IF WE ARE DEAD TO SIN,
WHY DO WE STILL SIN?

November 2, 2005
Mike Blume

  Scripture Text:


Rom 6:1-2  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  (2)  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Rom 6:15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.


  Message:


This issue of victory over sinful living is something that is so DIFFERENT from what most all churches ever taught and is so unrealized, that it really is a problem, sometimes, to teach it to people.
  • They doubt it so much!
  • Romans 6 is not a chapter most people read very much.
  • It seems to exist as something people don't really understand, like some obscure truths that are quite boring to read.
  • Well, anything incomprehensible can be boring to read.
  • Try reading a textbook on quantum mechanics or brain surgery.

And as ministers our task is always to make something as easy to be understood and believed as possible, especially when it comes to scriptures hard to be understood.
  • That can be a tough task.
  • Imagine making brain surgery easy to understand.
  • That is how some think when we explain we need to understand Romans chapter 6.
  • But it really is not that complicated.
  • Tradition has clouded the issue, I believe.

Let us begin by saying WE ARE DEAD TO SIN.

6:3-7 says clearly that our water baptism is a burial with Christ that verse 17 adds we must have faith and believe from the heart.


Rom 6:3-7  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  (4)  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  (5)  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:  (6)  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  (7)  For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Rom 6:17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

  • Dunking you under water will do nothing in and of itself.
  • He that BELIEVETH AND IS BAPTIZED shall be saved (Mark 16:16).
  • We are baptized in water, AS WE BELIEVE FROM THE HEART that Christ's death is what was intended to count as our deaths, and we are identifying with His death so we can see it count as our deaths, and save us.
  • HE THAT IS DEAD IS FREED FROM SIN.
  • And we wanted to be freed from sin.

So many people have a vague knowledge of death to sin, but, for the life of them, cannot quite figure out why they still sin if they are dead to it.
  • You would think that being dead to something automatically means sin has no chance of ever operating in us again.
  • But that is incorrect.

PEOPLE DEAD TO SIN WILL STILL SIN IF THEY DO NOT GIVE GOD OPPORTUNITY TO LIVE THROUGH THEM.

Now, that immediately raises something that most believers are not aware of.
  • They can only do good if GOD DOES IT THROUGH THEM.
  • More about that later.


Let's dig into this.

We are dead to sin.
  • We already showed you two scriptures that simply state that as a fact.
  • And being dead to sin puts us into a position as follows:

Rom 6:7-11  For he that is dead is freed from sin.  (8)  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:  (9)  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.  (10)  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.  (11)  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We are so freed from sin that we are as dead to it as Jesus Christ was when He died to sin ONE SINGLE TIME.
  • It only takes one death.
  • That is why Hebrews 9:27 says it is appointed unto man ONCE to die.
  • And since Jesus died to sin, death has no more dominion over Him.
  • DIED uses the suffix ED.  That is to indicate PAST TENSE -- something is done and it is not continuing.
  • But LIVETH has a ETH suffix.  That means IT CONTINUES TO OCCUR.
  • So he died to sin, and we do not read HE DIETH to sin, as though he must presently die over and over again to sin, as some people teach we must do!
  • The only thing he continues to do is LIVE TO GOD.
  • Otherwise He would be ALIVE TO SIN all the time.
  • If you are ALIVE to something repeatedly, you must die to it all the time, only to see yourself live to it again and have need again of dying to it.
  • But He is dead to sin and ALIVE TO GOD.

Likewise, CONSIDER YOURSELF THE SAME.

BUT, STILL, WHY DO WE SIN, then?

Verse 12 gives a clue.

Rom 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

LET NO SIN REIGN.

"LET" implies allowing sin to reign.
  • This means WE HAVE A CHOICE.
  • God has put us in a position where sin cannot FORCE us to sin, although WE MAY ALLOW ourselves to sin.
  • THIS IS IMPORTANT.

We may not even realize we are LETTING sin reign over us when we sin, but that is why we sin.
  • You would think that if we KNEW we were LETTING sin rule, we would stop LETTING it rule.
  • And that is possible, of course.
  • BUT HOW TO STOP LETTING IT is the BIG QUESTION.

So we have moved on from asking WHY WE SIN, to HOW DO WE STOP ALLOWING SIN TO RULE OVER US?

This is a big step.
  • Most think THEY HAVE TO SIN.
  • Allowing themselves to sin is not in their minds at all, because they EXPECT TO Sin since they think THEY HAVE TO SIN.
  • So let us really allow these words to sink into our hearts here.
  • Paul said DO NOT LET SIN RULE.
  • If you sin, you have LET sin rule you.

And this reminds us of verse 2.

Rom 6:1-2  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  (2)  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

We do not have to CONTINUE in sin, since we are NOT LIVING TO SIN.
  • As Romans 6:10-11 said, WE LIVE TO GOD as much as Jesus does.

Another word we have to analyze is OBEY.

Rom 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

This brings us to another level!
  • We SIN BECAUSE WE ALLOWED SIN TO RULE, and WE OBEYED SIN.

