The Christian's New Address: Dead to Sin, Alive to God Text: Romans 6:1-14
Introduction: The Glorious Logic of Grace
The gospel of grace is the most potent, liberating, and dangerous truth in the world. When preached in its high-octane, biblical purity, it always provokes a certain kind of question. Paul has just spent five chapters laying out the glorious doctrine of justification by faith alone. He has declared that where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. This is a staggering claim. It means that the foulest sinner who repents and believes receives a grace that not only covers his sin but overwhelms it, like dropping a thimbleful of ink into the Pacific Ocean.
But this very glory creates a problem for the carnal mind, and even for the immature Christian mind. The question arises immediately, and if your gospel preaching never elicits this question, you are likely preaching a diluted gospel. The question is this: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?" In other words, if God's grace is a roaring fire that consumes sin, why not give it more fuel? If God loves to forgive, why not give Him more opportunities? Let's sin our heads off so that God can be glorified in His forgiveness. It is a perverse logic, but it is the kind of logic that only the sheer, unadulterated gospel can provoke.
Paul's answer is not to backpedal. He doesn't say, "Oh, I didn't mean grace was that free." No, he doubles down. His answer is a thunderous, "May it never be!" And the reason it may never be is not because it would be impolite, or because it would make God sad, or because it's against the rules. The reason is far more fundamental. It is an ontological impossibility. It is a metaphysical absurdity. A Christian continuing in sin is like a fish deciding to take up mountaineering. It is a contradiction of his very nature. Paul's argument in this chapter is that salvation is not merely a legal transaction that changes your standing before God. It is a spiritual union that changes you. You have been moved. You have a new address. You have been transferred from the kingdom of Adam to the kingdom of Christ, and the customs in this new country are radically different.
This chapter is the bedrock of Christian sanctification. It teaches us that our fight for holiness is not a desperate attempt to become something we are not, but rather a joyful, determined effort to live out who we already are in Christ. It is not about turning over a new leaf; it is about recognizing that in Christ, God has turned over the whole tree, roots and all.
The Text
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died has been justified from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
(Romans 6:1-14 LSB)
An Ontological Absurdity (vv. 1-2)
Paul begins by posing the scandalous question that his gospel of radical grace inevitably raises.
"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:1-2)
The response, "May it never be!" is the strongest possible negation in the Greek. It's an expression of horror. The thought is not just wrong; it's repugnant. And the reason for this horror is found in the next phrase: "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" Notice the verb tense. It is not "how shall we who are trying to die to sin," or "who ought to die to sin." It is a past tense, completed action. We died to sin. This is the foundational, objective fact of the Christian life. At the moment of our conversion, something definitive happened. A death occurred. Sin was our master, our environment, the very air we breathed in Adam. But in Christ, we have died to that entire realm. We have been unplugged from that power source. So for a Christian to ask, "Can I go on sinning?" is as absurd as a dead man asking if he can still get his mail delivered to the cemetery.
This is not primarily about our subjective experience. Many Christians feel very much alive to sin. But Paul is not building his argument on our feelings. He is building it on the bedrock of what God has accomplished for us and done to us in our union with Christ. The indicative (what is) precedes the imperative (what we must do). Before God tells us to be holy, He makes us holy in Christ. Our identity has been fundamentally altered. We are no longer "in sin"; we are "in Christ." To live in sin would be to attempt to live in a foreign country after your passport has been revoked and your citizenship transferred.
Union with Christ in Baptism (vv. 3-7)
Paul now explains the "how" of this death. How did we die to sin? He points to our baptism.
"Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:3-4)
Paul's question, "Or do you not know?" implies that this was basic, entry-level Christian teaching. The church at Rome should have known this. Baptism is not a mere symbol of our decision. It is not an optional extra for the really keen Christian. Baptism is the visible sign and seal of our union with Christ. It is the moment of our public incorporation into the covenant community. When we are baptized, God is picturing and sealing a profound spiritual reality: we are being plunged into Christ's death. The water goes over our head, and in that moment, we are united with Him in His burial. We are buried with Him.
But the grave is not the final word. Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, we too are raised. We come up out of the water to "walk in newness of life." Baptism is our personal passover and exodus. We go down into the waters of judgment and death, and we come up on the other side, into a new world, a new life, a new creation. This is not just turning over a new leaf; it is being given a new life to live.
