Rom 6.1-14

Perception vs. Reality

Romans 6.1-14

We’ve come today to one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible. Anyone who has spent any time in church knows that there are certain things God expects us to do, and certain things he expects us not to do. He tells us what his character is like—what thoughts and attitudes and actions he finds lovely—and tells us to act like him. To go against what God says, either in thought or in act, is what we call sin. Whatever God tells us to do is good for us, will bring us more joy in him, because God created us to be like him. Jesus came to save us from our sin, and we have received his grace to be forgiven of this sin, and to live for him.

But all Christians learn very quickly that there is a kind of tug-of-war that starts to take place, between what God tells us to do and what we want to do. So we’ll quickly start to play games.

We read last week’s passage, Romans 5.12-21, in which Paul describes the effect of Adam’s rebellion against God, and how Christ’s life, death and resurrection are infinitely more powerful than the sin produced by Adam’s rebellion. Paul lays it on really thick. Just as Adam was a representative for all of humanity (his sin spreading to all of us who came after), Christ became a new representative for his people: he lived the life we should have lived, and he suffered the death we deserve, in our place. This, he did out of pure grace. And as big as our sin might seem, Jesus’s grace is always sufficient to cover it. Paul says in v. 20: where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

That is absolutely true. But halfhearted Christians love this verse, because it seems to give them a loophole. They’ll be tempted to sin, and they’ll remember that where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, and that will become in their minds a green light to give in to temptation.

Said like that, it sounds so twisted—and it is. But I guarantee a good number of us here have done it. We’ve seen something we want to do, even though we know that God says it is sinful and bad for us, and we think, Yeah, I shouldn’t, but…God will forgive me. We’ll even have our prayer for forgiveness formulated in our minds, ready to go, before we disobey him. And when it’s done we’ll pray, God, I’m sorry, I know that was sinful, please forgive me. Then we’ll stand up, and move on as if nothing happened, free in the knowledge that where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

This is the behavior Paul anticipates in today’s passage, and he will not let us get away with it. He’s going to show us why such behavior should be unthinkable for the Christian, by laying out our situation in three simple steps: we are united to Christ in his death; we are united to Christ in his life; so we are to live as he lives: dead to sin, and alive to God.

United to Christ in Death (v. 1-7)

Paul ended chapter 5 by speaking about how grace now reigns in our life through righteousness leading to eternal life. Every time sin seems to have the upper hand in our life, grace wins. Grace reigns. Grace covers our sin.

But Paul knows how tricky we can be, because he’s an imperfect human being too, and struggles with the same things we do. So he anticipates the kind of behavior we just talked about in v. 1:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

(Of course he means, “Will we keep sinning because we know God will forgive us?”) And of course the answer is obvious (v. 2):

2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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.

This concept of being “dead to sin” is a little hard to grasp, so I’m going to use a controversial picture Paul himself will come to in v. 6. He describes our relationship to sin as slavery: sin is the master, and we are the slaves. A slave-master only has power over the slave for as long as they are both living. If the slave dies, then of course the slave-master no longer has any power over him.

This is what Paul says happened to us when Christ died on the cross. When Christ died on the cross, God had already chosen to save us. He knew who we would be, and when he would give us faith, and how he would call us from death to life. So when Christ died on the cross, we were there with him (in a spiritual sense). We are united to Christ in his death (which we showed at our baptism). The sinful men and women we were before we met Christ are dead—dead and buried.

So here’s the question Paul asks, and it’s a good one: How can we who died to sin still live in it? It’s the kind of question you’d ask a five-year-old and say, “You see how that doesn’t make sense?” How can you die to sin, and still live in sin? We died to sin, so now we walk in newness of life.

But which life? Is it our present life on earth, or our eternal life with Christ? V. 5:

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

It’s easy to see v. 5, as well as v. 8 later on, as speaking about the promise that one day, Christ will return, and he will raise us from the dead to live forever with him. This promise is absolutely true…but that’s not the resurrection he’s referring to here. He’s talking about the resurrection that comes before that: the resurrection that happened to us when Christ was raised from the dead. If we have been united to Christ in death, we are united to him in resurrection too—today. Right now. No matter how we might feel, we are not the same people we once were.

This is easy to understand, but really hard to believe. Christ died because of our sin, and was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. When he saves us, his death is counted as our death, and his resurrection is counted as our resurrection. This is exactly what we celebrate at baptism: the person I was before is gone—he died on the cross with Christ two thousand years ago. And when Christ came out of the tomb three days later, so did I—a new creation.

Why? V. 6:

6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.

So here’s that image of slavery again. We were once slaves to sin, and it was very effective, because we didn’t even realize we were slaves. But our old self died with Christ on the cross, so that the sinful person I was—the “body of sin”—might be brought to nothing. If the slave dies, the slave-master can’t hurt him anymore.

We are united to Christ in his death—to sin, and for sin. The sinners we used to be are dead.

