“For we know that our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.” (Romans 6:6-7)
“Dead men don’t lust.” I think that would make a great t-shirt don’t you? Or maybe it could be a bumper sticker for your car? You could just as easily substitute: “Dead women don’t gossip.” Or to be gender neutral it could say: “Dead people don’t lie”. Or covet, or steal or, well you get the point.
Romans 6 paints the picture of two very different lives: The life in Adam which is enslaved to sin and the life in Christ which through grace and faith is enslaved to God. In order to be freed from our sin-dominated life which we inherited from Adam, we must die to it (verse 2). It is not enough to work at freedom. It is not enough to struggle with sin. The old man must die so that a new man can rise within us. When we place our trust in Christ as our sufficiency before God, our bondage in Adam is broken through being united with Christ on the cross. Because of the resurrection of Jesus, sin’s mastery over us has been broken. Death’s hold on us has been vanquished because we also have within us the risen life of Christ. Paul tells us that if we died with Christ, then we also rise with Christ and death has no hold on him.
Therefore we are to consider ourselves dead to sin. How do we do this? Sometimes when I find myself acting like my old Adamic self again (in other words sinning), I remind that lower fleshly self out loud: “You’re dead self. You’re crucified sin. And dead men don’t sin. I’m dead. But thanks be to God, Christ is alive in me. Now, Lord Jesus, live your life through me. Let your resurrection victory be manifested in my life today.” How often do you do this, you might ask? Until I experience this theologically correct reality in my everyday experience.
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