Romans Sermon #65 March 7, 2010

What Do You Mean. . . I Have Died To Sin?
Romans 6:1-7

On January 21, 2008, 81-year-old Feliberto Carrasco's family members found his lifeless, cold, and stiff body in his home in Chili. Believing he was dead, they called the funeral home who came and took his body away. He was dressed in his best suit and placed in a beautiful coffin and transported to the wake where right in the middle of the festivities, he sat up very much alive and very very thirsty. Once he was given a glass of water and was able to talk, he told his family that as he came to and realized everyone thought he was dead—he simply couldn't believe he was really dead because he was craving water so badly--but on the other hand, couldn't understand if he wasn't really dead why he was in this coffin?

Well, many of us have the same problem this man did—we too are having a real problem understanding and believing that as the Bible says—we have died to sin because many times it seems like we are craving sin so badly. Today we are going to be talking about this very subject--”What does Paul mean when he says we have died to sin.” So turn with me to Romans 6:1-7 and let's begin.

As we begin, let me warn you—you are going to be tempted to check out on me, thinking, this is way too heavy, too deep, and too complicated? Just tell me that Jesus loves me and that everything is going to be fine. But don't check out—try to stay with me and you will put down some deep roots into the solid ground of God's Word that will give you the solid footing you need to fight sin.

Notice that in Romans 6, before we ever get to the practical application of actually fighting sin in verses 12-23, we are told in verse 11 that we must believe what God has said is true of us. And the problem most of us have is we don't know what God says is true of us and since we obviously can't believe what we don't know—we really can't effectively fight sin. So, in order to live the Christian life the way it is designed to be lived and enjoyed so as to see God get the glory and us the joy—let's learn what God says is true of us in regard to sin now that we are saved.

The "we" Paul is referring to in Romans 6:2 are Christians - that is, truly justified believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. So the question we need to ask is: What does it mean that all believers have died to sin and thus are not able to continue in it?

Grammatically speaking, the word Paul uses in verse 2 for “died” is an aorist tense verb which is referring to an action that has already occurred “once and for all”. It is not referring to an action that is repeated but rather an action that occurred once and will not ever occur again in the believer's life. So, we need to find out--in what sense did the believer die once and for all to sin.

Now it is also important to note that Paul uses the definite article with the word sin. In using the definite article “the” with the noun “sin”, Paul is making the point that it is not that the believer has “died to sin in general” but rather he has died to “the sin”. In other words, he, in using the definite article, is not simply talking about “sin” or “a sin”, or “sins”. Rather, he is talking about a very particular and very specific “sin”--which he is identifying as “the sin”. And if we were to trace the antecedent of “the sin” back to its source we would find that “the sin” Paul is referring to in Romans 6:2 is “the sin” he was referring to in Romans 6:1 and which is referred to back in Romans 5:21; 5:20; and 5:12, which is the verse Paul began his discussion on “the sin of Adam” that threw the whole human race into its condition of sinful depravity and hostility toward God so that the human race was condemned to both spiritual and physical death.

Now, let's go back to Romans 5:12 and begin there so as to understand what Paul is referring to when he makes the assertion that all true believers have died to “the sin”. In Romans 5:12, Paul begins a section of teaching in which he makes the point that before our salvation we were in union with Adam and thus in union with Adam's sin in the Garden of Eden. However, in salvation—that union with Adam and with his original sin is broken and the believer is placed in union with Christ as well as in union with His activity of conquering Adam's sin on the cross of Calvary.

So, in Romans 5:12, Paul makes the point that through Adam, “the sin” entered the world. Furthermore, through the entrance of “the sin” into the world—death or as it is literally rendered, “the death” also entered the world and spread to all men.
Now, this “death” is primarily referring to “spiritual death” that produces or results in physical dying and ultimately physical death.

Then in Romans 5:13, Paul says that from Creation until the Law was given through Moses—sin was in the world. Now here, he does not use the definite article thus, he is referring to man's sinful motives, attitudes, actions, and words rather than Adam's original sin.