United to Christ in Life (v. 8-11)

But That’s only one side of the coin: by itself, that’s not enough. If a slave dies, sure, the slave-master has no more power over him, but it doesn’t matter much because the slave’s still dead.

But in this case, the slave-master died too. Our sin was burned up on the cross with Christ; God poured out all of his wrath against our sin.

The slave died, so the slave-master no longer has power over him.

The slave-master died, so he has no more power to exercise.

Then the slave was resurrected: freed, and no longer a slave. The slave-master, sin, remains where it belongs, in ashes at the foot of the cross.

We are not only, united to Christ in his death, we are also united to Christ in his resurrection. Which means that we are no longer slaves to sin. We have been set free. V. 8:

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

One of the profound truths of the resurrection is that Christ defeated sin, and he defeated death. If he had stayed dead, none of this would matter to us. But since he was raised, he showed that death can no longer have any impact on him. He was raised from the dead, and he will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion over him.

Now the logical conclusion to make here is that because death no longer has dominion over Christ, it no longer has dominion over us. And that’s true in a sense: when Christ returns, we will be raised, as he is raised, and we will live forever, as he lives forever.

But that’s not the parallel Paul’s trying to make here—he’s not talking about our physical death, but about our life. V. 8: if we died with Christ, we will also live with him. Not just later, in eternity, but now.

So you see, for the Christian, there are two resurrections. There’s the physical, bodily resurrection we will enjoy one day, when Christ returns. And there is the spiritual resurrection, in the here and now. It’s this spiritual resurrection Paul has in view here, and he uses Christ as an image of that—as an image of what happened to us when God saved us. V. 10 again: For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

During Jesus’s earthly life, we see him tempted to sin. He never gives in, but he definitely was tempted. We see it in the wilderness in Matthew 4 and Luke 4; and we see in Hebrews 4.15 that he was in every respect tempted as we are, yet without sin.

At his death, Christ died to this temptation—sin and death were defeated. Christ is no longer tempted to sin.

This death and resurrection Christ endured has been applied to us, and will be completed at his return. For now, we’re living in the middle. We are still tempted to sin; but as we saw before, now, sin is no longer our master. We can say no. We can resist. We can refuse to give in. Before, sin had power over us; now, it’s the other way around.

And this is why Paul says, in v. 11: So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

This is a verse that so many people struggle with, so we need to pay very close attention to the words he uses here. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Why does Paul say it like this?

He says it like this because even though everything he’s said up to now is true—even though the sinners we were before are dead, and our sin was crucified on the cross with Christ, and we have the power to refuse to give in to temptation—even though all this is true…very often it doesn’t feel that way. Often it feels like sin is irresistible, like it’s a ten-thousand-pound weight that’s been put on our shoulders, and we are unable to resist it. That’s how it feels.

But that’s not the truth.

This is particularly important to understand today, in our world which has adopted terms like “my truth”. “Speak your truth,” we say, as if whatever I happen to think or feel is actually what is true. This is a profound deformation of the way the world actually works. The way the world works is, some things are true, and other things are false. Sure, we can have differing opinions and feelings. But we don’t get to reorder facts as we want. If something happened, it happened, and our insisting otherwise doesn’t change that. I can be really and truly convinced that trucks don’t exist; if I go out and stand in the highway, firm in my conviction that trucks don’t exist, guess what? I’ll still get flattened by a truck.

That’s what Paul’s talking about here. He’s talking about real truth versus perceived truth.

We might feel like sin has power over us. But it’s not true. Everything Paul said before about what happened to us when Christ died on the cross is true. Sin no longer has power over us.

But Paul knows that often, it doesn’t feel that way. So he says, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

He’s telling us that in many instances, we are called to actively reject what we feel, because in that moment, what we feel isn’t true. It isn’t right. When we feel like a temptation is too great for us to resist, our feelings are lying to us. It’s certainly true that resisting temptation is difficult; sometimes incredibly difficult. But not impossible. We consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ because we ARE dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.

Living As Dead to Sin and Alive in Christ (v. 12-14)

This is the truth of who we are now. We have died with Christ. We have been raised with him. We are no longer under law, but under grace. This is the objective, literal truth of who we are now.

And so, because this is true, Paul turns to his application. I’m going to put it as simply and as brutally as possible: because we have died with Christ, because we have been raised with Christ, because we are no longer under law but under grace… Because these things are true, God calls us to stop sinning. V. 12:

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Most of the time people love when the Bible speaks clearly and leaves no room for interpretation or ambiguity. We like it less here, when he’s it’s talking about sin. People don’t like v. 12-14 because there is no way to get out of it. There is no wiggle room. There are no exceptions or conditions. Do not let sin reign in your body, to make you obey its passions.

