Dead to Sin
In chapter 5 we learned when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior we are justified by Jesus. This chapter discusses Sanctification. What does it mean to be Dead to Sin? After accepting Jesus how do we live? How can we have victory over sin?
This is a Bible Study. Have your own Bible handy to look up the references mentioned.
If you do not have a Bible, I invite you to go to BibleGateway.com or another online Bible.
1. If we are saved by Jesus is it possible to continue in sin so grace may abound?
NO, we are not to continue in sin!
2. God forbid.
“May it never be!” (MacArthur, John, The MacArthur Bible Commentary. [Nashville, Thomas Nelson Inc., 2005], 1523)
“Used fourteen times in Paul’s epistles (ten in Romans: 3:4,6, 31; 6:2,15; 7:7,13; 9:14; 11:1,11), this expression is the strongest Greek idiom for repudiating a statement, and it contains a sense of outrage that anyone would ever think the statement was true” (MacArthur, 1523)
“Because we are ‘in Christ’ (6:11; 8:1), and He died in our place (5:6-8), we are counted dead with Him.” (MacArthur, 1523)
We cannot continue to live in sin!
“To obey the cravings of sin is to be alive to sin; but not to obey the cravings of sin or succumb to its will, this is to die to sin.” (Mounce, Robert H, The New American Commentary, Volume 27, Romans. [Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995], 149)
3. “All Christians have, by placing saving faith in Him, been spiritually immersed into the person of Christ, that is, united and identified with Him (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:17; 10:2; Galatians 3:27; 1 Peter 3:21; 1 John 1:3).” (MacArthur, 1523)
Alive in Jesus
4. “Since we are united by faith with Jesus, as baptism symbolizes, His death and burial become ours.” (MacArthur, 1523)
“In Jesus Christ we have died to sin so that we no longer what to ‘continue in sin.’ But we are not only dead to sin; we are also alive in Christ.” (Wiersbe, Warren W, The Bible Exposition Commentary New Testament Volume 1 Matthew-Galatians. [Colorado Springs: David C Cook, 2004], 531)
5. “Too many Christians are ‘betweeners’: they live between Egypt and Canaan, saved but never satisfied: or they live between Good Friday and Easter, believing in the cross but not entering into the power and glory of the resurrection.” (Wiersbe, 531)
“If it is true that we have been united with Christ in his death—and we have—it then follows that we are also united with him in his resurrection.” (Mounce, 150)
6. “Your old nature is crucified with Him…the body of sin has been put out of business, so that from now on we should not be in bondage to sin.” (McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible: Volume IV: [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983], 684)
“Our old self died with Christ, and the life we now enjoy is a new divinely-given life that is the life of Christ Himself (cf. Galatians 2:20) (MacArthur, 1525)
We are not to serve sin.
Free from Sin
7. Once you die you are free from sin.
We are “no longer under its domination and control.” (MacArthur, 1523)
8. “If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also be living with Him both here and hereafter.” (McGee, 684)
If you die today, do you know where you will go?
Do you want to accept Jesus and become a Christian?
9. Jesus has been raised from the dead. He will not die again.
“The Resurrection opens up eternity to Christ, and it will open up eternity to those who will trust Him.” (McGee, 684)
10. “He not only paid the penalty for sin, but He broke the power of sin.” (Wiersbe, 532)
“He died one time, but He is alive today. And He ever lives to make intercession for those who are His. Because of this, He can save you right through to the uttermost.” (McGee, 684)
11. “We are to count on the fact that we are dead unto sin and alive unto God.” (McGee, 684)
“Our responsibility is to take with all seriousness the fact that in Christ we have died to sin.” (Mounce, 153)
Yield to God
12. “Don’t let sin keep on reigning in your body, that you should obey the desires of the body.” (McGee, 684)
“The brain and its thinking processes are part of the body and thus tempt our souls with its sinful lusts (cf. 8:22-23; 1 Corinthians 15:53; 1 Peter 2:9-11).” (MacArthur, 1524)
13. “God wants to use the members of the body as tools for building His kingdom and weapons for fighting His enemies.” (Wiersbe, 533)
“The reason most of us get into trouble is because we yield ourselves to the old nature. By an act of the will we can yield ourselves to do God’s will through the new nature.” (McGee, 684)
“Although we will not get rid of that old nature in this life, we are told now ‘Yield yourselves unto God.’ Just as you yield to do sin, you are to yield yourself unto God ‘as those that are alive from the dead.’ You’re now alive in Christ. You have a new nature. You’ve been born again.” (McGee, 685)
MacArthur defines your members as: “The parts of the physical body, the headquarters from which sin operates in the believer (7:18, 22-25; cf. 12:1; 1 Corinthians 9:27.) (MacArthur, 1524)
God’s Grace
14. “It is because of God’s grace that we yield ourselves to Him. Paul as proved that we are not saved by the law and that we do not live under the law. The fact that we are saved by grace does not give us an excuse to sin, but it does give us a reason to obey. Sin and law go together.” (Wiersbe, 533)
“The Law was given to control the old nature. As a believer, you are not to live by the old nature. You have a new nature, and you are to yield yourself or present yourself to God. What a glorious, wonderful privilege it is to present ourselves to Him!” (McGee, 985)
References
In this article Scripture quotations taken from KJV.
McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible: Volume IV. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983
MacArthur, John, The MacArthur Bible Commentary. Nashville, Thomas Nelson Inc., 2005
Mounce, Robert H, The New American Commentary, Volume 27, Romans. Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995
Wiersbe, Warren W, The Bible Exposition Commentary New Testament Volume 1 Matthew-Galatians. Colorado Springs: David C Cook, 2004
Death Through Sin Free from Sin