Now the reason why “sin” was in the world and really characterized the world was because it came about as the result of Adam's first sin in the Garden of Eden. In other words, Adam's sin as the “head” or “representative” of the whole human race, resulted in and still results in people sinning so that we do not become sinners by sinning—we sin because we are sinners—and in fact were born sinners. But note that Paul's point is that even though man sinned from the time of Creation until Moses—his sin was not imputed to him or counted against him or recorded so as to be held against him for the simple reason that there was no law in place to hold him accountable.

Now look at Romans 5:14. Here, Paul says, that nevertheless, even though man's individual and personal sins from the time of Creation until the Law was given in the days of Moses were not imputed against them—they still died. In fact, Paul writes, that “the death reigned over them”. And the reason why they died—in other words, suffered the consequence of Adam's sin, which produced “the death” or “the reign of death” is because they were seen by God as having been in union with Adam even though they were not physically in the Garden of Eden. In other words, God saw all people as in Adam and as doing what Adam did when he chose to sin against God.
And thus, since God saw us as being in union with Adam when Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden—God attributed to every single human being that has ever lived “the sin” of Adam as well as the consequences of that sin which is “spiritual death”. And the proof that this is true is that everyone dies.

But then Paul takes us to Romans 5:15-17, and explains that just as when we were in union with Adam—Adam's sin was our sin and his consequences were our consequences when we come to Christ for salvation—we are placed in union with Christ so that He and His work on our behalf is attributed to us so that we can be saved from the consequences of Adam's sin—which was that we all became condemned sinners who enjoyed sinning.

Finally, he gets us to Romans 5:18-21, where he simply makes the point that those who have been saved by faith—have been placed in union with Christ and in this union with Christ have been made righteous in God's sight (v. 19) and placed under the reign of grace (v. 21) so that just as “the sin” used to reign in “the death”, “even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Don't miss the significance of Paul's point in verse 21 when he states that “the sin reigned in the death.” In essence, what he is saying is that the power of original sin or of the sin of Adam which was attributed to all people was derived from the fact that it caused the spiritual death of all people before they were ever born and that this spiritual death of which all people were included in resulted in them all sinning and then eventually all dying as well. Hebrews 2:14-15 makes the point that the devil, who tempted Adam to commit this original sin was the one who possessed this power of “the death”, which enslaved everybody through fear.
But, it also makes the point that the devil's power and thus “the sin's” power over spiritual death was broken and rendered totally powerless through Jesus Christ's death on the cross in our place and on our behalf. In other words, in the true believer's life, the old reign of “Adam's sin” which produced “complete spiritual death” has been destroyed and replaced by a new authority and a new reigning power in and over our lives and that is God's grace, which reigns in our lives through the power of Christ's righteousness that because it was imputed to our accounts guarantees to us not only spiritual life but eternal life.

And thus, Paul's point in Romans 6:2 is that when we came to Christ Jesus for salvation by faith in Him and in His finished work at Calvary—we died to “Adam's original sin” and “the spiritual death”, Adam's sin had produced in us so that it no longer has any effect or impact upon us. By virtue of the fact, that we were separated from Adam and placed in spiritual union with Christ—Adam's sin and the resulting spiritual death that took the form of hostility toward God and a love of rebellion toward God was removed from us so that we are no longer in the position of being estranged from God, being hostile to God, and being the unreconciled enemy of God.

In essence, when we came to Christ for salvation and were justified by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone—we died to the curse and the consequences of our old position in Adam. And thus we are no longer identified with his original sin and thus are no longer under the condemnation and effects of spiritual death—which can best be described as complete separation from God. You see, just as when a person dies physically—there is a complete break with the realm in which we live here on earth, so to, when we died to “the sin”--there was a complete break with the realm in which we once lived and with the ruler we once served which was “the sin”. And thus, Paul's point in Romans 6:2, when he writes: “How shall we who died to the sin still live in it?”--is simply that—if you are a truly saved person, God has produced such a complete break with your old condemned position and condemned standing before Him that it would be impossible for you to still live as though you were in that old condemned position and standing before God. Furthermore, in your salvation, God, in essence, crucified who you were before salvation with Christ so that not only have you died to your old position as a condemned sinner before God--but who you were as that condemned sinner died with Christ on the cross and then you were raised with Christ as a brand new uncondemned and spiritually alive person who while still bothered by and antagonized by “the sin” is no longer under its control or condemnation.