This raises the issue of being SERVANTS!
  • Servants OBEY.
  • You not only ALLOWED sin to rule, but since it RULED, YOU OBEYED IT!
  • That made you A SERVANT.

Verse 13 sheds more light.

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

YIELD is the same word in Greek as PRESENT as in Roman 12:2... present your bodies a living sacrifice.

This tells us WE HAVE BEEN PRESENTING SIN WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO RULE US everytime we have sinned!
  • Paul say to NOT DO THIS ANY MORE.
  • The reason people dead to sin have sinned, is because they have BEEN PRESENTING THEMSELVES AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SIN TO RULE THEM.

Cut off that opportunity!
  • Stop presenting yourselves and ALLOWING sin to rule you and obeying sin.

So far, we first asked, "WHY DO I SIN?"
  • But we have progressed from WHY to "HOW DO WE STOP IT FROM RULING US?"
  • And now we can go further and ask "HOW DO WE STOP PRESENTING OURSELVES TO IT FOR IT TO RULE US AND SEE US OBEY IT?"

We may not have realized this either, but we have actually been presenting our bodies for sin to operate through them and cause us to commit sinful actions.
  • We yielded our BODIES/MEMBERS as INSTRUMENTS of unrighteousness.
  • Now we are told to YIELD TWO THINGS.
  • (1) YIELD YOURSELVES TO GOD as those alive from the dead.
  • (2) YIELD YOUR BODIES as instruments of righteousness.

This takes us back to 6:7-11.
  • Just as much as Jesus is dead to sin and alive to God, we are dead to sin and alive to God.
  • Get that fact so solidly in your mind that YOU ACTUALLY GO BEFORE GOD AND PRESENT YOURSELF AS SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THEY ARE ALIVE TO HIM.
  • God will not use people that are dead to Him.
  • Sin will use people that are dead to sin, though.
  • But God is HOLY.
  • He cannot use something dead to Him.
  • So you have to PRESENT GOD AN OPPORTUNITY.

Now, stop and realize something.
  • The answer is NOT MAKING YOURSELF STOP SINNING.
  • And it is NOT MAKING YOURSELF DO GOOD.
  • It is stop presenting yourself as an opportunity for sin to work in you, and start presenting yourself to God as an opportunity for Him to do righteousness through you!
  • Present yourself to God as someone who KNOWS THEY ARE ALIVE FROM THE DEAD, and therefore KNOWS THEY GOD CAN USE THEM.

Some people think God cannot use them.
  • They are condemned all the time.
  • And it's because they commit sins and mess up as we are teaching tonight, and that in turn creates a cycle that causes them to think God is UNABLE to use them since they are too filthy.

So one must have CONFIDENCE that God WANTS TO USE YOU.
  • And get that confidence by learning what happened to you when you were baptized.
  • You were enjoined to His death, causing you to be considered DEAD TO SIN, and therefore HOLY TO GOD.
  • You are RIPE MATERIAL for usefulness to God!

Imagine people thinking they're too unclean to be used by God, because they tried and tried to do good, and to stop sinning, and they never succeeded.
  • So they quit and gave up, EXPECTING TO SIN.
  • And all the while they were totally incorrect about their concept of how to serve God and that they were dead  to sin and holy for His use all along!


Yield YOURSELVES and YOUR BODIES as instruments.
  • Those two elements are mentioned in verses 12 and 13 as well.

Rom 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Sin cannot have dominion over you or FORCE YOU TO SIN, because you've been freed from sin by death.

This death is mentioned again here:

Rom 7:4  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.

Not only dead to sin, but also DEAD TO THE LAW!

DEAD BY THE BODY OF CHRIST.
  • That means HIS DEATH in HIS BODY BEING KILLED is the AVENUE for us to say WE BECAME DEAD, if we were baptized into that death.


Rom 6:15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

We should NOT BE SINNING.
  • If we sin, we have not realized verse 16.

Not only do we have to know WE DIED TO SIN, but also this:

Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

THIS IS DEALING WITH SERVANTS.
  • We now learn it is not just an issue of having to YIELD, but WE ARE SERVANTS WHO YIELD.
  • When we sin, we have presented ourselves as opportunity for SIN TO RULE IN US AND CAUSE SINS IN US.
  • WE HAVE OBEYED SIN.
  • We are informed that we have yielded to whomever rules over us.
  • We have ALLOWED them to rule when they were unable to force rule over us.

When people expect to always sin, THEY ARE YIELDING TO IT!
  • If you expect to sin, you do not realize you do not have to sin.
  • And you do not realize that you are actually YIELDING TO SIN and allowing it to work in you.

That is why we have to realize WE DO NOT HAVE TO SIN, BECAUSE WE ARE DEAD TO SIN.

Now, once we realize we're dead to sin, and we've simply been letting sin rule by giving ourselves to it due to expecting to sin, we stop expecting.
  • Now we need to learn about LETTING RIGHTEOUSNESS RULE INSTEAD.

