SERIES: The Book of Romans
Dead Men Don’t Sin
Introduction: I cut the following news article out of the Kansas City Times on March 11, 1974. The dateline is Manila and the title of the article is, “Soldier Surrenders After 30 Years:”
Japanese Lt. Hiroo Onoda, a World War II holdout for nearly 30 years, emerged from the Philippine jungles yesterday (this was 21 years ago yesterday). He told Japanese newsmen he had not come out before because “I had not received the order.”
Onoda, who turned 52 yesterday, met with searchers briefly and then returned to his hideout to retrieve his Samurai sword. In a formal act of surrender, he presented the sword to Maj. Gen. Jose Rancudo, commander of the Philippine air force. Officials said they expected Onoda to be flown today to Manila.
“I am sorry I have disturbed you for so long a time,” he told his elder brother, Toshiro, 62, who was part of the search party. A Philippine news agency said Toshiro placed his hands on his long-lost brother’s shoulders and told him, “You did well.” In Tokyo, Onoda’s parents, in their 80’s, burst into tears when they learned their son had been found.
Onoda’s last order was to keep up guerrilla warfare … and word had never reached him that the war was over.
There is something very admirable about Lt. Onoda, but there’s also something very tragic and even pathetic about him. To have fought a war for 30 years without knowing that an armistice had been signed and the war was over, causes us to view with great pity this man’s ignorance and the resultant 30 lost years in the jungles of the Philippines.
But are you aware that there are countless Christians still doing hand-to-hand combat with their sin nature, unable to enjoy the peace that is available in Jesus Christ, because somehow they are appallingly ignorant of the fact that their commander-in-chief has won a great victory and has called them out of the jungle of sin to a life of holiness. Oh, to be sure there are inevitable struggles and some failures ahead so long as we are in this world, but there is no need for us to live as though the final outcome of the war is still hanging in the balance.
In the sixth chapter of Romans Paul is committed to dispelling the absurd and unwarranted conclusion that some have deduced from the doctrine of free and abundant grace—namely that that doctrine leads to careless and sinful living. While God’s grace is greater than all our sin, there is absolutely no basis for continuing in sin in order to experience God’s grace. “May it never be! Perish the thought! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
Nevertheless, Christians do sin. How do we explain this, and more importantly, how do we do something about it? Every true believer would like to live righteously and to experience victory over temptation and sin. He recognizes that according to God’s word, justification must be followed by sanctification, which we defined last Sunday as “the process by which we are set apart by God as a special people to grow spiritually in the development of Christlike character.”
We also noted that there are many “methods” out there which promise sanctification, but which are inadequate, unbiblical, some even dangerous. There is spirituality by eradication of the sin nature or the belief that a Christian can in this life reach a state of sinless perfection. There is spirituality by asceticism, spirituality by legalism, spirituality by emotionalism, spirituality by quietism or mysticism, and there is spirituality by New Age philosophy. I do not believe any of these approaches is biblical; nor can they really deliver the goods in terms of the development of Christlike character.
It appears to me that in order for us to have any real comprehension concerning Paul’s method of sanctification we must come to understand what he means by the believer’s “death to sin.” That phrase in Romans 6:2 is critical: “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” The word “death” or a form of it is found 14 times in the first 11 verses of this chapter, so it’s obviously crucial to our understanding.
We begin, then, by reading the same Scripture text as last Sunday, Romans 6:1-14:
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? {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. {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.
The believer must know the facts about his death to sin. (1-10)
Three times the verb “know” is used–in verses 3, 6, and 9. Knowledge is power, while ignorance results in defeat. What we are expected to know here are the facts about our death to sin.
Fact #1 is indicated by the tense of the verb “to die” in verse 2. It says, “How shall we who died . . .” Some versions read, “How shall we who are dead . . .”, but that is not an accurate translation. While it is true that those who have died are dead, yet the tense Paul uses here points to a definitive act in the past.
The believer’s death to sin is tied intimately to the death and burial of Christ. (3,4a)Several weeks ago we talked in some detail about original sin. That is the view that because Adam was our representative, his sin and guilt were charged to our account, even though we were not there and did not personally participate in his sin. The solution to original sin, we also saw, is Justification. Justification happens when we renounce Adam as our representative and accept a new Representative, namely Christ, whose act of righteousness on the Cross is then credited to our account, even though we were not there and did not personally participate in His sacrifice.