This is what Paul is telling us in Romans 6:3-7. Using baptism as the picture of our complete union with or immersion into Christ and all that Christ did and accomplished at Calvary—Paul tells us that when we were saved—we were in essence immersed into Christ so much so that we were seen by God as being in complete union with Him so that what was true of Him on the cross is true of us. So that, when Christ died—who we were before salvation died (Rom. 6:3). So that, when Christ was buried—who we were before salvation was buried with Him (Rom. 6:4a). So that, when Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of God, we too were raised as “new creations” in Christ Jesus, who can now enjoy a qualitatively new and different life than we used to live as those who were slaves to “the sin” (Rom. 6:4b-6).

What Paul is saying in verse 6 is that whereas sin is still alive and well—its power, which is huge has no viable connection to you any longer because the “old man” it used to be connected to is dead. The “old man” is not merely referring to our Adamic nature or our old nature but rather to a person--”the person we were in our unsaved state in union with Adam and who therefore lived life under the tyranny of sin and death”. So, when you were saved, what was crucified with Christ was not merely a part of you called 'your old nature', but the whole of who you were before you were saved. And the old you was crucified with Christ so that “the body of sin” might be done away with.

That phrase, “done away with” is the Greek word katargeo, which means: to make something idle or to cause something to cease. It has the idea of a permanent cessation of power. In other words, whereas God did not remove the presence of sin from you when you were saved—He so completely cut off its connection to you that it has no real power over you at all. One way to illustrate it would be to get into a car with a standard transmission and push the clutch and the gas pedal all the way to the floor at the same time. As long as you do not take your foot off the clutch all you are going to experience is an awful lot of noise because as long as that clutch is pushed all the way to the floor the potential power being generated by the gas pedal being pushed all the way to the floor is not able to engage the transmission and start it moving. And whereas the reving of the engine is loud, obnoxiously irritating, scary, and makes you feel like the car is in control—as long as there is no connection between the engine and the transmission—that car is not going anywhere.

Well, that is what happens to you as a saved person—whereas sin is present in you—all it can do is make a lot of noise—but it has no power over you—and thus you are no longer a “slave to it”.

Thus, as Romans 6:7 restates—the person who has died is freed from “the sin”.
And here in verse 7, we have the best answer for what Paul means when he says that the true believer has died to sin—it simply means we have been freed from it in the sense that we have been freed from its penalty which condemned us to spiritual death as well as its power which blinded us to the fact that God could be enjoyed far more than sin.

Finally, we were freed from sin's identity, which had become our identity as unregenerate, unsaved, and eternally condemned sinners. Listen, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ—that is—you have trusted and are trusting in Him alone for the forgiveness of your sins—then you have been freed once and for all from all this and furthermore you have been freed from sin's ability to destroy, ruin, compromise, or diminish your standing and acceptance with God and thus, your assurance of His continued love and grace toward you.

You are completely out of sin's reach and thus cannot ever live under its penalty, power, or identity again. It is impossible. Sin still has the ability to antagonize, irritate, tempt, and otherwise try to deceive you into thinking it can defeat you but that is as far as its ability goes—it cannot ultimately defeat you for you have been freed from the worst it could ever do to you—which is to separate you from the love of God. Which is why, by-the-way, that Paul ends this whole section way down the road in Romans 8:31-39.

In other words, before calling us to fight our personal sin—Paul assures us that irregardless of how well the battle goes for us—we are still more than conquerors in Christ Jesus our Lord—and thus we can engage this enemy knowing we cannot lose or be separated from Him Who is the greatest treasure and pleasure in life—God Himself.