Sin Is Not Your Master
If we have been united with [Christ] in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Romans 6:5
Biblical commands should be obeyed. Biblical promises should be claimed. However, the only appropriate response to biblical fact or truth is to believe it! The first 10 verses in Romans 6 declare the truth about our spiritual union with Christ. We choose to believe that Christ has triumphed over sin and death, and so have we, because we are alive “in Christ.”
“We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:2). How can we as believers “die to sin”? We can’t, because we already have. “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (verse 3). We have also been buried and raised with Christ (see verses 4-5). We cannot be united with Christ in His death and not be united with Him in His resurrected life. Jesus didn’t just die for our sins; He also came to give us life: “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him” (verse 8).
Although Scripture tells us that we died with Christ, the defeated Christian tries to put the old self to death but can’t do it. Why? Because he or she is already dead! “For we know that our old self was crucified with him” (verse 6). It is false reasoning to ask what experience we must have for this to be true. The only experience that had to happen took place 2,000 years ago, and the only way we can enter into the experience is by faith. We cannot do for ourselves what Christ has already done for us. We don’t make anything true by our experience. We believe that what God has done and said on our behalf is true. When we choose to believe God and live accordingly by faith, it works out in our experience.
We don’t do the things we do with the hope that God may someday love us. God loves us, and that is why we do the good things we do. We don’t labor in the vineyard with the hope that God may someday accept us. God has accepted us, and that is why we labor in the vineyard. What we do does not determine who we are. God has determined who we are, and being new creations in Christ should determine what we do. When we choose to sin, it does not make us sinners any more than sneezing makes us sneezers.
Christ defeated death when He was resurrected, and He defeated sin when He died once for all our sins (see Romans 6:8-10). “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (verse 11). Counting ourselves dead to sin does not make us dead to sin. We are dead to sin because of our new life in Christ; therefore, we continue to believe it, and it will work out in our experience. Sin is still powerful and appealing, but our relationship with sin has changed. When we are tempted to sin, we should respond by faith and say, “I am alive in Christ, and sin is no longer my master.”
Questions to Consider:
What does Paul mean in Romans 6:2 when he states that believers have “died to sin”? How have they triumphed over sin and death?
What happens when we try to do for ourselves what Christ has already done for us?
What is our motivation for believing God and living accordingly by faith?
Have you ever fallen into the trap of believing that what you do determines who you are? Explain.
How can you stand up to Satan’s temptations?
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.