Now in chapter 6 the Apostle is continuing with that concept that Jesus is our Representative. What happened to Him is considered by God to have happened to all of us who are in Him. Therefore, when Jesus died, all those who accept Him as their Representative, also died; when He was buried, we were buried; when He rose from the dead, we rose from the dead.
After all, suggests Paul, isn’t that what we are acting out when we submit to Christian baptism? Why go through this humiliating act of being immersed publicly in a pool of water if there is no meaning behind it related to death, burial, and resurrection? Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to just stand up and say, “I am identifying myself with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection?” Surely it would, but it wouldn’t have nearly the impact on either the individual or the Body of believers as does the visual sermon that is acted out when a person is immersed in water—he dies, he is buried, and he is raised up.
Frankly, I sometimes feel sorry for our Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic, and Lutheran friends because they miss the beautiful symbolism of immersion when they baptize by sprinkling. Of course, what is far more important is the reality behind the symbol, and that reality is that the Holy Spirit baptizes believers into the Body of Christ at the moment they believe in Christ. That is the baptism without which one cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
Friends, many things happened the day you received Christ as your Savior. I would assume you changed your lifestyle in some important respects; you probably adopted some new goals and priorities; you took on a new name—”Christian.” You became part of a new family. All of these things are important, but here Paul tells us that something else happened when you became a Christian—you died to sin. The fact that burial is mentioned in addition to death in verse 4 is for the purpose of stressing the completeness of that death. A person is only buried when we’re absolutely sure they’re dead.
So the believer’s death to sin is thorough and is tied intimately to Jesus’ death and burial.
Fact #2:
The believer’s death to sin issues in new life, just as Christ’s death issued in resurrection. (4b, 5) The point of verse 4 seems to be this: the believer’s death and burial with Christ enables him to be raised with Christ in newness of life. We cannot be partakers of His resurrection life unless we are first partakers of His death. The problem, however, with a great many religious people is that they want life without identifying with Christ in His death. But as verse 5 clearly indicates, the certainty or assurance of being united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection is predicated on the condition, “if we have become united with Him like this in His death, then we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.” There can be no resurrection unless there has first been death.
Fact #3 concerning the believer’s death to sin:
The believer’s death to sin has the purpose of freeing him from slavery to sin. (6,7) Verse 6 introduces an important new concept which helps us understand how we can have died to sin and still be alive at the same time. It’s because every believer’s life can be described in terms of two different “selfs.” There is the “old self” or the “old man,” as the Greek is literally translated, which we were before coming to faith in Christ, and there is the “new self,” which we become following conversion. Some people even refer to the parts of their lives as B.C. and A.C., before Christ and after Christ.
Before we became believers, we had certain habits, attitudes, goals, motivations, thoughts, desires, hopes—all of which constituted our “old self.” Paul claims, “Our old self was crucified with Christ.” Most of us are probably immediately reminded of Gal. 2:20, where the same apostle wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.” The “old self” of Rom. 6:6 is the same as the “I” of Gal. 2:20, who “no longer lives.”
But when we received Christ, we became a “new self.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 puts it this way, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” You put these passages together and you have the whole story. The old self was crucified, and the old things passed away. A new self was resurrected, and everything about him is new. But because the new self is still human, it still has the capacity to sin, sometimes called the “sin nature.” But what is different is that the new self is no longer a slave to sin. Look again at verse 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.”
As we examine this difficult verse, let’s try to define some terms. What is meant by “body of sin?” I believe it refers primarily to our physical bodies, but also includes our minds, emotions, and imaginations. Our bodies are “bodies of sin,” not because they are inherently sinful, but rather because they are easily dominated and controlled by sin. They are the instruments that sin uses to express itself. Sin cannot lie without the human tongue, steal without human hands, etc.