I said we'd pick this up again, but WE ARE SERVANTS TO SOMEONE.
  • We will never be our own bosses.
  • WE CAN ONLY SERVE.
  • That means you are unable to make yourselves do good or stop sinning.

If we try to do good, by not realizing we can only be servants of someone, then we will experience this:

Rom 7:19-25  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.  (20)  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.  (21)  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.  (22)  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:  (23)  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  (24)  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  (25)  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Verse 25 sums up the problem.
  • When you want to to do good, but are unable to do it, your MIND serves God.
  • But your flesh is not, and instead is serving the law of sin and death.
  • You have the will to do good, but do not find the power to do it with your flesh.
  • You cannot make yourself stop sinning and do good.

Instead of making yourselves do good, yield to God as a SERVANT He wants to use, since you died to sin and are alive from the dead to serve God.
  • The problem is when you think you are your own boss, you did not realize there was a BOSS called sin to whom you yielded everytime, since he did not care if you were dead to him or not.
  • If you gave him the chance, he used you.
  • And so long as you do not give yourself to God to use, sin takes the chance.
  • SO NOW START YIELDING TO GOD!

Here is one great answer:
  • People dead to sin will still sin SINCE THEY ARE NOT YIELDING TO GOD as people dead to sin and alive to God for God to use.

Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Rom 6:17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Notice what changed our position as servants of sin.
  • We obeyed from the heart the doctrine that was delivered to us.
  • This is exactly what the next verse said:

Rom 6:6-7  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  (7)  For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Romans 6:17 = Romans 6:3-7

If we sinned after being freed from sin, we ignorantly allowed ourselves to yield to sin so it could rule over us.
  • Allowing something is not being forced by something without having a choice in the matter.
  • We always had a choice and never knew it.
  • We LET sin rule.
  • We GAVE OURSELVES to sin to rule, since we ignorantly EXPECTED sin to rule.

Believers ins when they do no t have to, because they DO EITHER NOT KNOW the truth or DO NOT APPRECIATE THE truth that they are dead to sin.
  • They expect to sin.

If you were freed from a dictator's government who tortured you and abused you, and you gave him the opportunity to rule over you due to your ignorance that you were freed, do you think he is going to stand there and say he cannot, because you died to him?
  • Of course not.
  • That is the way it is with sin.

When you finally know you are dead to sin, and all set up as a servant of God and of righteousness, to be able to present yourself as an opportunity for Him to live through you, you can do what you never realized nor believed you could do before.

There are two kinds of people who never succeed.

PEOPLE WHO..
1) Don't know they are dead to sin.
2) And Expect to sin.

OR PEOPLE WHO...
1) Don't know they are dead to .
2) And try to make themselves stop sinning or doing good.

Here is the recipe for successful victory.

1) Know you are dead to sin.
2) Know that when you sin you have allowed sin to rule you.
3) Do not make yourself do good and stop sinning, but yield to God and believe that when you present yourself, He'll take the opportunity and USE YOU and ENABLE YOU to do good.

God is inside us, but so is sin.
  • Sin is in our flesh though.
  • God is in our human spirits.
  • God is not a dictator like sin.
  • And God cannot use doubters while sin has no problem using doubters.
  • We must give God opportunity to LIVE THROUGH US by presenting ourselves to God's Spirit, knowing and recognizing we are ever only going to be servants who must ALLOW HIM TO LIVE THROUGH US, and OBEY HIS DIRECTIONS.
  • AND EXPECT TO DO GOOD!

This requires some faith.
  • It will take some time to realign your thinking.
  • That is why Romans later reads:

Rom 12:1-2  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  (2)  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

There is the YIELDING AGAIN!
  • And do not think of yourself in your mind as someone like the rest of the world.
  • RENEW YOUR MIND.
  • ALIGN YOUR THINKING with the actual situation.
  • Get the false notion out that you are a failure.
  • You failed because your whole concept was wrong and that shaped your outlook of yourself as a failure.
  • YOU ARE HOLY.
  • BECAUSE YOU DIED TO SIN.
  • You just need to THINK about yourself differently now, and go out and PROVE the will of GOD!

Expecting is FAITH.
  • Most have more faith for failure.
  • Not success.

Once you spend some time after knowing the truth and the proper concept to have, and start considering yourself dead to sin and alive to God so you can present yourself to Him and see Him use you, you will find it EASIER TO HAVE FAITH FOR THIS.
  • How could you have faith for this when you believed you HAD to sin?
  • No wonder people cross their eyes when they hear someone say they do not have to sin.
  • They expected it for years, and certainly did it, and never learned Romans 6.

You'll say, "Now that I know I am dead to sin, and that I have been allowing sin to rule in me and giving it opportunity to do so, since I have been EXPECTING TO SIN, not knowing the reality, ....
  • And now that I know I can only ever be a servant, who cannot make myself stop sinning nor make myself do good...
  • And now that I know I have not even been giving God the chance to LIVE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS THROUGH ME,
  • I will ever present myself to God for Him to USE!"