Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

Introduction

Dead with Christ

Our text begins by refuting the notion that we should continue in sin so that grace may abound. This carries over from our text last week were we saw that through the law sin abounded as the law gave opportunity for those with an inherited sinful nature from Adam to rebel against God by sinning. But where sin abounded, grace abounded to a much greater degree and this grace brings glory to God in the salvation of great sinners. Paul’s answer to this imagined and yet very real objection is “by no means” or “may it never be”. He will then go on to explain why this is the case.

He then introduces an argument that sets this objection to rest. The argument has to do with our baptism and what it represented in our unity with Christ in his death and right. He writes in verse 3-4, “do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Christ’s Death to Sin

The death of Christ was the end of death, and therefore the end of sin. As we have just seen in our previous two texts, Jesus died so that through one act of righteousness sin may be defeated and death also may be defeated.

So we see that when Christ died, it accomplished the two things at once, since death and sin are linked with sin being the cause of death. Jesus died for our death just as much as he died for our sin, and in dying for our sins death was defeated. We cannot expect to be saved from eternal death and destruction in hell if we are not saved from our sin.

But for this to be applicable to us there needs to be some unity or participation in that death. Paul tells us that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. There is a unity in his death that we, by faith, partake in. As Christ died for sin, we are united in that death and we die to sin.

Our Unity in that Death

John Chrysostom says that “baptism is the Cross”, meaning that baptism for us is a likeness to the cross. Just as Christ died in his body as an atonement of sin, we are united spiritually in that death to our own sinful natures. Chrysostom goes on, “do you believe that Christ died and that he was raised again? Believe then the same of thyself.”

All Christ has is ours. His suffering is ours, his death is our death, his life our life, as we will soon explore. If you believe you are united with Christ, it is necessary that you believe you have died with him to sin, and likewise to the death is brings. If you are not united to Christ in this death, you will not be united with him in his life and death remains on you.

There is an inherent unity in sin and eternal death. The only escape is to be dead to that death and thus be dead to the sin that brings death.

So what shall we say to the argument “the more I sin, the more God is glorified by his grace in forgiving me, therefore I should sin more”? It is like saying, the worse the disease the greater the skill of the doctor is needed to cure it. It does not logically follow that I should then go back and get myself sick again. The whole point was to cure me of the disease and make me healthy, and the whole point of God’s work in justifying the ungodly is to make them godly.

Alive with Christ

Now, just as we are dead to our sin in Christ, we are made alive with Christ as well.

Again, Chrysostom says,

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 1.11: Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans Homily XI

For as His Body, by being buried in the earth, brought forth as the fruit of it the salvation of the world; thus ours also, being buried in baptism, bore as fruit righteousness, sanctification, adoption, countless blessings. And it will bear also hereafter the gift of the resurrection.

It is always a bad idea to take away a bad thing and replace it with nothing. In this case, if we hold that we are dead to sin, and yet we still live and are not eternally dead, what are we alive to? If it’s not sin, what is it? If we are dead to sin we must be alive to something else because Jesus did not stay dead but rose. If we were united in his death, we are certainly also united in his new life.

This is the great hope in the resurrection. There is a spiritual death and a spiritual life of which we partake, just as we will partake in a physical death and then physical resurrection. If spiritual death is marked by being alive to sin, spiritual life is marked by being alive to righteousness.

Replacing Sin and Death with Life

So not only must we be dead to sin, but that death is replaced by life; a life full of righteousness. To be alive in Christ means to live as he lives.

There are many Christians who seek to fight sin simply by clenching their knuckles and gritting their teeth. They usually meet with failure because they are approaching it all wrong. In fact, they are approaching it from the perspective of the law. Remember, the law was given that sin may abound and display its guilt so that grace may abound even more when someone comes to Christ. The sin is replaced by grace, not by our own pointless struggle with our sinful nature. We must claim our victory over sin at the cross and there find release from all shame, guilt, sin, and the spiritual remains of death.