Then what is meant by the phrase, “might be done away with?” Obviously, our physical bodies are not done away with when we accept Christ. The problem is that the phrase “might be done away with” is an unfortunate translation of one word in the original language, and it leads some people to accept the notion that the sin nature can be eradicated, which we addressed and rejected last Sunday. But this verb in the original says nothing about “doing away with” or “destroying” the body of sin. Instead it means literally, “to render powerless,” “to pull the teeth out of,” or “to declaw.” The sinful body that plagues us will be with us until we die or until Jesus comes, but it has been rendered powerless over us by virtue of the crucifixion of our old self. The ultimate purpose is given at the end of verse 6: “that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”
Slavery to sin is not necessary for the believer. The unbeliever can’t help but be a slave to sin; the believer can help it. After all, dead people don’t sin, do they? When is the last time one of the residents of Calvary Cemetery committed a crime or an act of immorality? It doesn’t happen, because, as verse 7 says: “anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” That’s obviously true of the physically dead, and what we need to realize is that it can also be true of those who have died spiritually with Christ. That old self we were has died; our new self doesn’t have to sin. We have been freed from its iron grip.
I think it is very important for us to recognize that the two clauses in verse 6—”that the body of sin might be done away with” and “that we should no longer be slaves to sin”—are purpose clauses, not result clauses. If they were result clauses, then they would express the inevitable results of the crucifixion of the old man. But since they are purpose clauses, they are expressing potentiality. One can choose to allow the body of sin to maintain control and one can choose to remain a slave to sin, but he doesn’t have to. And if he does, Paul would ask, “How can he call himself a Christian?”
Before we leave verses 6 & 7 and the subject of the crucifixion of the old self, there are a few other insights I would like to share. Are you aware that almost any kind of death a person might die can be self-inflicted except crucifixion? One can shoot himself, poison himself, throw himself off a cliff, cut his own throat, etc. But it is impossible for someone to crucify himself. That’s why the verb “was crucified” in verse 6 is passive voice. It is God Himself who carries out the crucifixion of the old man, as well as the creation of the new man. Both happen at the moment a person is born again by faith in Christ.
However, there is a counterfeit crucifixion that is popular in Christian circles today that is self-inflicted. It is practiced by many who don’t understand that the old person has already been crucified. Listen as Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse describes this counterfeit crucifixion:
Counterfeit crucifixion is practiced by thousands of Christians. When the believer realizes the presence of sin within, he thinks that he must do something about it. Immediately (he begins) … to make a great show of righteousness, an outward manifestation of hatred of sin…. He begins to give up things, to establish his own righteousness, and to make a great show of the fact that he no longer practices certain carnalities. He does not murder or get drunk; he does not steal or lie. He becomes religious and joins a Church. He is baptized and is very proud of it all. He becomes highly moral. He gives up certain habits and replaces them by better ones. He is crucified in the feet, and he is very proud of it. His hands are still free to do as he pleases, but he frequently uses them to point to his feet, to tell people how dead he is to things that are bad.
But this cross is not the cross of Jesus Christ, and this person is … actually … staging a fleshly imitation…. The fleshly nature of the believer—the old man—can be just as proud of being humble as the unsaved man can be proud of the amount of liquor he can hold or of the amount of money he has stolen. The old man can be proud of goodness, of preaching, of clean living—proud of anything, good or bad.[i]
The real crucifixion of the old self, which is done by God at the moment of salvation, has the purpose of freeing the believer from slavery to sin, including the sin of pride.
Fact #4 the believer must know about his death to sin:
The believer’s death to sin is a definitive and decisive event with lasting, even eternal, implications. (8-10) There are really no new facts given us in verses 8-10, but there is a new emphasis. And that is upon the certainty of the results of our death with Christ. The emphasis in verse 8 should probably be on the term “will.” “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we willalso live with him.” And how can we be so sure? Because of three truths about Christ’s death:
1. He will never die again, verse 9.
2. Death no longer is master over Him, verse 9.
3. His death was a once-for-all death, verse 10.
The point is this: if all these things are true about Christ’s death (and they are), and if our old self died when He died (and we did), and if we rose as a new self when He rose (which we did), then we can be certain that decisive event will have lasting results for us. We will live with Him, now and for eternity.
So far, all that Paul has told us relates to what the believer must know about his death to sin. Obviously such knowledge is crucial, for if a person doesn’t know that his old self has been crucified he could very well end up like Lt. Onoda still fighting a battle which is over. Knowledge takes the monkey off our back and produces confidence in our hearts that victory is possible.
But there is more to victory than just mere knowledge, so in verse 11 the Apostle tells us we must count the facts to be true regarding our death to sin.
