It has been said that Christianity has not failed, it has never been tried. There may be some truth to that statement because a lot of what passes for Christianity is not Christianity at all. But I think that there is a better explanation. The explanation that I would like to propose is that Christianity has seldom been understood.
This is certainly true in our contemporary society. We live in a time when people have become more experience oriented. Today, people want to feel or experience things. And this is good in many respects. As a matter of fact, Christianity should be experienced. A Christianity that is not experienced is not Christianity at all.
But there is a subtle danger in this focus on feelings. The danger is that we will begin to evaluate things by our feelings. When this happens, the facts often get lost. Our feelings, after all, are a poor barometer of reality. Not only must we focus on feelings and experiences, but we must also focus on facts. Both are necessary.
One of the problems we face is the problem of extremes. We must be careful of extremes. On one extreme we might emphasize feelings. On the other extreme we might emphasize the facts. What we need is balance. In fact, unless we thoroughly understand the facts, we will never experience the proper feelings.
This is where the New Age Movement has wandered so far off course. For many, what you believe is not nearly as important as how you feel about it. But for us as Christians, what we believe is essential. It determines what we experience.
In our text, Paul is addressing one of the misconceptions concerning Christianity. In doing so, he points out the essence of true Christianity and the importance of understanding the truths that transform us.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (Romans 1:1-3)
One of the common misconceptions concerning Christianity actually comes from the truth of the teaching of salvation by grace alone. If salvation is by grace, apart from works, and God's grace is sufficient to cover all sin, then if we keep on sinning, it really doesn't matter. After all, there is plenty of grace to go around. This is what he addresses at the very beginning. Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
The answer to that question comes when we fully understand our position in Christ. Our position tells us who we are. It is the truth about who we are.
We have already seen who we were. Through the first five chapters of Romans, we have discovered that we were in bondage to sin. Sin was our master. Sin was our way of life. We can state it like this: formerly, we were alive to sin and dead to Christ. That was our position. It was the reality.
The truth we need to see comes by understanding our present position. You see, our position has changed because of the death of Christ. Should we continue to sin? The answer is — by no means! And the reason given is because we died to sin. Notice that this refers to a past event. It is referring to what happened when Jesus Christ died on the Cross. And we are reminded that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. In other words, those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ not only identify with Him, but also identify with His death. So, where as formally we were alive to sin and dead to Christ, now the situation is reversed. Currently, we are dead to sin and alive to Christ. This is our present position. To understand this is vital.
The importance of understanding this is emphasized by the little phrase in verse 3, “don't you know”. It is as if Paul is saying, “Christian, don't you know who you really are? Don't you know that when Christ died on the Cross, you died with Him? Don't you know that you died to sin? So, how can we live in it any longer? When we know who we are, then we had laid a foundation to build on.
4 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. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. (Romans 6:4-5)
We must first understand our position, who we are in Christ, and then we must understand our provision, what we have in Christ. Our position tells us who we are, and our provision tells us what we have.
What we have centers around what God provided for us through the death of Christ. When Christ died on the Cross, He bore the sin of all people. He paid the penalty for our sin. He also broke the bondage of sin for every person who would follow Him. So we see one of the benefits of his death for us. His death set us free from sin. The old person that we were was buried with him through baptism into death. Baptism here signifies our identification with Christ. It is also a symbol for His death, burial and resurrection. So as we identify with Christ, the old person is put to death. And dead people are released from the obligations of their former life.
But here's the good news. We don't stay dead. We do stay dead to the former life, but we are resurrected again so that we too may live a new life. His death symbolizes our death and His resurrection symbolizes our resurrection to new life.
So we not only see that His death set us free from sin, but we also see that His life makes us alive to God. As dead people, we have been set free from our old way of life. As people who have been given a new life, we have the opportunity to walk in a new dimension of freedom.
6 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— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Romans 6:6-14)
Having understood our position, who we are in Christ, and our provision, what we have in Christ, we can now turn to our practice, how we live in Christ.
This is where most people begin. But they make a mistake in beginning here. You see, how we live is determined by who we are and what we have. Unless we understand who we are and what we have, we will not know how to live. We will make the mistake of living on the basis of who we think we are and what we think we have. We will say things like, “that's not me” or “I can't do that.”
The first element of how you live is what you believe. What you believe makes all the difference. It is the basis upon which we build our style of life.
