Head above water

"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. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification." - Romans 6:9-19

I intend to address a key issue in this article and I have taken a passage from the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans (specifically verses 9-19 of the 6th chapter) for this purpose. The issue at hand is this: How should we deal with sin in our daily lives now that we are in Christ? 

I can imagine a few friends reading my blog who would have a knee-jerk reaction to my phrasing of the question above. Something along these lines:

“Sin has already been dealt with, therefore believers don’t need to deal with it anymore. Just confess and believe in the finished work of Christ and you will live above sin!”

From my observations I have discovered there’s a form of theology these days which I’ll call (rather loosely) “confessional new creation thought” for the sake of this article. I can summarise one of its core tenets as the idea that “consciousness is everything”. The idea is that it is by constantly and repetitively confessing the things you believe to be true, that you become transformed into / harness those “things”. In other words, by immersing yourself into a mental reality through intensive, self-administered linguistic programming, you can and will live perpetually in that reality. To me it is an offshoot of “new age ideology” but that’s an article for another day. But the reason I have flagged it here is because this idea goes hand in hand with the issue I am writing about. This confessional new creation thought de-emphasises practical actions and elevates “thinking” and “confessions” in its recipe for victorious christian living. My view is that this is half of the truth at best.

I do agree that what we believe and what we say about ourselves and our condition is important, but it is even more important what we DO about our condition.

Our actions must line up with our beliefs, otherwise our confession is pointless. And this is why I think this ideology is risky for believers to adopt, because it outsources to our mouth what we should be doing with our conscious choices. You’ll see why this is an important matter to stress later in this article.

Now let’s go back to Romans 6.

For some context, at this point in the epistle the Apostle Paul has already argued quite persuasively the following points:

• All of humanity is under the power of sin

• God’s justice demands a righteous judgement upon sin

• Through Christ’s death and resurrection, God has made a way for sinners to be justified freely by His grace.

What he starts to do from Romans 6 is to pivot ever so slightly away from justification to sanctification. He is making the point that justification (which is glorious and should never be diminished in its beauty and power) is not the end of the story. If believers were raptured to heaven at the moment they believed on Jesus Christ then we need not worry about this whole sanctification business. But because there is a time lapse between our justification and glorification (the sweet reunion in eternal glory with our Bridegroom and Lord), we must go through this world and therefore need to grow in holiness. We must conduct ourselves in this world in such a manner that brings glory to our God. In other words, justification is a sweet beginning that ushers in a life-long journey that culminates in the ascension to final glory for the believer.

Let's now take pieces from the passage in Romans 6, to examine what Paul’s prescription is for believers “post-justification”.

Basis for victory

"Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God."  (vv 9-10)

Paul clearly reminds the believers that everything must start with the understanding of Christ’s finished work. What has Christ accomplished? Because if we know what he has done, we can properly deal with the implications of that work.

Christ’s death was unto sin, now what does that mean? Simply put, Christ died for one reason only, which is to pay the just penalty for our own sins. He had no other reason to die. Put differently, He was subjected to the greatest humiliation and degradation possible, so that WE (who, by the way, are totally deserving of such punishment) would not have to go through that. And note what Paul said: He died unto sin ONCE – it was a single, decisive and final act which definitively broke the claim of sin (Hebrews 9:26-28). Christ now lives perpetually unto God, that is, He is constantly and consciously in eternal, perpetual unbroken fellowship with God.

Now the Apostle (in his usual fashion) draws a parallel to us who have put our faith in Christ:

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (v11)

This verse hides some treasure that we must dig out. Note the use of the word “reckon”. It means to account something as true, or to adopt a posture that agrees with something. In other words, Paul is not talking about a passive awareness here, but rather something we must consciously choose to believe. The implication of the finished work of Christ is that we must alter the way we think about ourselves, decisively and deliberately. We must consider ourselves, in the same fashion of Christ’s death and resurrection, to be dead unto sin and alive to God.

So there is indeed a “mental element” in the fabric of our Christian conduct. We must think differently, not as we used to when we were under the bondage of sin and headed for eternal damnation. We should consider ourselves as having died with Christ on his Cross, and having been raised to life with him upon his quickening.

This is what Paul echoed again to the Galatians: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” (Galatians 2:20)

The old life is gone. It died with Christ on the Cross! I am not trying to kill the old man, seeing as that man no longer exists. I am no longer a slave to sin. I used to be bound in shackles, with no other option but to obey the impulses of my old master, but now I have been liberated by the work that Christ accomplished in Golgotha! Glory be to God in the highest, I am saved!

Now does the above mean we would not feel weak, or that we would not be face temptation in our Christian journey? No, it does not. Justification is the assurance of our “position” before God, it does not exempt us from going through the trials of our faith but we know we have a sure place with God in Christ’s kingdom. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Contradiction or clarity?

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." (v.12)

Now pay close attention to the language Paul is using here. “Let not”. This implies that it is possible for sin to reign in our mortal bodies, doesn’t it? One can be quick to think this is a contradiction of the facts established in the previous verses. We are dead to sin, how then can it be possible for sin to still reign in our mortal bodies?