The believer must count these facts to be true regarding his death to sin. (11)
I repeat from last week that the word “count” used here in verse 11 is a step beyond the term “know,” used three times in the preceding section. It means to “cement it in your minds as true,” or even to “get ready to act upon the truth.” Look at verse 11: “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” You know you died; now act like it.
He must actually consider himself dead to sin. As I mentioned last Sunday, this is the very first command or exhortation in the Book of Romans, the first time we are told to do anything, and what we’re told to do, in essence, is to start applying to our own lives the implications of our identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. God says it’s true; now start living like it.
In the past century a missionary sailed from Liverpool in England for the African coast. At Lagos he transferred to a small coastal boat going to the fever-infested spot where he was to pour out his life for the Lord. An English trader protested, “If you go to that God-forsaken place you will die!” The man of God replied, “I died before I left London.” That, friends, is a critical step to victory over sin—to count yourself dead now to sin. But it is also true that …
He must actually consider himself alive to God. Considering ourselves alive to God involves opening our hearts to the power of the Holy Spirit, which will be the theme of chapter 8. It involves a willingness to let Christ live His life through us. It involves obedience to the revealed will of God. And it involves an acceptance by faith of the fact, not only that the old self has died, but also that a new self has been created.
I love a story told by Dr. Barnhouse:
Years ago in Scotland there was a fisherman called Old John who was addicted to alcohol. He took the money earned from his catch and spent it on liquor while his wife and children suffered. They lived in a hovel at the end of the fishing village and eked out an existence in extreme poverty. But through some evangelistic meetings Old John came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. After that he brought all his money home and gave it to his wife. He worked steadily, and soon there were new clothes, plenty of food and coal for the fire. After a few months of this transformed existence the wife said, “John, if you are going to keep on like this we should move into a decent house!”
“Right,” said John. “I shall go and see the landlord at once.” He made his way through the town to the landlord and asked to rent a certain house. The landlord said, “I would never rent a good house to you, Old John.”
“Why do you say that?” asked John. “You don’t know me at all!”
“Of course I know you,” said the landlord. “You are drunken Old John the fisherman.”
“You are mistaken,” said John. “You have never seen me before. Old John is dead; I am New John, a new creature in Christ Jesus.” And he poured out a handful of coins before the astonished landlord. Soon New John was living in a new house.[ii]
John counted the facts to be true that he was dead to sin and alive to God. The result was victory! Not perfection, but significant, measurable growth in holiness. Now quickly, I want us to examine step, #3:
The believer must offer his body to God. (12,13)
The word “therefore” at the beginning of verse 12 indicates that we are coming to the main point of the passage. Having told us what we must know and then what we must count to be true, the Apostle now indicates what we must do. It comes in both a negative and positive form.
He must stop offering the members of his body as instruments of sin. (13) Listen to verse 12: “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. In fact, let me be very specific: Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness.” Friends, there would be no point in this entire exhortation if the capacity to sin could be eradicated instantaneously. If that were possible Paul could have substituted this entire passage with simple instructions on how to get the baptism of the Holy Spirit so we wouldn’t sin anymore.
On the other hand, there would also be no point in this exhortation if the believer hadn’t been freed from enslavement to sin by his death with Christ. To say to a slave who has not been emancipated, “Do not behave like a slave,” is to mock his slavery. But to say the same thing to a slave who has been freed, is a very meaningful exhortation. In fact, it is the only way he is going to be able to enjoy the privileges and rights of his freedom. So in this case the sequence is crucial: sin does nothave dominion; therefore, do not allow it to reign.
I find Paul’s exhortation about our body parts to be very practical and very convicting. God knows how difficult it is for us to fulfill general commands, so here He gives us one that is very specific: “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness.” You’ve heard the TV ad about your 2,000 body parts—I think it’s a soap ad. I suggest that virtually every one of those parts can be used as an instrument of sin. But while forbidding that, the Apostle adds that …
He must offer those same members as instruments of righteousness. (13) It says in effect in verse 13, “Take each of your body parts, remove it from the service of sin, and instead present it to God for His use, honor and glory.” I would not for a moment suggest that offering our body parts to God is easy. There will often be a tremendous struggle, for the world, the flesh, and the devil are constantly confronting us with sinful alternatives. But if we make a one-time offering of our body parts to God as instruments of righteousness, and then follow that up with a daily offering of those same body parts, we can have victory.
