Romans 6:1-14

I have died to sin in Christ Jesus

Romans 6:1-14

Key verse 6:4

Good morning. In chapter 5, we learned through Adam, sin entered the world and death through sin. As we all sin, the power of death has reigned over our life. But God had mercy upon us that Jesus died on the cross for us. Through him, we now receive the grace of God and the eternal life. In chapter 6, today’s passage says that we have died to sin and we were resurrected to live a new life in Christ Jesus. Why did Apostle Paul say that we have died to sin. When many people hear about the gospel which how Jesus died on the cross for their sins, they accept it with joy and tearful hearts. They receive the baptism ceremony to live for God. They want to live a godly life. But in reality, they sin that they are often frustrated. Some almost give up in overcoming sin while others keep sinning without any feelings of guilt. Then, they think the gospel has power only to save us from our sins but no power to help us overcome sin in life. So in this passage, Paul explains why we have died to sin. Why did God crucify our old self to the cross when Jesus was crucified on the cross? Through this passage, I pray we may learn how we can overcome sin in our daily life.

  1. We have died to sin

Let us read verse 1. “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” Why did Paul ask this question? Because he worried that some people might justify about their sins as he said in chapter 4:20, it says “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more”. This does not mean that Paul encouraged people to sin to reveal the glory of God. Rather, it means the more we find how sinful we are, the more we thank God who showed his grace through Jesus. But however, there were some believers who abused God’s grace at that time. They considered salvation as a license to sin freely. Philippians 3:18 says “For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ”. Here many are not unbelievers but believers. Paul was very troubled because many believers in Philippi lived as enemies of the cross of Jesus. And now Paul addressed the same issue to believers in Rome. This shows that the go on sinning issue was not limited to one place but almost in every Christian community. In fact, the same issue exists even today too. When we taste God’s forgiveness, we are so thankful that we want to live for God. But many of believers still live a me-centered life. They seek their own success in this world. They think even if I sin, God will forgive me. So they do not have intention to stop their sinful life.

How did Paul say about the issue? Let’s read verse 2? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? “by no means”. In KJV, days “may it never be”. It means in any cases, we cannot go on sinning. Wow! it sounds very extreme! How can we not sin? Is it even possible really? Paul said we have died to sin. This is today’s title. Even if you forget all other things, but if we accept this in your heart, I will be happy for you.

The Bible says we have died to sin. What does this mean? Also when did I die to sin? Did I really die to sin? I never died before. To explain this truth, Paul used two symbolic words: baptism and united. First, we were baptized into Christ Jesus. Can we read verse 3 and 4? “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?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.” Verse 3 says we were baptized into Christ Jesus. Here “baptized” means in Greek “BAPTIZO” – immersed into water. Imagine, at a baptism ceremony, people are immersed into water. Similarly, God immersed us into Christ Jesus. Then, at that point, Jesus and we become one. Think about a baby in a mother’s womb. The baby and the mom are separate but since the baby is inside the mom’s womb, they share their life together. When the mom dies, the baby dies. When the mom lives, the baby lives. In the same way, we were baptized into Christ Jesus, then, we are in him, he in us and we share our life with him together. When Jesus was beaten and mocked, we were also beaten and mocked too. When Jesus died on the cross, in him, we died too. When Jesus was buried, we were buried too.

In verse 3, Paul did not just say “we were baptized into Jesus, but he said we were baptized into Christ Jesus?”. Why did he emphasize “Christ”? Because no human being, no matter how they might be powerful or godly, no man can help us overcome sin except Christ Jesus. For example, Moses was #1 prophet in the OT. By God’s grace, he saved Israel from slavery life in Egypt. Israel saw how the Red Sea opened through his faith. They saw how manna came down from heaven 40 years. They saw how God was with them through the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. Their hearts were not changed at all. They acted the same as they had lived as slaves in Egypt. In Egypt, they had worshipped idols, indulged in sexual immorality, tested God and grumbled God. Then, even after they became free, in the desert, they still did the same thing to God. In the end, they all perished in the desert. However, Christ Jesus is different. Hebrew 9:14 says “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” Jesus not only saves us from our sins but also cleanses our consciences as well as changing our hearts and our acts.

In verse 4, we were buried with Christ Jesus into death. I was wondering why God made us died to sin. He is almighty God. Why not fix us and reuse us for his glory? I used to have a Honda civic. One day the car died. The Mechanic said “the transmission failed”. I asked him if he could replace a new transmission. He said he could but he recommended me to throw my Honda civic and buy another car instead. I could not undertint him. In my view, the car still looked good. But in his view, my car was totally useless. He told him “do not waste money. Similarly, when we look at ourselves, though we are not perfect but still good and useful if we fix some in our life, but from God’s view, it is better to bury us into death so that we may have a new life. We can see here according to verse 4, why God buried us into death when Jesus was buried: to give us a new life.  Later chapter 7:4, it also says “we might bear fruit for God”. From these two verses, we can understand that salvation is not an ultimate goal in our Christian life. Salvation is just beginning for our new life in Christ Jesus. This is one of the reasons why some believers misuse God’s grace. They think once they were saved, once they received water baptism, they got a ticket to heaven: no matter how they live on this world, they will go to heaven after they die. But as we see, the reason why God saved us from our sin is not just for us to go to heaven but more importantly while we live in this world, we may live a new lie and bear fruit for God. This is what God designed originally for us when he created Adam. In Genesis, before Adam sinned, God said to him “be fruitful”. God blessed him to bear fruit for God. But because of sin, Adam messed up God’s vision for man. So being baptized in Jesus, God made us died to sin and rose from the dead to give us second chance to live a new life which God planned in the beginning.

