Romans 6:5-14 - Dead to sin

The death and resurrection of Jesus go together. We share in His death, we share also in His new life. Jesus died on the cross, and our old self was crucified with Him so that the power of sin might be broken. Sin is not freedom, but slavery. Jesus said that whoever sins is a slave to sin (John 8:34). Choosing to sin is like choosing to take an addictive drug. It has consequences beyond what you imagine and you lose control. 

So what is all this stuff about being crucified with Christ? Is it just a matter of counting ourselves dead to sin (v 11) or is it something more? The truth is that it is something more than that, though we do need to count ourselves dead to sin. We want to look at things in purely rational or materialistic terms. Now it is perfectly right and proper to look at things in rational terms, but it is inadequate to look a things in purely rational terms. When Adam sinned it affected all future generations. How did it do that? I don't know, but the evidence that it did is there for all to see. There was a spiritual effect of Adam's sin. In the same way, Christ's death on the cross broke the power of sin in our lives. Now we need to understand that this is not magic. We have a part to play. The spiritual and the rational go together. 

When someone dies sin no longer has power over their lives. A dead man does not sin! But when Christ died He was raised to new life. Sin died, but He lived, so death no longer has dominion over Him. So Christ died to sin, once for all, and the life He lives He lives for God. 

So we are to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. As I said a moment or two ago, this is not magic. Sitting around doing nothing will achieve nothing. Biblical faith is active and leads to action. So we choose to live for God, and because of what Christ has done we will find that it works!

So we need to make a choice. This is the choice not to obey sinful passions, but to do God's will. Now without Christ this is futile. There is a sense of hopelessness, a sad inevitability about our eventual failure, but in Christ success is possible. Sin shall not have dominion over us because we are under grace not law. Under law a man knows what is right, but it is entirely up to the man to do what is right, and so he fails because of sin. We are under grace, so we can succeed.