Well, Paul is not talking about salvation here. The issue with our salvation is a settled case, a completely done deal. We cannot lose our salvation. Sorry my Arminian friends, but it is impossible for us to lose something we did not even earn in the first place by our own effort. What Paul is talking about, is the “daily rule of sin”. Who is calling the shots in your everyday life? Who gets to decide what you do with your time, your body, your words, and your thoughts? Is it Christ, or is it sin?

Some believers live under a dangerous illusion, which is the idea that we cannot be tempted anymore since we are now in Christ. I even hear people brag about their apparent infallibility sometimes and nothing can be further from the truth. In fact, I would argue that temptation is actually “meant” for believers, as unbelievers technically do not really need to be “tempted”, since their default nature is to sin. The entire New Testament is packed with warnings to “flee temptation”, “crucify the flesh”, “resist the devil”, and “walk in the Spirit” (see James 4:7; Galatians 5:16-17; 1 Peter 2:11). Does the presence of those commands not suggest to you that the danger is in fact real?

Temptation is not a myth. Sin is not a relic of the past, and what Paul is trying to tell us here in Romans 6 is that if we are not watchful, sin can indeed gain a foothold in our lives, despite the fact that we have been liberated from its power. Take heed.

“Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God...” (v.13)

The Apostle is implying here that every time we sin, we are making a conscious choice. We are yielding, offering our minds, mouths, hands, or eyes to something that does not reflect the holiness of our new nature. The Greek word for “instruments” in this text (hopla) is actually a military term: it means weapons. Paul is saying our bodies should be weapons in the hands of God in His army, and not tools in the hands of sin.

Semantic games we play

At this point, I must speak to a disturbing trend in some Christian circles today: the minimisation of sin. We have now invented softer names to help us feel less convicted or concerned about our conduct. We no longer call it “sin” – we say “struggles,” “issues,” “shortcomings,” “mistakes,” or “bad habits.” Here’s another interesting one: “Christians behaving badly”. But this shifting of language does something subtle: it moves the goalposts. It dulls our sensitivity to what sin actually is.

Paul does not mince words. He does not say don’t yield your members to “mistakes”. He says don’t yield them to unrighteousness. Of course, Christians can fall into sin. Paul knows this and that is why he is writing. But he never tells us to excuse it but to resist it. He does not tell us to redefine sin but to recognise it and flee.

So what’s our freedom all about?

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (vs 14)

Before Christ accomplished his redemptive work of atonement, we were slaves to sin (John 8:34). What that means is that when we were in the world we sinned because we had no power or choice not to. It was our default operating system and we had no other option. But now that we have received Christ, grace has set us free from the bondage of sin. However, we were not freed for the purpose of doing whatever we please. Instead, God has “installed” in us the capacity to choose to please Him with our lives. But the thing about freedom, is that we still have the capability to choose to remain in our old ways. What the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives is to strengthen our resolve and capacity to choose righteousness daily.

We see Paul say to Titus:

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” (Titus 2:11-12)

Back to Romans 6...

“What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” (vs 15)

The thought of continuing in sin after receiving salvation is far too disgusting for the Apostle Paul to entertain. He recoils from the idea. The very suggestion is grotesque. But sadly, some modern preaching flirts with this. They imply subtly (and sometimes even overtly) that because grace covers all, sin has lost its danger.

Yes, grace is greater than sin (Romans 5:20). But the fact that God is merciful does not mean we should be casual about the severity of damage that sin does to our witness and even to our communion with God. We should work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

We’re slaves either way…

But now you can choose your master.

“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey...” (vs 16)

This thought is both terrifying and liberating at the same time. The fact is, we will serve someone. The question here is not if, but whom. Either you serve sin, which leads to death (not necessarily immediate physical death, but spiritual decay, guilt, brokenness, destruction of christian public witness), or you serve righteousness, which leads to life, joy, increasing holiness, and effective ministry.

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart...” (v.17)

Because we have believed the gospel, we have been made slaves to righteousness. The gospel changes us from the inside, by creating in us new desires and behaviours that were hitherto foreign to our consciousness. The Holy Spirit does not merely modify our actions but he transforms our motives and intentions, so that we are inclined to please God in our daily lives.

The daily work of yielding

“...for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness... even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.”

This is where Apostle Paul lands. Holy living is not automatic. It is cultivated through deliberate, daily decisions to say “no” to the flesh and “yes” to the Spirit.

As we yield, we are being sanctified. Justification is a one-time event but sanctification is a life-long journey of transformation (2 Corinthians 3:18). One step at a time, we become more like Christ. And this matters deeply to God, not because we are earning His love, but because we are displaying His glory.

Final words

So, how should believers deal with sin?

1. We reckon ourselves dead to it;

2. We refuse to let it reign;

3. We stop minimising or renaming it;

4. We yield ourselves fully to God; and

5. We walk in grace-fueled obedience.

The victory over sin has been won at the Cross. The power of sin has been broken by the Spirit. But we must daily choose to live in the freedom Christ has given.

Friend, do not let your liberty in Christ become a license for compromise. Do not downplay sin when Scripture speaks of it so seriously. And do not live beneath your calling. You were ransomed, not to continue as you were, but to become who you were always meant to be: holy, righteous, set apart, alive unto God.

“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16)