Romans 6:1-4

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

I heard sermon once that focused on the idea that Christians have the freedom to sin if they want. And though many of us would scoff at such an idea, especially for a sermon, the truth is that many of us live with the mind-set that there are certain sins that we will just never defeat, so we live our lives thinking that these sins are acceptable. We live on thinking, “Thats okay, I know it is not the best, but this is what Jesus died for, so I’ll just keep on living this way because its too hard to change.” We also think things like, “If I were to fight sin in every area of my life, my faith would seem too radical.” The Apostle Paul annihilates this kind of thinking in these verses. It is reminiscent of what he writes in Hebrews 10:26 “if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” The simple truth is that Christians do not have the prerogative to continue sinning. The statement, “may it never be,” is founded upon two fundamental truths that should motivate us to fight sin wherever we find it.

The first reason that Christians should not sin is death. Believers are baptized into the death of Christ. This means that we are supposed to die with Christ. The practical implication is that our sin should die with Christ on the cross. The reality is that we live temporarily - until Christ completes our salvation by bringing us into the eternal kingdom - with sinful flesh. Thus, the seeming paradox is that we have died with Christ, yet our sinful flesh is not completely gone yet. We have to kill it every day. Our mind-set should be one of “I need to watch out for sin, and kill it where ever I can find it.” This vigilance should be motivated by the death of Christ. If we want to magnify the death of Christ in our lives, we need to be warriors against sin. Every time we claim victory over sin in the name of Christ, His death is magnified and proclaimed throughout the universe. Remember, we have a “cloud of witnesses,” and these are things “into which angels long to look,” and because of this we should desire to say with our lives as often as possible that Christ’s death made a difference. So, ask yourself the question, “Is Christ’s death motivating you to kill sin where ever you find it?” On the contrary, when we continue in sin, thinking that it is fine because Jesus paid for it, we are saying that Christ’s death was not all that powerful. When we allow sin to continue to have dominion over us, we are saying that Jesus is a small Savior incapable of killing this sin in our lives. What do you want to say with your life?

The second reason Paul gives for not sinning is the life of Jesus. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, we are supposed to walk in newness of life. Thus, we are not only to kill sin, but to remember the life that follows. We would be a negative group of people indeed if all we did was put sin to death. We would become judgmental and discouraged and well, Pharisees. However, the greatness of the gospel is that it not only can kill sin and lead us to holiness, but it gives us new life. We are dead without this part of the message. We can stop sin everywhere, but we would still die because of former transgressions. Now, through faith in Christ, we have life. What this means is that when we kill a sin like anger, we can put on a fruit of the spirit such as patience. For every negative that is put to death, there is a positive we should bring to life to take its place. This is important, because often when we just stop doing a particular sin, we don’t replace it with a positive attitude or behavior, and what happens? We are committing the same sin again before we know it because we haven’t enjoyed the positive behavior the resurrection should bring.

So, lets be about killing and bringing to life today. What sin has bothered you for a while? Kill it, and put on the life of Christ.