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For many people Christianity is perceived negatively. The world lives under the false understanding that Christianity is mostly a series of "don'ts". They are blind to the fact that genuine Christianity is just the opposite. It is sin that is negative. To be freed from sin is to be freed to a brand new life, one that enables us to pursue true fulfillment in our personality and our relationship with God and man. Chapter six develops the idea of having a living union with Christ. When you claimed Jesus as your Savior, did you think sin would just go away? Have you been surprised that you still sin? You may be wondering what to do now. In this chapter we learn a mind stretching truth - sin is not removed from me, but I am removed from sin! You see, Jesus died for all your sins, past, present and future. When you are united with Jesus in His death, you can be certain that you will be united with Him in His resurrection. Heaven is your destination, sin cannot and will not take that from you. Does that mean you and I can go on sinning? By no means! When you understand the price Jesus paid for your sin, you will no longer desire sinful behavior. Rather you will strive for righteousness, because He is righteous. There are reasons why you cannot continue to live in sin as you did before becoming a Christian. First of all, we are united to Christ and He died to sin once for all. Secondly, sin is no longer our master, God is. For us to hold onto and wallow in our sin is inconceivable, because it overlooks God's whole purpose in the plan of salvation which was to save us from sin. If we tolerate the practice of sin now, we are contradicting the very purpose of God in our salvation. There are some common misunderstandings of verse 2. Since this verse is so critical in understanding how to live a holy life, we will look at three misconceptions. 1. "A true Christian is no longer responsive to sin." This interpretation says that Christians have literally died to sin's appeal. Unfortunately, this is not true. Moreover it makes no sense with respect to the exhortation in verses 11-13. It says there, "Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ...Do not let sin reign in you mortal body...Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness." Christian's daily fight the battle of sin's temptations and appeal.2. "Christians should die to sin day by day." Here the starting point is wrong as it begins with man rather than God. It is Christ who died to sin once and for all. Also the verb is wrong. God is not telling us that we should die, but rather we have died. He is speaking of something that is already true for you as a Christian. This view says that the one who is united to Christ will grow in holiness, which is true, but it is not by increasingly dying to sin's call. We will have to be as much on guard against temptations at the end of our lives as now. 3. "We cannot continue in sin because we have renounced it." Renouncing sin is not something we do but rather something that has been done for us. It is God's work through Christ that makes our continuing in sin unthinkable. In order to understand how we died to sin, we will look at how Jesus died to it. Verse 10 says that Jesus died to sin, the exact thing that is said of us in verse 2. Paul's statement says that Christ "died to sin once for all." This means that as far as sin is concerned, Jesus' relationship to it is finished forever. While He lived upon earth, He had a relationship to it. He had come to die for us taking sin's punishment, and to put an end to its claims upon us. Now, having died, and been resurrected, that phase of His life is over. Verse 9 makes that point exactly: "We know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him." As a result of our union with Christ in His death and resurrection, the old life of sin is past for us also. We can never go back to it. We have been brought from that old life, the end of which was death, into a new life, the end of which is righteousness. We must embrace that fact and live for righteousness. Paul also reminds believers of the meaning of baptism in verses 3-4. Baptism is an outward sign that points to an inner spiritual reality, namely, of being joined to or identified with Jesus Christ. Verse 4 tells us that we were buried with Him in baptism. We have been taken out of one state and put into another. You have not only died to sin, you have been buried to it. To go back to sin once you have been joined to Christ is like digging up a dead body. Though sin will still tempt us we will never have the same relationship with it again. The reality of Christ's death and resurrection has forever broken the tyranny of sin in a believer's life. Verse 8 says "we will also live with Him." These words not only refer to our future resurrection but also to an experience of resurrection life here and now. We passed from the reign of sin and death to the reign of grace and life at the moment of conversion. In verse 11, Paul urges us to count ourselves "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." This process of growing more and more alive and responsive to God in Christ Jesus is called sanctification. It begins with the knowledge that Jesus died for our sins. His righteousness has been transferred to our accounts, so that God reckons us righteous. In these truths we have the framework to live a victorious life in Christ. (more about sanctification in future lessons) A question that may be asked is: "What if a Christian goes back to living a sinful life?" It will not work. Take the illustration of an adult trying to be a child again. Can he do it? He can act childlike, though it is dishonoring to him and an embarrassment to everyone else, however, an adult can never physically return to being a child. What do we say to an adult who is acting childlike? We say, "Why don't you just grow up?" As you take hold of who God is and the reality of His presence within you, you will not return to sin's domain. You cannot enjoy sin as you did before, and you will not be able to sin prolongedly before God calls you back to Himself. God will not stop you from sinning, but He will stop you from continuing in it. Either He will make your life so miserable that you will repent and beg Him to redirect your ways, or God will put an end to your life. Paul told the Corinthians that because some had dishonored the Lord's Supper, God had taken them home to heaven. (1 Corinthians 11:30) If you are a true Christian, you cannot return to your former way of life, continuing rebellion against God. (1 John 3:9) If you have been saved by
Jesus, you have been saved forever. There is nowhere for you to go but
forward, forward into righteousness! See John 17:14-19. Each of us can
and should joyfully and without reservation commit ourselves to the
life set before us.
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