Episode 277: Dead to Sin | Dave Sloop

Introduction

We are in Romans chapter six today. If you have a Bible with you, you can go ahead and open that up and follow along. We're gonna be in verses one through six.

I wanted to just share a couple things about the book of Romans. Romans is obviously, to many of us, written by the Apostle Paul, who was the most prolific author of the New Testament scriptures, and this is unquestionably his chief work. Martin Luther said about the book of Romans that it is the most important piece of the New Testament, the purest gospel, and the believer would do well not only to memorize it word for word, but to interact with it daily as if it were bread for the soul.

It was Martin Luther's understanding of this epistle that led to his 95 theses that he famously nailed to the castle church in Wittenberg. He nailed them to the door, and it sparked the Protestant Reformation. It is not an exaggeration to say that we would probably not be gathered here today if it were not for Paul's letter to the church at Rome.

And before we jump into what we're gonna be looking at today in chapter six, I wanted to provide some context to tell us what Paul has said so far in these first five chapters.

In Romans one and two, in the first part of chapter three, Paul is dealing with the problem of sin and he doesn't mince words; he's pretty clear about it. He says, there is no one righteous, no, not one. Neither Jew nor Gentile has escaped the condition of sin. He says later in chapter three, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

He goes to great lengths to make sure that the church at Rome understands just how deep the problem of sin goes. If you've ever been shopping for a diamond, likely the jeweler will take that diamond out and they'll put it against a black piece of fabric. The reason they do that is because the diamond is more beautiful against the contrast of that black fabric. Sin is the black backdrop against the beauty of the cross of Jesus Christ. We have to understand the depths of our depravity if we will ever understand the magnificence of the gospel.

And so Paul here is talking about the pervasiveness of sin, and it's pervasive in a couple of ways. Number one, it's pervasive throughout all of history and all of humanity. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But it's pervasive in a more profound way, and our personal lives bear this out. Sin is pervasive in each individual heart. Every thought, every word, every deed, every motive is run through and laced with sin.

And Paul is gonna tell us that because of this condition, what we have earned for ourselves is condemnation. The picture is we're standing before a righteous, holy, good God, and we are guilty. We have no defense. We deserve his wrath. We deserve the punishment.

But thankfully, beginning in the second part of chapter three and in four and five, Paul is gonna build his case for God's solution to the problem of sin. And if there's gonna be a solution to sin, by the way, it has to start with God. Because the Bible is very clear that we, in our sin, will never take a step towards God. We are dead in our sins. Our nature is to turn from him. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. We will not move towards God.

And so if there is to be any redemption for humanity, it must start and finish with God. And so Paul will tell us in Romans 3:23–24, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace. Through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus, we have been justified.

That word means to be declared righteous. Again, we're in the courtroom; we are guilty, but instead of getting the punishment that we deserve, instead we get acquitted. God extends mercy to us. And the question becomes, on what basis are we justified? It does not say that we are righteous. It does not say that we are just. It says that we have been justified. We are declared righteous. It's in the passive voice; it has been done to us. It’s a title that is bestowed upon us.

Listen again to what Paul says: You're justified freely by His grace. We are justified by grace, the unmerited favor of God. Perhaps Paul says it even more clearly in Ephesians 2:8–9, where he says, it is by grace you have been saved. And listen to how far Paul goes to make sure we understand we had nothing to do with it: It is by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. We have been saved by grace. The undeserved, unearned, unmerited favor of God. It was nothing we did, nothing that we did, but God who is rich in mercy.

Because the great love with which He loved us made us alive in Christ even while we were dead in our transgressions. As one of my mentors used to say, the only thing you contributed to your salvation is that you sinned. That's all we did. The rest was up to Him.

We have been justified. This is the doctrine of justification. And when you understand that doctrine, it leads to some questions, and maybe you've heard these before. Maybe someone has said to you, are you telling me that no matter what I've done in my past, if I trust in Christ, I will be forgiven of my sins? And Paul would say to that person, it's better than that. It's not just your past, but your present and your future sins too.

