Dead to Sin

I’ve mentioned before that Paul anticipates objections to his teaching in this letter. It’s a method he uses in teaching. After giving so much attention to how we are saved he knows objections are coming. He has heard them before. The objection he deals with here is “If we are saved by grace why not sin so that we can get more grace?”

Paul begins to explain the practical part of justification. Justification is not merely a legal transaction. It is also a transformation.

v. 1 The question:

“Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound?”

The legalists used this to accuse Paul of false teaching.

The antinomians used this to excuse their ungodly living.

It’s amazing that two heresies that were polar opposite developed from this one truth that we are saved by grace.

v. 2 What an awful thing to say! “By no means” or “May it never be!”

Paul asks the question “How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

That’s his short answer to the question.

His point is that it’s not logical that people who are dead to sin would live in it. He’s going to explain how we died to sin in a moment. But for the moment let’s deal with what is at hand.

The believer is dead to sin.

If you are dead to something you cannot live in it.

We are either spiritually alive or dead. We cannot be both. If we are spiritually alive it is because we have died to sin.

2 Cor. 5:17- We are new creations. This does not suggest the believer never sins. It means we have died to an old way of life. The life of sin we loved, embraced, justified is gone. We died to it.

Illutration: An old song called “the old man is dead”

If you only think of your salvation in positional terms you are missing it. Those whom God declares righteous are moved from death to life and will reveal that by the way they live.

v. 3 “Do you not know?” This is basic knowledge for the Christian.

“baptized into Christ”

When you were saved you were immersed into Jesus. You are now in Christ. Paul isn’t talking about water baptism here. He’s going to use water baptism as an analogy of salvation in verses 4-5. Water baptism doesn’t place you in Christ.

Spirit baptism places us in Christ (1 Cor. 12:13).

Galatians 3:27 - For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

“baptized into his death”

Jesus died for sin. The believer dies to sin (the power, the love of). This is the result of being united to Christ.

v. 4- 5 Here we see Paul using the analogy of water baptism to teach us what happened when we were saved.

Let me interject something. The reason Paul so closely relates baptism with salvation is because it was not a common thing at all for first century believers to refuse baptism. That was unheard of. When a person was saved, they were baptized. In an attempt to assure people that salvation is not by works I am afraid that some have discarded the importance of being baptized.

If you are saved you should be baptized. God uses your baptism to teach you and others wonderful truths of what happens when God saves a person.

“We were buried with Him by baptism into His death”

Burial is the proof of death. It’s the ultimate confirmation a person had died. Dead and buried means dead forever.

When you go under the water it symbolizes death. Jesus died and was buried. Your baptism pictures your death and burial with Him. You are identifying with Christ.

In 5:12-21 Paul argued we were all dead in Adam. Our baptism signifies we have moved from Adam to Christ. He is our head. He is our representative.

By virtue of your first birth, you were in Adam.

By virtue of your second birth, you are in Christ.

Our burial also symbolizes death to an old way of life. We are not living by our old nature any longer. We are living by the nature Christ has given us.

There is a finality about death. When you are baptized you are finished with the old life.

“in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead”

We were buried with Christ in His death so that we can be resurrected like Christ was.

We were buried as sinners. We rose as Christians. That is what salvation does. It transforms us into new people.

“we too might walk in newness of life” Through the new birth we have the power to walk with God. A new life means a righteous life.

John MacArthur says:

As Christ’s resurrection life was the certain consequence of His death as the sacrifice for our sin, so the believer’s holy life in Christ is the certain consequence of his death to sin in Christ.

v. 5 “united with Him in a death like His” This does not mean:

We suffered on a cross

Experienced the wrath of God

We are united with the death of Christ by faith. God counts Christ’s death on the cross as our death. We didn’t die on the cross and experience the wrath of God. It is as if we had. Just as it were as if we had committed the sin of Adam in the garden, it’s as if we had accomplished all Christ did in His death. Our union with Christ in His death assures our union with Him in His resurrection.

v. 6 “We know” again this shows common knowledge.

“our old self was crucified” The old self is the unsaved man. He went to the cross with Jesus.

What was the purpose?

“that the body of sin might be brought to nothing” In other words the sinful nature no longer has any control over you. It cannot dictate your actions.

“that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” When the old man can no longer control you, you are no longer enslaved to it.

Paul explains the crucifying of the old self in Colossians 3:9-10:

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Who we were before we were saved is dead. The problem is we are dealing with flesh that knows what sin tastes like. Because we have tasted the forbidden fruit of sin, we are weak. We are still dealing with a corrupted body.

v. 7 The good news we are set free from sin. Because we died with Christ sin no longer has authority over us. The worst thing sin can do is kill. Christ died for our sins. He took the worst sin had to offer. He rose again. The believer died with Christ, and we have spiritually resurrected. Sin can do nothing else to us. It has no control over us any longer.

v. 8 We know that we are going to live with Christ someday because we died with Him. Paul speaks of our victory over sin and death through Christ.

v. 9 This is a wonderful verse. Jesus rose from the dead in a unique way. He is not like Lazarus who rose and died again. He rose and will never die again. Death has no power over Him. We have the same hope. Death has no dominion over us. We, like Jesus, will die. We will not stay dead. When we rise again and receive our glorified bodies, they will not be like the bodies we have now. These bodies are tainted with sin. Our new bodies will be free from sin. We will never die again.

v. 10 Christ died to sin.

He was not a sinner, so what does this mean? Christ died to deal with sin.

He dealt with its penalty.

He dealt with its power.

His death for us frees us from both the penalty and power of sin.

“the life He lives He lives to God” When Christ rose from the dead He continued to live for the glory of God. Even now He is our faithful High Priest. In the same way, the believer is to live for God.

In summary, there is are two major things accomplished through the work of Christ on the cross.

1) We are declared righteous through the work of the cross.

2) We are set free from the power of sin through the cross.

The old hymn Rock of Ages illustrates this truth:

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee; let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure; save from wrath and make me pure.

It is a foolish position to hold that believers can live in sin because they are saved by grace. It is not logical. It is not Biblical.