has no bearing on us anymore. Satan will tempt us to sin, but we have the power and the presence of Christ to tell Satan no and turn to Christ instead. Sometimes, particularly in the early days of re-learning this truth we may need to verbally tell Jesus, “Thank you, Jesus, that I am now dead to sin. Thank you that I am now united with You in Your resurrection. Thank you for Your grace and power. Now, please tell Satan to leave me alone. I know You know how to handle this much better than I could.”

“I’d feel silly doing that.” So what? We are called to live by faith, not by feelings. Feelings tell us we’d be silly to say something like that to Jesus. Faith tells us this is exactly what we should be saying to Jesus. When we embrace the truth that we are dead to sin, we can then begin to start living in Christ.

We Live with Christ (8-10)

Paul continues his discussion by showing us the positive side of dying to sin. He begins with another faith statement: “We believe that we also live with Him” (v.8). It stands to reason. If we are buried with Christ into His death, then we are resurrected with Him and now live in Him.

Since Jesus died and was raised again, He cannot and will not die again. Neither will we. And, Just as Jesus cannot die again, then He lives eternally today. So do we. Jesus’ death ended once and for all the power of death over us. That applies to us, too. And since Jesus is dead to sin, He is free to live for God.

And so are we. All of what Paul has written is our new reality. It’s not the way Satan wants us to believe. He’s a liar and wants to fool us into thinking that we cannot relate to God and to our world in a new way. But we can. This passage tells us since we are dead to sin, we are free now to live for Christ.

In Bill Gillham’s book, “Lifetime Guarantee,” he writes about what it means to have Christ living through us. He writes that too many people are afraid to let Christ live through them, because they’re afraid they’ll not be themselves anymore. Gillham says that Jesus living in us is our source of power to live our new lives. He then goes on to write that he has power tools in his work shed. He has a power sander, a power saw and a power drill. He writes that without plugging the tools in, they’re not a sander or a saw or a drill. He calls them glorified paper weights. But when the tools are plugged in, they become what they were always intended to be. The power sanders sands, the power saw saws and the power drill drills only when they are plugged into the power. His point is that we can’t really be our true selves until we let Christ live through us. Living for God does that, because living for God means letting Christ live through us.

Deciding to Live for Him (11-13)

The last few verses of this passage tell us how this applies to the way we live. Because we are dead to sin, and because we are living for God, we must make a conscious decision. The decision we have to make is to no longer let sin reign in our lives.

Paul writes, “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness” (v.13).

I’ve read this verse for years, and only recently have I had a revelation. These “parts of our body” really comes down to one part: our mind. Everything we do is shaped by our mind and our brain. So the very first thing we need to offer to God as an instrument of righteousness is our mind, our brain. This is what the self-control is all about. It is making a conscious decision to place myself in God’s hands, letting Him live through me and leading me in every day’s activities. When we get ready to do chores around the house, prayerfully tell Jesus, “Lord, wash the dishes through me for Your glory.” “Lord, mow the grass through me.” “Lord, drive the car through me.” Make it a conscious effort to give our actions to Jesus.

Once our mind becomes used to giving itself to Him, everything else will follow. The mind controls the body. The Spirit controls our mind. Not that we become mindless. Rather, we become alive to the reality that we are living with Christ and that we are now living for God. He will speak through us, drive through us, wash dishes through us, relate to the people around us through us.

Since we are saved by grace, it’s time to fully embrace this truth and live under God’s grace.

Conclusion

One of the hardest things to do is to break a habit. We may know the habit isn’t good for us, that we need to end it. It takes a real effort to break the old way of living and to embrace the new way. But, in the long run, we know that we will be much better off freeing ourselves of the old habit.

So it is with this new way of walking in faith, not feelings. It takes time to learn to say regularly and consistently, “Jesus, live through me.” We may have to say it every 15 minutes or less. But we know that, ultimately, it is the best thing for us.

It’s time to embrace the truth that we are dead to sin and that we are free to live for God.