Think about what this means for a minute. We all know that until Christ returns, we still struggle with sin; we are growing in our conformity to Christ every day, for the rest of our lives. And part of this is because we’re growing in our knowledge of God’s holiness; I remember a sister in Christ telling me that months after becoming a Christian, she’d still be surprised to read her Bible and discover that something she thought was “normal,” God actually calls sinful. The struggle was a lot more far-reaching than she realized—in fact, there is no corner of our lives that where this struggle doesn’t play out. If you are struggling with sin, that’s good news; that’s what you’re called to do.

The thing is, sometimes Christians stop struggling. Sometimes they find themselves committing the same sinful acts, over and over, and before long they don’t even care anymore. They find themselves doing the thing we talked about earlier: Yeah, but I really want to do this, and I know God will forgive me, so…

Every time that happens, it happens because we have taken the authority over sin that Christ has given to us, and we have given that authority back to sin. We’ve taken the shackles, put them back on our wrists, and given the chain back to our former master. We have presented our members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness.

It’s so important that we see this: the term “falling into sin” is a misnomer. We don’t “fall into sin.” We fall because of sin, but not into sin. If we sin against God, it doesn’t just happen to us; it’s not something we endure, it is something we initiate.

Remember what we saw last week: in Adam, we were unable to not sin; in Christ, we are able to not sin. In Christ, we have gotten our agency back; we have the freedom to choose.

So now, God calls us to make the choice.

Don’t let sin reign, he says; don’t present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. Instead, we are called to present ourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life (there it is again: consider yourselves dead to sin and alive in God), and to present our members to God as instruments for righteousness.

You see, it’s again a question of who we actually are: reality versus perception. When we see ourselves as we truly are, that radically changes what we allow ourselves to do.

For example: there are four main roles that define who I am. I’m a Christian, first and foremost, a disciple of Christ; I’m a husband; I’m a father; and all the way at the bottom of the list, I’m a pastor. Those four things define who I am, at least for as long as they’re all true of me. Given those realities—given those absolute, objective truths about who I am—there are certain things that I will no longer allow myself to do, not because they’re all necessarily wrong or sinful, but because they’re not coherent with the person I am.

Because I’m a father, I won’t allow my job as a pastor to penalize my children beyond what is healthy. I won’t answer church-related messages on my day off. We have Friday movie nights in our house; I won’t sacrifice those nights unless it is absolutely impossible to find another solution. I love you all deeply, but my kids get priority over you.

I’m also a husband. I have friends who are women, I have sisters in Christ. I can, and should, remain their friend, be thankful for them, and benefit from our relationship.

But because I am a husband, I will not take these women to dinner, just the two of us. I won’t go to their homes alone. I won’t pursue long, written conversations late at night after the rest of the family is in bed. There are some subjects about which I will not speak with them, even in a pastoral visit. If deeper conversations about sensitive subjects are required, I’ll either suggest they talk to a sister in Christ, or I’ll ask my wife to be present for those conversations.

Because I’m a pastor, sometimes I do have to have pastoral conversations with women. When these conversations take place, I’ll make sure it’s during the daytime, either in public or on the phone (or Zoom); and if it’s in the evening, I’ll want my wife to be in the room. I’ll have my headphones in, so she won’t hear half the conversation; but she’ll hear my side. In every case, it’s 100% unambiguous that we are here to talk about this thing. We’re not just enjoying each other’s company. If we want to do that, that’s fine—but my wife will be there.

You see, these are questions I don’t even need to ask anymore, because of who I am. I am a Christian, I am a husband, I am a father, I am a pastor. And because these things are true, there are certain situations that are just impossible for me now.

Who and what we are changes the things we allow ourselves to do. Some people don’t like that; it’s true that knowing who we are in Christ closes a lot of doors. But that’s fine: the doors that are closed because we are in Christ are, without exception, doors that we’d regret walking through. They’re things that will hurt us. And for those who do what Paul says here, and refuse to walk through those doors, they find incredible freedom from growing in Christ and doing what they were created to do.

Sin will no longer have dominion over you, Paul says, since you are not under law but under grace.

Under the law, sin is condemnable. The law is the thing by which we are declared guilty. Those who are under the law always stand condemned because their sin is always present and exposed before God.

But for those who are under grace, their sin is covered—more than that: it is crucified. Our sin no longer reigns over us. We are free.

The resounding call of this text is to become in practice what God says we are—to stop letting sin reign over us, to not present our members as instruments for unrighteousness, but to present ourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.

We can’t say God hasn’t told us what he expects of us, and he doesn’t mince words about it: DO NOT LET SIN REIGN. The tyrant has been deposed, he’s been removed from the palace, but he’s still standing on the street barking orders. But friends, we don’t have to obey his orders. Sin no longer has dominion over us.

You will occasionally forget this. If you do, remember the good news: you have died with Christ, and the life you live now, you live to God. You are not under law but under grace. But since you are under grace, if you sin, pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and remember what is true: consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This truth is who and what we are now.

So let us be what we are.