Dead to sin, Alive to God

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 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. 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. 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. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 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. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.- Romans 6:1‭-‬14 ESV

Rev. Charles Han

Why believers in Christ must change

People were questioning how grace works. If grace covers all of our sin, then what incentive does one have to change? Can we not just keep living as normal without changing? Paul says no, it cannot be. Not only can believers change, but they must change.

Believers are united with Christ. The term Christian only comes up three times in the Bible. Paul's favorite way of referring to believers is those who are "in Christ". The union of marriage points to our intimate union with Christ. So when we get married, we join a new family. We share burdens and joy. It is not longer me, but now us.

So for the believer, we go with Christ through Easter. We are dead in sin. We are raised to life. And we are joined to the heavenly family of God. Jesus is the head and we are the body. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. There is nothing a body can do without a head. There is nothing branches can do without a vine. So, this is how Christ works with those who are joined to Christ. A grafted branch cannot help but grow! Those who keep embracing sin likely are NOT joined to Christ.

Believers are dead to sin. We were dead in sin, but now we are dead to sin. This is in the past tense. What can this mean? We constantly feel the pull of temptation & the struggle to fight sin. Paul is speaking of the power of sin. We are no longer under the authority of sin. We are no longer in the death grip of sin. Jesus has died to sin, He is no longer subject to sin. Sin has been decapitated, but it is still struggling and fighting you. The body of sin at work in us still attacks us, but the head of sin is no more. The proof of salvation is the struggle for righteousness. To fight against sin in our lives at all is proof that sins authority is not over us. To be mournful over sin is what people alive in Christ do. Repentance is the proof that Christ is in us. If you are engaged in a holy struggle to give glory to God and are burdened by sin, then you are in Union with Christ.

How people change

Consider yourself dead to sin. That is how we change. When we sin, we are forgetting our true identity. We are already in Christ, so present ourselves to God as instruments for righteousness. We have already crossed from death to life, we do not need to go back to the vast chasm. We are legally no longer slaves to sin, but we still feel experincially the oppression of sin. We live under grace, not sin.

You feel your addictions own you. But is that true? No. If someone discovered you in your secret sin, you would stop. That is the fear of man. But believers have an even greater power at work, we have the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. The victor if the way is sure, so let us battle in the light of our position.