Lesson 5 Why Must a Christian Be Dead to Sin?

Chapter 5
Why Must a Christian Be Dead to Sin?

“That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” - Romans 5:21

“How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom 6:2). We have seen that the entire 6th chapter of Romans sets forth the glorious truth of the believer’s death to sin and therefore freedom from its rule, its tyranny, its reign and its entire domain. I believe the key that gives us this understanding is found in Romans 5:21: “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” We are entirely set free from sin and its power in the Lord Jesus Christ, into whose death we were baptized.

Listen as we again stress this great eternal truth: A Christian is one who is in Christ. Because he is in Christ, he has died with Him, he has been buried with Him, he has risen with Him, he is alive unto God in Him; and because of this identification with Christ, the repenting, believing sinner has been freed from sin-he has died to it.

How Have We Died to Sin?

Now the question is asked, “In what sense has the believer in Christ died to sin, thereby being freed from it?” The Scriptures are plain that we are not dead to sin’s influence, for we are told that sin influences us because we still have sin in the flesh (Rom 7:15,19; 8:10). And we are not yet dead to the presence of sin (Rom 7:21), nor will we be till we get our new bodies in the resurrection. Nor are we freed from the effects of sin in this life, because Romans 7:24 and Psalm 51:2 tell us that sin still affects us; it is still the plague of our hearts. Our Lord has taught us to pray, “Forgive us our sins” (Luke 11:4), and He has given us I John 1:9 as our confession box and the throne of grace to come to (Heb 4:16) to find grace to help in time of need.

In what sense then are we dead to sin? The Scriptures are clear that we are dead to sin as a master who rules over us; for Christ is our Lord, and where sin once reigned unto death, grace now reigns through righteousness (Rom 5:21). We are dead to sin in regard to its guilt; sin cannot condemn us, for we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, washed by faith in His blood; and we stand before God completely justified from all sin. Our sins have been imputed to Christ (Rom 4:8). “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1); “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Again, we are dead to sin as a course of life, for we no longer walk according to the course of this world (Eph 2:2), as we did before when we walked in darkness, but we are now light and walk as children of light (Eph 5:8). Sin is not looked upon as a friend, but as an enemy, so now the child of God desires to walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh.

Now I have not told you that I believe the Bible teaches sinless perfection or the eradication of the old nature in the believer; nowhere have I said that the believer can live above sin in this life, for this is not what the Word of God teaches. But let me repeat again: (1) We are dead to sin as our master, for Christ is our Master and grace reigns in the heart. (2) We are dead to the guilt of sin, for there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. (3) We are dead to sin as the course of our life, for we no longer walk in darkness but in the light of the Lord. (4) We are dead to sin because it is no longer our friend, but our enemy; and we by the grace of God flee from it.

And this is something that God does for every soul He saves! We must never lose sight of this, for herein lies our hope, our peace, our assurance, yes, our very salvation that has been so freely given us in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Please, do not grow weary of me repeating these gracious truths, for I do it for your good. First, to you who are truly saved, that you may know what you have in Christ and rejoice in Him; and then to you who are deceived by this false gospel of carnal Christianity, that you may, by the grace of God, recover yourselves out of the snare of the devil (II Tim 2:25,26).

“I in them, and Thou in Me”

Can one be a Christian, justified, yet not free from sin? Are we to wait for this freedom in some future experience? Can we excuse ourselves, as some, by saying: “Well, it’s not me; but it’s my old flesh that sins.” Are we allowed to accept Jesus as Savior now, while refusing to bow to Him as Lord till a later date? This cannot be! Such a teaching cannot be because of our union with Christ -in all that He is, and has done, and is doing for us. Children of God have become identified with Christ, united to Him in an unchanging and unbroken union. Our blessed Lord is vitally interested in this union, for we read in His High Priestly prayer, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me... that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one” (John 17:20-23). So we see that our Lord prayed for this union with His people, which He purchased for them at the cross; and that this prayer has been answered, for in salvation we become one in Christ, and are thus enabled to hold out to the end in that persevering grace and faith freely given to us!

Again, the Scriptures declare that this union is of God our Father: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption” (I Cor 1:30). Yes, the Father purposed and planned it from eternity, the Son prayed for it and purchased it upon the cross; and I Corinthians 12:12,13 declares that the Holy Spirit has made it effective in the heart and life of each one of God’s children. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” We have it in plain words: we who are saved have been baptized into (or put into) one body, and that body is Christ. So we see then that we are united to Christ, who is “the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph 1:22,23).

In Romans 7:4 this union of the believer with Christ is spoken of as a marriage union: “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” How precious-married to Christ-given to Him in the spiritual bonds of matrimony, never to be divorced or separated, because we have been joined together in that inseparable union of love! Having been joined to Christ in that holy union of spiritual love, having pledged myself to Him for time and eternity, making Him my choice for ever, leaving all other lovers to cleave only unto Him as long as I live-how could I think of, much less practice, spiritual adultery? He has won my heart with His dying love; He has won my heart with the power of His resurrection; He has won my heart by all of His love gifts to my soul. Yes, He keeps me by His continued High Priestly work within the veil and His indwelling Spirit; and I have His promise that He is coming to receive me unto Himself, that where He is, there I will be also throughout eternity!