Remember I said that sin is pervasive, the gospel is more so. Paul would put it this way in Romans 5: where sin increased, grace increased all the more. I was on Young Life staff for a number of years and used to have the opportunity to speak at camp in the summers. And on the night that we would talk to the kids about the cross of Jesus, I would say this to them: no matter how far you have wandered, His love has gone farther. You cannot out-sin the grace of God. The cross covers it all.

This was a scandalous idea, and it was met with tremendous criticism in Paul's day. It was a logical assumption that people would make. Here's what they said: if you teach this to people, they are going to think that they can do whatever they want and God's still going to forgive them. See, if there's no fear of hell, if they're not constrained by fear, then they're just gonna do whatever they want. Grace is going to lead to a reckless and rebellious life, and that is what Paul is dealing with in Romans six. It's the question he's answering. The question is what does grace produce in the life of the believer? Will it lead to recklessness or will it lead to righteousness?

And this is what Paul is going to answer starting in Romans six.

The Relationship of Grace and Sin

Should have had that marked. Romans six starting in chapter one, here we go. He says, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? This is the question I already introduced. It's what he said in Romans 5:20, where sin increased, grace increased all the more. And so Paul anticipates the question, and he says, does that therefore mean that people who accept grace are just gonna do whatever they want?

See, this was not just a hypothetical; this was actually a question that people were asking. And here's Paul's response to it in verse two: by no means. In other words, no chance. That is not what happens. We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? He says, we died to sin. Now depending on the translation that you have, it might say something different. The King James version says, we are dead to sin. The NIV 2011 says, we have died to sin. And I'm reading from the NIV 84, and I think the ESV says it this way too: it says, we died to sin. Now, none of those is wrong, but one of them is more right. And it might sound like an insignificant detail, but it's an important distinction to make.

To say that we are dead to sin speaks to our present condition. The focus is on the present, on the now, and it's not untrue, but it's not what Paul wrote. To say that we have died to sin is also not untrue, but it could give the impression of something that isn't true. It could give us the impression that to die to sin is a process through which we have now passed and is finally complete. We have died. It is not what Paul wrote. Paul wrote, we died. That verb to die is written in what's called the aorist tense, which always conveys a single act completed in the past.

Paul says, we died. Something happened. We are not the same. Will the person who experiences grace in verse one continue to sin? Verse two, he won't because something has changed. I think I may have told you before that my first year after college, I lived in Denton, Texas, for a year and studied the Bible under a man named Tommy Nelson. And when he got to the book of Romans chapter six, verse two, he said, I want you to write the word fact next to verse two. He said, this is not a command, but a fact. He said, this is not Paul telling you how you're supposed to live; this is Paul telling you who you are. You are not who you used to be. You died to sin. Thank God, amen.

You died.

My youngest daughter, Claire, she's six years old, and her favorite book, we probably do this twice a week, her favorite book to read at night is called The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Anybody ever read that? It's a great book about a little caterpillar starts out as a tiny egg on a leaf and then it hatches and it's hungry. And it starts out healthy, eats an apple on Monday, Tuesday a couple of pears, Wednesday three strawberries and by Saturday, the sinful nature completely gives in, and this caterpillar is just eating all kinds of junk food: cake, cupcakes, lollipops, gets sick. But then on Sunday, we read this: It was no longer a tiny caterpillar. It was no longer a hungry caterpillar. It was a big fat caterpillar. And so it built a house called a cocoon around him, and stayed inside for more than two weeks. And then he nibbled a hole in the side and pushed his way out, and he was a beautiful butterfly. It's a great story; it never gets old.

The question is, how does that caterpillar become a butterfly? He did not hire a coach, read a book, or take a class. The answer is he died. He crawled inside the cocoon, the tomb, and he died. You know, scientifically, is effectively what happens. He goes inside, he sheds his old body, his organs dissolve, and somehow, out of this miracle, something entirely new emerges with a new genetic makeup and new power and ability.

