New Life In Christ Sermon

Dead To Sin, Alive To God

Romans 6:1-14 (Csb)

There is something every person in this room understands, whether they have been following Jesus for forty years or whether they walked through these doors for the first time this morning. It is the experience of wanting to be different and finding that wanting is not enough. You resolve to change. You mean it sincerely. And then the same old patterns reassert themselves, and you wonder whether real transformation is even possible for someone like you.

The Apostle Paul knew that question was coming. He had just finished explaining in Romans 5 that where sin increased, grace increased all the more. The moment he wrote that, he could hear the objection forming in the minds of his readers. If grace covers sin so completely, why not just keep sinning? Why not let sin run its course so that grace can keep multiplying? Paul's answer in Romans 6 is not a gentle suggestion. It is a theological earthquake. And it is the foundation of what we mean when we talk about new life in Christ.

The central claim of this passage is this: because of your union with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection, sin is no longer your master. You are not trying to become someone new. In Christ, you already are someone new. The task now is to live out what is already true.

Let us walk through this passage carefully.

What Happened To You In Christ

Paul opens with a question that stops the objection cold. "What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:1-2, CSB).

Notice that Paul does not say we are trying to die to sin. He says we died to sin. Past tense. Completed action. He is pointing to something that has already occurred. Then he explains what that something is.

"Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:3-4, CSB).

Baptism here is not the water itself doing a saving work. Paul is using the ordinance of baptism as the visible declaration of a spiritual reality. When a believer goes under the water, they are testifying to something that has already happened in their union with Christ. They are saying: I have been joined to his death. When they rise from the water, they are saying: I have been joined to his resurrection. The water is the public announcement of a private miracle.

The word Paul uses for union in verse 5 is a rich one. He says we have been united with Christ in the likeness of his death. The idea is of two things growing together, joined at the root. You cannot separate them. What happened to Christ has happened to you. His death was your death. His burial was your burial. His resurrection is your resurrection.

This is the doctrine of union with Christ, and it is the engine that drives everything else in the Christian life. You are not merely forgiven and left to manage your behavior on your own. You are joined to the risen Lord. His life is your life. His victory over sin and death belongs to you because you belong to him.

The Old Self And The New Reality

Paul continues: "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin." (Romans 6:6-7, CSB).

The old self is not simply your bad habits. It is the whole person you were before Christ, defined by sin, driven by sin, enslaved to sin. Paul says that person was crucified. Not reformed. Not improved. Crucified. The power of sin's ownership over you was broken at the cross.

Now here is where we need to be honest about something, because this is where many believers get confused. If the old self was crucified, why do I still struggle with sin? Why does temptation still feel so real and so strong?

Paul is not saying that sin no longer exists in your experience. He is saying that sin no longer has legal ownership over you. Think of it this way. A prisoner who has served their sentence and been released is free. The prison still exists. The habits formed inside may still press on the person. The old neighborhood may still call. But the legal claim of that prison over that person's life has ended. They are free. The question is whether they will live like free people or keep returning to the cell door.

That is precisely the tension Paul is addressing. Sin's dominion over you has been broken. You are free. But freedom must be walked in. It must be claimed and exercised. And that is why Paul moves from the indicative to the imperative.

What You Must Now Do With What Is True

Beginning in verse 11, Paul shifts from what God has done to what you must do in response. "So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:11, CSB).

The word consider means to reckon, to count something as true, to act on the basis of a reality. Paul is not asking you to pretend. He is asking you to agree with what God says about you and to live accordingly. You are dead to sin. Count it so. You are alive to God. Count it so.

Then in verse 12 he says: "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires." (Romans 6:12, CSB).

Notice the logic. Sin cannot reign over you without your cooperation. Paul says do not let it. That means you have a say. You have agency. You are not a helpless victim of your own nature any longer. The power of the Holy Spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, is at work in you. You can say no. You can refuse to hand your body over to sin's demands.

Verse 13 makes this even more concrete: "And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness." (Romans 6:13, CSB).

Paul uses the language of weapons or instruments. Every part of you, your mind, your hands, your words, your time, your desires, can be offered either to sin or to God. The Christian life is not passive. It is an active, daily, deliberate offering of yourself to the God who has already claimed you.

And then comes the great anchor of verse 14: "For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace." (Romans 6:14, CSB).

This is not a wish. This is not an encouragement to try harder. This is a declaration. Sin will not rule over you. The reason is not your willpower. The reason is your position. You are under grace. Grace is not merely the forgiveness of past sins. Grace is the ongoing, sustaining, empowering reign of God over your life through Jesus Christ. Under grace, you have everything you need to walk in the freedom Christ has purchased for you.

What This Means For How You Live

Let us bring this down to where we actually live.

First, your identity is settled. You are not a sinner trying to become a saint. If you are in Christ, you are a saint who still struggles with sin. That is not a small distinction. It changes how you see yourself, how you pray, how you get up after you fall. You do not come back to God as a failure begging for another chance. You come back as a child returning to a Father who has already declared you righteous in his Son.

Second, your struggle with sin is real but it is not hopeless. Paul never pretends that the Christian life is effortless. He commands you to resist, to refuse, to offer yourself actively to God. That means there is a fight. But it is a fight you are having from the winning side. Christ has already defeated sin's ultimate claim. You are working out in daily life what he has already accomplished in his death and resurrection.

Third, the ordinance of baptism is not a ritual to complete and forget. It is a testimony to return to. When you were baptized, you declared publicly that you died with Christ and rose with him. On the days when sin presses hard, you can return to that declaration. You can say: I have been buried with him. I have been raised with him. That is who I am. That is what is true of me.

Fourth, the Christian life is not a solo project. Paul writes to a community. The you in this passage is often plural. You together are dead to sin. You together are alive to God. The local church is the community of people who are helping one another walk in the newness of life that Christ has given. You need each other for that.

A Word To Those Who Are Still Seeking

If you are here today and you have not yet placed your faith in Jesus Christ, this passage is an invitation. The new life Paul describes is not a self-improvement program. It is a gift that comes through trusting Christ. He died for your sins. He rose from the dead. And when you trust him, you are joined to him. His death counts for your sin. His life becomes your life. That is the gospel. And it is available to you today, not because of anything you have done, but because of everything he has done.

For those who are already in Christ, the invitation is the same one Paul gives in verse 11. Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Not someday. Today. Walk in the newness of life that is already yours.

Sin does not have to win today. Not because you are strong enough, but because Christ is risen, and you are in him.

Sources Consulted

Douglas J. Moo, The Letter to the Romans, New International Commentary on the New Testament, second edition, Eerdmans, 2018.

Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Baker Academic, 1998.

John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, New International Commentary on the New Testament, Eerdmans, 1968.

D. M. Lloyd-Jones, Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 6, The New Man, Banner of Truth, 1972.

The Christian Standard Bible, Holman Bible Publishers, 2017.