I would suggest that it may make sense for us to actually pray regarding a part that gives us a particular difficulty, for example the tongue, “Lord, you know I have a lot of trouble with my tongue. I am tempted to curse, I am tempted to exaggerate, I am tempted to complain, I am tempted to gossip. Today I offer my tongue to you. Please help me today to use it as an instrument of truth, of blessing, of encouragement, of praise.”
If we take this seriously, the result will be as stated in verse 14: “Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” God’s grace is sufficient, not only to save you from hell but also to deliver you from present slavery to sin.
Conclusion: I close this morning with two points I want us to ponder:
1. The one who receives Christ is committing himself to a radically new kind of life. We sometimes give potential converts the impression that becoming a Christian is a neat new experience that brings peace, prosperity, and happiness. If that’s all we tell them, we are guilty of false advertising. Christianity is first a death, then a life; and you don’t go through death, particularly death by crucifixion, without some rather severe pain. This body which is so used to sin will not take lightly to the new management conversion introduces. If it is addicted to certain behaviors it will not surrender without a fight.
But the death of the old self and the birth of the new self should have some far-reaching implications for how we live as believers. It should affect our career decisions, what we do with our time, how we spend our money, how we relate to people, how we worship, and every other area of our lives. If there is no difference between us and the world in these areas, then maybe we haven’t yet understood that justification must be followed by sanctification, that our acquittal must be followed by holy living.
2. There are no excuses for sin in the life of a believer. God has provided for the crucifixion of the old self so that the body of sin which once called the shots might be rendered powerless. On that basis Paul says elsewhere, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man (no supernatural temptations—none!) And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Cor. 10:12-13)
This leaves us without excuse when we sin. It is impossible for us to transfer the blame to someone else or to society or to God. Of course, that is the message our culture is giving us constantly—don’t blame yourself, blame someone else. Rationalizations and excuses for sin are everywhere. The experts have taken almost everything the Bible calls sin and turned it into a disease or a syndrome. Often they just call it normal behavior. Sometimes they even demand federal protection for it. But God says sin does not have to control us.
I came across one final illustration this week which really communicated to me:
One of the most famous experiments in psychology had to do with conditioned reflexes. It was performed by the Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov on some dogs. Pavlov would let his dogs become very hungry and then feed them great quantities of aromatic, enticing food. Every time he gave the dogs food he would ring a bell. This went on for a period of time. Then one day he rang the bell without waiting for the dogs to be hungry and without giving them and food. And they immediately began to salivate because they had been conditioned to associate the sound of the bell with food.
Our response to sin can be viewed in terms of conditioned reflexes. There was a time when sin had real authority over us, when it made us really hungry, and we had no choice but to eat the food that was placed before us. It had an aroma that was absolutely overwhelming, and the bell would ring every time. But now that our old self has been crucified and we have died to sin, the only thing left is the sound of the bell, which sin uses to try to stimulate the same response in us as when it had authority over us. And when sin rings the bell, we can be made to think we have to sin because we have been conditioned to associate the sensation of temptation with the absolute power of sin in our life. What we must do is to choose to recognize that what once owned us owns us no more. We have died to it.[iii]
For thirty years, during the prime of his life, Lt. Onoda remained ignorant of the fact that his leader, the Emperor of Japan, had been defeated and had signed an unconditional surrender. Friends, ourleader, Jesus Christ, has won, and has emerged as absolute victor, yet many of His followers, too, remain ignorant and continue to eke out a subsistence in the jungle of sin. It’s time to wake up and realize that through knowing the facts, counting them to be true, and offering our bodies to God, we can have victory in Jesus.
DATE: March 12, 1995
Tags:
Death to sin
Slavery to sin
Counterfeit crucifixion
[i] Donald Grey Barnhouse, Romans, Vol. 3, Part II, God’s Freedom, 92-93.
[ii] Barnhouse, 147. Slight editing done.
[iii] Steve Zeisler, “No Longer Slaves to Sin,” sermon preached at Peninsula Bible Church, June 6,
1993, catalog # 4298. Slight editing done.