He went from caterpillar to butterfly. The question, can a caterpillar become a butterfly? I'm sorry, can a butterfly become a caterpillar again? It cannot. Can the butterfly crawl around in the dirt? It can, but it doesn't make it a caterpillar. It makes it a butterfly who forgot who he was.

Can a Christian who has experienced grace continue in sin? He can't. He is not what he used to be. He might crawl around the dirt every once in a while because he forgets he has wings, but he's not the same thing. He's been transformed. And you know this word transform that Paul uses later in Romans 12? You know what the Greek word for that is? Metamorpho, which is where we get the word metamorphosis—the process of going from a caterpillar to a butterfly. You are not the same. If you are in Christ, we died to sin. This is not a command; it's a fact. Verse two is Paul's answer to verse one.

In verses three, four, five, and six, is this explanation of what that means—how and why did it happen and what are the implications?

In verse three he says this, don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Now Paul's gonna use that word baptism three times in two verses, but this is not a passage about sacramental water baptism. The word baptized means to immerse, to be fully wet. The focus of this verse is into Christ.

Paul is saying, you have been baptized, have been immersed, you have been submerged into his life.

In verse four, he's gonna use a slightly different word, or verse five, he says, you've been united together. The literal translation is you've been planted together. The idea is that of a shoot being planted down and growing up into the original. It's the process of grafting in.

What Paul is saying here is you are in Christ, and what is true of him is now true of you. His past has become your past. His future has become your future. All of the blessings coming to Christ will flow to you also. He is the Son of God. You are in Christ. You've been given the right to be called a child of God with all the benefits.

He's righteous, and you're in Christ. So when God looks on you, he sees you clothed in his righteousness, and you're declared righteous. Specifically here in this verse, Paul says, you have been baptized into his death. You get the benefits of his death.

What was the death of Christ? It was a death unto the penalty of sin. Paul says, you are in Christ. It's almost as if you were nailed to the cross with him, and you brought your sin, and because of that, your sin was crucified and paid for on the cross. We get forgiveness of sins. We're in Christ; we get the benefits of his death.

But Paul says that's not all. In verse four, he says this: we were therefore 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.

Paul says, you don't just get the benefits of his death; you get the benefits of his resurrection. He was raised from the dead, and you were too. Now, don't misunderstand. Paul is not saying that this is a metaphor or that this is instruction or a command. He's not saying, hey, in the same way that Jesus raised from the dead, you better live differently.

Paul is saying, this happened. Something changed. He died, you died. He raised, you raised. Caterpillar to butterfly, you have been transformed.

The prophet Ezekiel would put it this way: I’ll give you a new heart, I’ll give you a new spirit. And this is my paraphrase, but he essentially says, you are never going to obey me in your sin. I'm going to give you a spirit that will help. I will cause you to obey my commands because you're never gonna be able to do it on your own. He provides payment for the penalty of sin, and then he provides the power for us to live according to his decrees.

Can the Christian continue? Will the Christian live however he wants once he understands the doctrine of grace? It is the opposite. He can't continue in sin because he's not what he used to be. You get his death and you get the power of his life.

And Paul in verse five is going to make sure that we understand these two things are inseparable. He says in verse five, if we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

If you have experienced his death and the forgiveness of sins, Paul says this: certainly also. In other words, it necessarily follows that you will experience the power of his life. You will be transformed. There's no such thing as being forgiven of sins and then not having any resurrection power, life evidence in your life.

As Tommy Nelson used to say to us, no such thing in the Bible as conversion less Christianity. It just isn't in there.

I was on Young Life staff for nearly twenty years. We had this great tradition at Young Life Camp, where at the end of a week of camp, we give kids the opportunity to stand up if they've begun a relationship with Christ and to say so. And it's based off of Psalm 107:2: "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." And it's beautiful.