Second, we were united with Jesus. Can we read verses 5-7? “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.” Verse 5 says we have been united with Jesus. United means “join together as one”. Like United States, United airlines, united health care. God united us with Jesus. Jesus and we are no longer two but one in God’s eyes. John 15, Jesus says “remain in me, then I will remain in you”. In Genesis 2, when God blessed Adam to marry to Eve, he said “united to his wife”. So as husband and wife are one body in God’s eyes, Jesus and I am one body before God. In this sense, when Jesus died, we died too. When Jesus was resurrected from the dead, we were resurrected from the dead too. Especially in verse 6, when Jesus was crucified, our old self was crucified too. What does mean that our old self was crucified? This means our old sinful nature or our old lifestyle was crucified to the cross; in other words, the life which we used to live without God, the life which we used to depend on only me, the life which we lived on our sinful nature, such life was crucified. Outwardly, we are still the same as before but since our old self was crucified, in Jesus, we became a new creation. I shared one famous gangster story several weeks ago. He was a notorious gang in his town. Everyone was afraid of him and hated him. Then, one day by God’s grace he accepted Jesus. Then, the first thing he did was to spread a rumor that he died. When people heard about this good news, everybody cheered and shout for joy. Then, a couple weeks later, the used to be gang showed up in the market holding the Bible in his arms. People were shocked. Then one man threw him a dirty water in his face. Then, the man said to him, “you are very lucky today. My old character, my old temper was crucified. If I did not die, I might kill you today”.

in Related to that our old self was crucified, what if our old self didn’t die to sin? In the OT, there was a sacrifice of animal. It works this way: a sinner brought an animal. He laid his hand upon the head of the animal and confesses all his sins before God. Then, he slaughtered the animal to pay for his sins. In this moment, God forgave him from his sins. However, there was one problem in this: since the man’s sinful nature did not die, even if the man might feel sorry for the dead animal, as soon as he turned, he became slave to sin again. In the same way, through Adam, sin entered the world and the sin entered us. The only way to get rid of this sin virus in our body is that we must die. If we die, sin virus cannot do anything to our body. That is why when Jesus offered his body and his blood to God, God crucified our old self to the cross too.

So one of key points in our Christian life is that how much we acknowledge that I have died to sin in Christ Jesus. Whether we feel emotionally or understand in our logic or not, the Bible says that we have died to sin. Verse 11 says “in the same way, consider yourselves dead to sin. But alive to God in Christ Jesus”. So when sin tempts us in our heart, at that moment, we say to ourselves “I have died to sin”, and we say to sin “go away, you are done with me”.

  • Live with Jesus

In first part, we learned that we have died to sin that we cannot live in it any longer. Also we learned in Jesus, God raised us from the dead to live a new life. Then, what is a new life in Jesus? Can we read verses 8 – 10? “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.” Our new life in Christ Jesus is that we live with Jesus together. Jesus died and rose again. He overcame the power of sin and the power of death. The death cannot do anything over him. He lives to God. In him, we died and rose again. In him, we will overcome the power of sin and the power of death. In him, our body will be ruled by him. In him, we will live forever. What a good news it is! In the past, we lived alone. We calculated and made a decision by ourselves. We ended up making lots of mistake. We failed to overcome sin. But now, as Jesus lives with us through the Holy Spirit, we are not alone anymore. Jesus is with us. Since Jesus lives with us, how can we live in sin? Rather, we acknowledge him as our master that we live a Christ-centered life. Ruth told me how one alcoholic man could overcome the temptation of alcohol. He knew he could not overcome the power of alcohol. He was advised to drink milk until he was full in his stomach. He did. Then, when he walked through streets on his home, he was tempted to drink alcohol but since his stomach was full, he could overcome the temptation. In the same way, when we live a Jesus-centered life, when we are filled with the Spirit of God, when we remain in Jesus like the vine and the branch, even though we may be tempted, yet we can overcome sin and bear fruit for God.

I thank God for this passage. Thank you for teaching me “I have died to sin”. With my own resolution and will, I cannot overcome sin. From now on, whenever sin tempts me in my heart, I am going to say “I have died to sin. You are done with me”.  I am going to spend more time in remaining in Jesus’ love and his words in the Bible.

In conclusion, by our own will, we cannot overcome sin. The only way is that we have died to sin. That is why God crucified us to the cross when Jesus died on the cross. Instead of struggling not to sin, I pray we may confess “we have died to sin” and “we have a new life in Jesus Christ”. I pray that we may learn how we can live with Jesus through studying the book of Romans.