So Christian, you who struggles with a sin that seems insurmountable. You are fighting as a dead man trying to live, as a paralytic trying to walk, as a blind man trying to see. You must rely on grace, and that means resting in the new life that is yours in Christ.

“Consider Yourselves Dead to Sin”

This leads us to the final point Paul’s makes for us tonight down in Rom 6:11

Romans 6:11 ESV

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

This is a bit of a strange thing for Paul to saw on the surface. Paul just told us in verses 5-8 that we are united with Christ in his death by participating in a spiritual death of our own. Now he tells us to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ. What does this mean?

It should not be seen as imagine, as if it really weren’t true, but it tackles things from a subjective perspective. Since this is true, consider it to be true. Change the orientation of your life to reflect that it is true. Think that its true. Feel that its true. Have a personal mindset that is oriented towards this truth.

The word consider here means to keep a mental record of something for the sake of future action (L&N). What Paul is telling us to do is keep in mind this truth and keep it in mind. Let it not pass from your conscious thought at any point of the day. Live with that record of truth always before you.

And what is that truth? It is what we must remember and consider. The fact is that we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Dead to sin means dead to both its power and its works. Ironically, the first step to defeating sin in your life is to realize it is already defeated. Death to sin and life in God is not something you in your flesh can reach, it is something that you, if you are in Christ, have already obtained. That the justification by faith we have been talking about.

Alive to God means alive to righteousness. Alive in the sense that we have now had our nature changed from that of Adam to that of Christ. The consequence of this is a life full of the works of Christ and a righteous life that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

So we see that our calling to go against sin and refrain from it is not a call to try harder, its a call to rest in the thought of who you really are and when that thought really penetrates your heart you will live a righteous life. This is the necessary fruit of faith, it cannot be conjured by human effort, it cannot be replaced or excused, it must be present because all who are in Christ Jesus are in him whole and complete.

This doesn’t mean sanctification as a gradual process is not taking place, nor does it mean we are completely sinless in this life. What it does mean is that this death and new life must be considered and believed, and if it is believed it is acted upon.

There is no such thing as a faith without works. There’s no such thing as a faith that doesn’t crush sin at every opportunity. That kind of faith doesn’t exist. It amuses me watching Catholic and Eastern Orthodox talk about Protestants as if we don’t believe this. Works are incredibly important. Ceasing to sin is necessary for salvation, I’ll even go that far. It doesn’t save you, but it is a necessary outcome of justification and the faith that justifies. In fact, you can tell the difference between a faith that saves and a faith that does not save based on whether that faith produces works or not. Confession of sin and repentance are necessary parts of our growth into this righteous person that we are already seen as in the eyes of the Father. You must work, and work hard, if you are to follow in the footsteps of Christ into that death and new life. You must consider yourself dead to what is old and alive to what is new.

Ephesians 4:1–3 ESV

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

He goes on

Ephesians 4:17 ESV

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

Why must we not walk that way anymore?

Ephesians 4:18–24 ESV

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

These are words we should meditate on carefully. God calls us to a new life, that is why he has given us new life in the life of Christ. This conforms us into something we were not before, something that proves grace has done its work, and that is holiness.

Hebrews 12:14 ESV

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

It is important for us to view not just justification as our salvation, but the entire process of putting our sin to death and being brought back to life in Christ.

Conclusion

And that is our real calling as Christians. You need to be rooted in the belief that you are a new person alive in Christ. Does someone who believes that go ahead and sin freely? Absolutely not. Does the grace which overcomes sin give us the go ahead to more sin? Absolutely not. God has something greater for us than a life of sin which leads to death, and that is a life of holiness provided through Christ’s work and through the Spirit in us, to make us living beings in Christ. See your new life not as a prison which you are to lock yourself into until your flesh eventually gets frustrated enough and breaks out, but consider it a freedom that you already have access to if you consider yourself this way.

My brothers and sisters, we all struggle in many ways. But God has granted us justification apart from works so that we may be holy as he is holy in his new Life. Meditate on that. Use that as ammo against the devil and your flesh. Remember that these temptations are rooted in dying desires for a dying world. But you are not destined to such a death. You have life, and so walk in that life.