And over those nearly two decades, we saw thousands of kids proclaim new life in Christ. In fact, show of hands, how many of you have stood up at a "say so"? Some of us, okay. Less than I thought.

Anyway, it's remarkable. I mean, saw so many kids proclaim new life in Christ. But inevitably, here's what happens: there's a kid there that stands up, maybe they get caught up in the moment, and they say with their mouth that they have given their life to Christ.

But then they come home displaying zero evidence of that. No affection for God, they're not grieved over their sin, their attitude towards sin hasn't really changed. What would we say about that person? It's not really our place to judge. And the truth is, only God can see the heart. But I do think this: Paul would not put a ton of confidence in that conversion.

Paul would say there's no such thing as being forgiven without seeing the evidence of his resurrection transformational power in your life. Because you've been given a new nature. The things that you used to love, now hate. And the things that you used to hate, you now love. You're different. You're not the same.

And now that Paul has sufficiently communicated that we are identified both with his death and his life, he's going to remind us what our relationship with sin is. Not what it should be, but what it is. This is a fact.

Romans 6:6 says this: 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.

Paul says, here's our new reality. The old self, crucified, done away with. He would say it this way in Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. That's identification with his death. And then he says, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. That is his resurrection. He's in me.

I have a new power. And Paul says, as a result, therefore, I am no longer a slave to sin. What's the implication? I used to be. When? Before I was in Christ, I had a different nature. My heart was oriented in a different way.

In fact, the Bible is pretty clear that we must obey our sin nature before we are in Christ. It's our instinct and our impulse to obey its urges and desires because we have a sin nature. That's our old self.

Paul said that's not who we are anymore. We are no longer slaves to sin. Now I want to anticipate a question that you might be asking and that I have asked many times in my life, and the question is this: how come it still feels like I'm a slave to sin? How come I still so easily give in to these urges and desires if I'm set free? Truthfully, if I'm free from sin, why do I keep doing it?

That's an important question. Before I answer it, let me make sure that we understand what Paul did not say. Paul did not say that our old self was crucified so the body of sin might be done away with so that we would never sin again. Thank God that that is not what Paul said because none of us would have a testimony that reflects that. That's not what he said.

In 1 John, we read, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

The rest of Romans 6 and 7 is all about the believer's struggle with sin. Paul's gonna say, don't let sin reign in your mortal bodies, meaning it's possible for that to happen, even though you've been set free, don't let it reign.

In chapter 7, he's gonna say, the good stuff that I know I'm supposed to do, I don't do it, and yet the bad stuff that I shouldn't do, I keep doing that stuff. We struggle. Why do we struggle with sin?

In verse 11, Paul is gonna say, reckon yourselves dead to sin. Reckon yourselves dead, believe that you're dead to sin. And we might say to Paul, why do we have to consider that we're dead? If you told us in verse 2, we already died. If it's true, why do we have to kind of pretend or believe?

See, the battle of the Christian life is this: to be, in verse 11, what you already are, in verse 2. When Jesus died on the cross, he removed forever the penalty of sin. And when he rose from the dead, he destroyed forever the power of sin. And one day he will return, and he will forever deal with the presence of sin.

If you're in Christ, the penalty is removed and the power is destroyed, but the presence of sin remains. And this is where we live, and it's a battle to be what we already are.

On 01/01/1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that said that any persons held as slaves are and henceforward shall be free. They were declared free. It was eventually written into law in I think June 1865. They were declared free, but it took some time for the experience of that freedom to play out.

For two reasons, you would say. One, you had some evil masters that were intent on fighting against that declaration of freedom, that wanted to try to convince some other people that that proclamation was not true. You're actually not free. Is this sounding familiar? Do we have an enemy that wants us to believe that we're not free?

And then also, there were some slaves, some people who had lived their entire lives obeying an evil master. They weren't slaves anymore. But you see, their obedience to that master was impulsive, instinctive, and habitual. And it took some time for the truth of their freedom to be the experience of freedom.