The first thing we can say about what we believe is that it must be apprehended. In other words, we must understand what we must know. Paul emphasized this for us in verse 6. He tells what we must know.
The first is that our old self was crucified. We must know that we were crucified with Christ. And this was so that the body of sin might be done away with. The phrase “done away with” could also be translated as “rendered powerless.” So the next thing we must know is that sin's dominion is removed. It is rendered powerless. He goes on to say that we should no longer be slaves to sin. So, from this we understand that we are no longer slaves to sin. And finally, he emphasizes that anyone who has died has been freed from sin. So the final thing we must know is that we are freed from sin.
These are the things that must be apprehended. These are the things that we must know. We were crucified with Christ. Sin's dominion is removed. We are no longer slaves to sin. And we are freed from sin. We must know these facts. Then we can take the next step.
The next step is essential. Another thing that we can say about what you believe is that it must be appropriated. In verse 11, Paul tells us to count yourselves dead to sin. Other translations say “consider” yourselves to be dead to sin. So we must focus on what we must consider.
The first thing we must consider about what we have come to know is that it is true. Many people come to know these principles but do not consider them to be true. They hear it, but they do not believe it. They do not think that it is true. Generally, the reason why they do not think that it is true is because they have not personally experienced it.
The second thing that we must believe about what we know is that it is true for us. Some people understand these principles, but they do not believe that they work in their situation. They may be true for someone else, or everyone else, but they are not true for them.
But what you really believe is determined by this two-step process. Truth must be apprehended and appropriated. We must know it and we must consider it to be true for us. If we don't, then we really don't believe it.
So as we apply this text to our lives, we must begin to see ourselves as those who are dead to sin and alive to God. We must consider it to be true for us. Then and only then can we act on it. You see, what you believe determines how you behave. How you behave will be a direct reflection of what you believe.
In seeking to be obedient to Christ, and to be those who live as though we are dead to sin, we must look at two vital areas. First, how you behave will be demonstrated by what you deny. You are told that you are not to offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness. In other words, we must oppose sin.
Although we were crucified with Christ and we are dead to sin, we may still choose to sin. Sin still has an allure for us. We are still tempted by sin. It has an abiding attraction for us. The difference is that we now have the ability to choose to obey God. As a result of our knowing the truth about who we are in Christ, that we are dead to sin, and of considering that to be true in our case, we can now stand against sin because it has no power to dominate us.
Secondly, how you behave is demonstrated by what you do. There's both a negative and a positive side to our actions. There are things that we do not do and there are things that we must do.
While you are told not to offer yourself to sin, you are also told to offer yourselves to God. So we see that we must offer ourselves to God. On the one hand, we must oppose sin. On the other, we must offer ourselves to God. And we now have the power to do so. We now live as those who have been brought from death to life. So we can offer ourselves to him as instruments of righteousness. You have been set free. You have been told that sin shall not be your master. The marvelous truth is that you are not under law, but under grace.
Again, what you believe will determine how you behave. So it is vital for us to understand the truth about ourselves from God's point of view. It is vital for us to understand the power of the death of Christ to set us free from the power of sin. We must see ourselves as those who are dead to sin and alive to God. We must begin to live from this perspective. This is what dying to live means.
Now, the question is this, Who are you going to believe, God's word or Satan's word? We are tempted to believe Satan because of the problems we encounter with our own mortal flesh. We are weak, and we do sin. And it's easy for Satan to say, “Look, this business about you being dead to sin is not true. You're not dead to sin, look at the way you live your life. Look at how you fail. You're really alive to sin. You haven't died at all.” But you do not become mature overnight. Coming to know Christ was like being born. When you're born, you're not ready to go out into the world and earn a living. You're not ready to drive a car when you're in the crib, are you? We don't put a babe in the White House, do we?
The Devil comes along and tries to convince you that you don't have the power to resist sin. “Look at your past,” he says. “Look at your history; look at your frailty.” At this point you have two choices —.to believe God or Satan. Choosing to believe God is the process by which we begin to think differently. Who will you believe?
Copyright © 1996 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property of the copyright holder and may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice.
This data file may not be copied in part (except for small quotations
used with citation of source), edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in any
commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances, displays or other products
offered for sale, without the written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for permission should be made in writing and e-mailed to J. David Hoke, at David@JDavidHoke.com.