Paul continues to unpack this reality:
"For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died has been justified from sin." (Romans 6:5-7)
Our union with Christ is total. If we are united to His death, we are necessarily united to His resurrection. You cannot have one without the other. And here Paul introduces a crucial concept: "our old man was crucified with Him." The "old man" is not your bad temper or your sinful habits. The "old man" is your former self, your identity in Adam. It is the unregenerate you, the person who was defined by rebellion and slavery to sin. That person was nailed to the cross with Jesus. God executed your old self in the person of His Son. The purpose of this crucifixion was so that the "body of sin might be done away with." This doesn't mean our physical bodies are evil, but rather that sin's organized power over us, its systemic control, might be broken. The result? "We would no longer be slaves to sin." A slave has no choice but to obey his master. In Adam, we had no choice but to sin. But in Christ, the chains have been broken. The tyrant has been deposed. And verse 7 gives the legal declaration of this reality: "he who has died has been justified from sin." The word "justified" here means to be set free. A dead man cannot be prosecuted. Because our old self died with Christ, sin's legal claim on us has been nullified. It can no longer drag us into court and demand our condemnation.
Reckon Yourselves Dead (vv. 8-11)
Now Paul moves from the objective reality to our subjective appropriation of it. He moves from the fact to the faith that must lay hold of that fact.
"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him... Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:8, 11)
The foundation is the unbreakable reality of Christ's own resurrection. Christ was raised, "never to die again; death no longer is master over Him" (v. 9). His victory over sin and death was once for all. And because we are in Him, His history is our history. His victory is our victory. Therefore, we are commanded to do something. "Consider yourselves..." The word is logizomai. It is an accounting term. It means to reckon, to count, to calculate as true. We are to take what God has declared to be true about us and count it as true in our own thinking. This is the central act of faith in the Christian's walk of sanctification.
You must preach this to yourself every day. When temptation comes, when sin whispers its old, familiar lies, you must reply with the truth of God. "I am dead to you. You are not my master anymore. I have a new master, a new life. I am alive to God in Christ Jesus." This is not a mind game. It is not positive thinking. It is aligning your mind with the ultimate reality that God has established in the death and resurrection of His Son. You are not trying to make it true by believing it; you are believing it because God has already made it true.
Present Yourselves to God (vv. 12-14)
This reckoning of faith must then issue in concrete action. The indicative leads to the imperative.
"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." (Romans 6:12-13)
Because sin is a deposed tyrant, we must not allow it to reign. It will try. It will rattle its old chains and shout its old commands. But it has no ultimate authority. We are commanded to refuse its rule. We do this by refusing to obey its lusts. And we do this by refusing to enlist our bodies in its service. Our "members", our hands, feet, eyes, tongues, are not to be handed over as "instruments of unrighteousness." The word for instruments can also mean weapons. We are not to arm the enemy.
Instead, there is a positive command. We are to "present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead." This is an act of total consecration. You belong to God now. You are His. Therefore, you are to present your members, your bodily faculties, to Him as "instruments of righteousness." Your hands are for serving, your feet for going, your mouth for praising and proclaiming truth. Your body is to become a weapon in the hands of God for the advancement of His kingdom.
Paul concludes with a glorious promise that undergirds this entire endeavor:
"For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace." (Romans 6:14)
This is the guarantee of our ultimate victory. Sin shall not have dominion. Why? Because we are no longer "under law." The system of law, while good and holy, could only reveal sin and condemn us. It gave commands but no power to obey them. It was like shouting "Swim!" to a drowning man. But now, we are "under grace." We are under a new covenant administration. We are under the reign of God's unmerited favor, which not only forgives our sin but also empowers us to fight it. Grace is not just pardon; it is power. It is the very life of God at work in us through the Holy Spirit, enabling us to do what the law could only demand. This is why the gospel of grace, far from promoting sin, is the only thing in the universe that can truly destroy it.
Conclusion: Live Who You Are
So, the answer to the question "Shall we sin that grace may abound?" is a resounding no. Not because of a list of rules, but because of a new reality. We have died. We have been buried. We have been raised. Our old identity was crucified with Christ. We are now, objectively and indefeasibly, alive to God.
The Christian life, therefore, is a process of becoming what you already are. It is the daily task of reckoning on this truth, believing God's verdict about you rather than your feelings or your failures. And it is the practical task of presenting your body, your time, your thoughts, your everything, to the God who bought you, raised you, and now lives in you.
You are not a sinner trying to become a saint. You are a saint who sometimes sins. Your identity is not "sinner." Your identity is "in Christ." Sin is no longer your master; it is a defeated, trespassing squatter. Do not let it reign. Do not give it your weapons. You have been set free. Therefore, live like it. Live in the glorious, dangerous, life-transforming power of the grace of God.