And this is where we live too. We are no longer slaves. We are not under its power. That is not a command; it is a fact. It has no power over you if you are in Christ. And so we struggle.

Twenty years ago or so, there was a movie that came out called A Beautiful Mind. It was about a man named John Nash, who is a brilliant mathematician. He also battled schizophrenia. And when the movie opens, see John Nash interacting with these personalities that you think are real people. There's a guy named Charles, it's his best friend, serves as a companion and a tremendous comfort to John. Then you have this little girl that John is like an uncle to, and she adores him. She climbs up in his lap and it gives him a sense of purpose.

And then there's this FBI agent played by Ed Harris. And he is sending John, because of his intelligence, on these highly top-secret, important missions for the United States government. And it gives him a sense of significance and adventure.

See, all of these hallucinations were providing and meeting kind of a need for John, but one day he realizes that they're not real.

While those hallucinations, represented as friends in his life, were actually destroying his life. One day John realizes the truth that they aren't real and that they're destroying him.

The doctors tried to medicate John, but it kind of put him in a vegetative state. And so there's this scene where he sits down with his wife, and he just decides, give me a shot, let me try to live as if those things that I know are not true have no power over me anymore.

And so we see John at the end of his life, living out this new reality. And it's a battle at first, but he is victorious. And at the end of his life, John is receiving the Nobel Prize for mathematics.

And I want you just to watch about two and a half minutes. We're gonna go just a bit over. We're gonna watch two and a half minutes of this and see if you can see the correlation between his battle and ours. Let's watch.

Video plays.

Is this what you are, soldier? Some useless ghoul, the local madman? I'm no soldier. You're gonna end up in a cell, your own, worthless, discarded. There's no mission.

And while you rock and drool, the world will burn to ashes. You are not real. You are not real. You're still talking to me, soldier. There's no mission. Chung, man, you can't ignore me forever.

-Giles, you've been a very good friend to me. The best. I won't talk to you again. I just can't. Same goes with you, baby. Goodbye.

What about the, well, you know, are they gone? No. They're not gone. Maybe they never will be. But I've gotten used to ignoring them, and I think as a result, they've kind of given up on me.

I think that's what it's like with all our dreams and our nightmares, Martin. We've got to keep feeding them for them to stay alive. I'll call from the car then. Bye bye. Bye bye.

Are you ready to go now? Yes, I am. Yes, indeed. Yes, please. Thank you so much. Thank you. What's wrong? Nothing. Nothing at all.

I get chills every time I watch that series of clips, because I think that is exactly what sin life is like in the life of the believer. And we can be victorious like that. Its penalty is removed, its power is broken, and though its presence remains, we are no longer slaves. We can look at it in the face and say, I'm not gonna talk to you anymore.

And it feels like a battle. But what would it be like if we left here today and lived as if we were true? The battle for us will be to be what we already are: set free from sin. This is your reality if you are in Christ.

Maybe some of you are here today and you've never trusted in Christ. Perhaps you've listened today and you thought, you know what, I am a slave to sin. And though it represented itself as a friend in your life, deep down, you know it is destroying you. You can know freedom today.

You, in a moment, can be baptized into Christ. And at an instant, you will have both the benefits of His death—forgiveness of sins—and a new life in Christ. We would invite you to do that today.

And for those of you who've heard this a long time ago, this has been true in your life for a while, but perhaps there are some of us here who are struggling like butterflies crawling around in the dirt because we forgot we had wings. God is not mad at you. In fact, it's His mercy that He drew you here today, that you might deal with your sin.

God wants us to be who we are. He already did all the work. We invite you to come and confess, get right with God. He's ready. As always, these curved rails will be for you, and the straight rails—there will be somebody who would love to pray with you. Don't miss this opportunity.

Let's pray.

Conclusion

Father, thank you for the reality and the truth that we are free. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are in Christ. We get His death. We get His life. We love You.

God, I pray that we would walk today in the freedom that has already been purchased for us. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.