In light of all this, I ask: Could I ever leave Him or will He ever leave me, so as to be again under the rule of sin? Never! He has pledged Himself to get me home at last, without spot or blemish, and to present me blameless before the heavenly Father (Jude 24), who Himself chose me to be the bride of His Son for ever. And this to me is shouting grounds, because I have His Word for it; that having redeemed my never-dying soul from the pit of hell, snatching me from the captivity of Satan, He shall hold me to Himself for ever and ever and will not let me go! How? By both His constraining love and His constraining power which has fenced me in.

Examples

This all holds true in the physical life. If one loves his wife, then there’s no need for another. If all others have been forsaken for her, then there’s satisfaction and contentment, and that until death doth part. Now just as true love holds the husband and wife together, and they are true to each other; so in spiritual realities true love to Christ holds us true to Him in that marriage vow taken in salvation.

“Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Heb 13:4). If that is true in the physical, rest assured it is true in the spiritual also. And James 4:4: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” Yes, God will judge the spiritual adulterers and adulteresses who claim to be married to Christ and yet prostitute their love in the lust of sin. What God is saying here is that you are not saved if you live in sin! You are His enemy, and abide under His wrath!

Our union with Christ is brought out in these verses: “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?” (I Cor 6:15). “For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones” (Eph 5:30). Then in I Corinthians 6:15 the question is asked: “Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot?” And the answer follows: “God forbid”-perish the thought! Why? Because we have been bought with a price. We are not our own but belong to another, even to Jesus Christ Himself, our Head and Husband.

In I Corinthians 6:17 we find written that the child of God has oneness of spirit with Christ; therefore he will not make sin the rule and practice of his life. In Romans 8:35 we find written that the child of God has the love of Christ; therefore he will not make sin the practice and rule of his life. Or as II Corinthians 5:14 declares, “The love of Christ constrains us”-it holds us. Again in Colossians 3:4 it is written that the child of God has the very life of Christ in him; therefore he will not make sin the practice and rule of his life. And finally, Colossians 2:10, “Ye are complete in him”! The child of God is complete in Christ, and needs none other and nothing else to make him joyous, happy, content and satisfied while he waits for his Lover from heaven; therefore, he will not make sin the practice and rule of his life.

Yes, the Bible is full of reasons why the true child of God will not make sin the rule and practice of his life: he is dead in Christ, therefore dead to the life of sin. He is married to Christ, therefore bound in the law of love and matrimony. He is in Christ, therefore, he has the mind of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the love of Christ, yes, the very life of Christ dwelling in him by the Holy Spirit!

Personal Application

Glory, hallelujah and praise unto our risen Lord for such a Gospel, such a redemption, such a deliverance. A Gospel that sets us free in Christ Jesus to walk in the light! He has set us in heavenly places in Himself that we might have fellowship with our triune God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Yes, this true Gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus lets us live in heaven while we are yet on the earth!

Do you know anything about this Gospel that sets free from the law of sin and death? Have you ever experienced the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart to convict you of sin, righteousness and of judgment to come? Have your sins been set in order before your face, showing you your guilty condition before God? Has God the Holy Spirit ever brought before you your true condition, that you are deceived, that your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked? Can you remember Holy Spirit conviction, how you were brought down at the feet of God in true repentance, with a hatred for sin and a longing after holiness and righteousness, a longing to be freed from the penalty and power of sin, and the wrath of God? And can you remember hearing the Gospel of the grace of God, that good news of salvation and deliverance in Christ. Have you closed in with Him by faith, that faith given by the Holy Spirit to trust Him with your never-dying soul for time and for eternity?

Study Questions: Lesson 5

First please read chapter 5 in the text.

“That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” - Romans 5:21

How Have We Died to Sin?; page 27 - 28

1. In the 6th chapter of Romans we are taught that the believer is dead to sin. Someone might ask, “does this mean that the believer will never sin again?” To clarify this issue the author explains the ways in which the Christian is still affected by sin.

Please list these ways, and write the verse references given as support.

2. If then believers are still affected by sin, in what sense are we dead to sin? In your own words, list the four ways given in the summary paragraph.

“I in Them, and Thou in Me;” pages 28 - 30

3. Three aspects about the union between Christ and His bride make it impossible for the Christian to any longer be “married to sin.” List and briefly describe these three aspects.

Examples; pages 30 - 31

4. It is not possible for a husband truly to love his wife, and yet to carry on an adulterous relationship with another. In fact, if he loves her, there is no need for another. How does this apply spiritually?

5. The author states “we find written that the child of God has…” Four more aspects of the believer’s love-relationship to Christ are mentioned, to demonstrate that our union with Christ has delivered us from the slavery and practice of sin. What are these four aspects?

Personal Application; pages 31 - 32

6. At the end of this chapter, a series of questions are presented to the reader. Almost all of them have to do with whether or not God has brought you personally to true conviction and repentance of sin, so that you are no longer under sin’s control-where sin is no longer the rule and practice of your life. Please answer the questions that most convicted your own heart.