Picture this. You’re sharing the gospel. You are talking about how God forgives people, that God covers peoples sins by Jesus' death. You say that all our sins, past, present, and future, can be forgiven, no matter what. A person can know their home is in heaven, just because of what Jesus has done.
And the person says something like this, "Great, then I can live how I like. That means I can do what I like. I can sin all I like because of Jesus' death, and God has forgiven me."
Now why might someone respond like this to you and your gospel? Perhaps this might really sound like good news to the person. I get both heaven and to keep my sins. They think this because they want to keep their sins. Don Carson tells the story of a fellow student with whom he studied German. They met once a week for dinner. And Don observed that this man was visiting prostitutes once or twice a week. So Don, after getting to know him, challenged him about his marital unfaithfulness. But the man replied, with a bright smile, "Ah, God is good; he’s bound to forgive us; that’s his job."[1] So perhaps some people might say that they can do what they like, so that they get to keep their sins and heaven, too. So W H Auden said, "I like committing crimes. God likes forgiving them. Really the world is admirably arranged."[2] Or the Russian monk, Gregory Rasputin, who reputedly taught the family of the Tzar to sin with abandon, because that way they would experience more of God’s forgiveness than an ordinary sinner.[3]
But, in my experience, a different sort of person says this. A different person says "If that is the gospel, then I can sin all I like." This is a person who doesn’t just want to take heaven and keep their sins. The people who’ve said this thing to me are religious people, moral people, with strong convictions about right and wrong. For them, the inference "that means I can do what I like" is a false inference that shows that our gospel is wrong. Your forgiveness is too easy! Your God is too soft, too gullible, promises too much and asks too little. Surely the true God hasn’t set up things like this.
Here are two wrong responses to the gospel of grace. The first is that God lets me sin all I like! What good news. The second is that God would never let me sin all I like, would he? They reveal two misunderstandings of the gospel.
But today I want to congratulate you. I want to congratulate those of you who’ve heard those sort of responses to your gospel. Because you are in good company. Know that you have understood the true gospel.[4] Know you have told the true gospel the right way. For Paul had apparently been confronted with the same responses. If people say those sort of things to you, well done. They said the same things to Paul.
In Romans 5, we saw that we were rightly held by God to be sinners through Adam’s sin. However, through Jesus’ obedient life, sin bearing death, and vindicating resurrection, God holds us who believe as righteous in his sight (vv. 18-19). And despite the terrible consequences of Adam’s sin, God’s grace outran it, and absorbed it. If sin abounded and ran unchecked because of Adam, then grace superabounded to swallow up the sin because of Jesus. So now Paul asks what some might see as the logical consequence. Verse 1:
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase?
If sin increases grace, let's just keep on sinning. Someone might think that this is a great deal, stupidly assuming that God is a killjoy and sin is good for us and the way to live a good life, because God has been holding us back.
"No way", says Paul. For in chapter 6, Paul shows us that being joined to Jesus means that we are dead to sin.
Let me read verse 2 out for you:
We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Paul states that we have died to sin. As far as sin is concerned, we died. When did we die to sin?
Perhaps we died in our water baptism? Paul mentions baptism in verses 3 to 4. Let me read verses 3 to 4:
3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Now, water baptism as a symbol marks our entry into the Christian life. For Paul, it marks our conversion, that huge change of life that John Chapman calls ‘a fresh start’. Baptism marks nothing less than a renewal of creation in the converted person, which occurs at the time when we first trust Christ and repent. Baptism is not our conversion, of course. That involves trusting, repenting and believing. But baptism marks and signifies our conversion.[5]. And so Paul speaks of our burial with Christ ‘through baptism’.
But even our baptism points us earlier. When did we die to sin? When Jesus died, in AD 33, was when we died to sin. We died before we were born! For Paul bids us to look through baptism, as through a lens, a giant magnifying glass, so that we see clearly Jesus’ death. So the visual aid of baptism helps us see Jesus' death. For with Jesus and in his death, we were submerged and drowned in death. We lay buried with Jesus in his grave, as if at the bottom of the sea, but only for a moment, for we also rose again in newness of life with him, washed clean of every stain, on that first Easter day.
Friends in some wonderful way, God considers us to have died and been buried with Jesus, when Jesus died and was buried. Paul speaks about this elsewhere. Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ", is Paul’s cry, or Colossians 3:3, "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God". We were united with Jesus in his death. And we were buried with Jesus when Jesus was buried. Like a tandem bike, or a three legged race, or siamese twins, where Jesus went, we went,[6] with Jesus leading the way, and it is these things that baptism marks, signifies, and symbolises. Our baptism is the visual aid magnifying Jesus’ death and resurrection.
But hang on a minute? How can Paul say that I’ve died? I haven’t really died! In what sense have I died with Jesus?
Well, in verses 5 and 6, Paul explains in what sense our death with Jesus is similar to Jesus’ death. Read verse 5 and 6 along with me:
5If we have been united with him in [literally, the likeness of: NASB] his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin
We see that our death with Jesus is not identical with Jesus’ death. It is similar to Jesus’ death, but it is not the same as Jesus’ death. Paul says literally in verse 5, "we have been united with Jesus in the likeness of his death". Our death with Jesus was like Jesus' death, but it was not the same. Jesus died a natural death. His body was killed. But our bodies did not die with Jesus, either when Jesus died (our bodies were not yet born), when we were converted (we simply trusted Jesus and our body remained, as far as we can tell, unchanged), or when we were baptised (we just had a symbolic bath in water)! But something has died. The day Jesus died, our old self died. So in verse 6, "Our old self was crucified with him", or again in verse 6, "the body of sin" died. God nailed not us with Christ to the cross, but our sinful natures, our flesh, the old man. God took our sinful natures and crucified it with Christ. In that sense we died with Christ.
And so because we have died, God has justified us from sin. Verse 7:
because anyone who has died has been freed from sin[7].
The word ‘freed’ literally means ‘justified’. Paul then says that because we died with Jesus, we have been justified from sin. We have been acquitted and forgiven by God. At the cross, God pardoned our sins, a blessing won long before we were born. But this justification Jesus achieved for us is something we grasp now by faith.
And Jesus’ past guarantees our future. God considers that we died with Jesus when he died. And now Jesus’ lives. And so God says we too will live, just as Jesus now lives. Our bodies will die, but that is not the last word, if we are united to Jesus by faith. We will live with Jesus. Verses 8-10:
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.
Friends, it matters what you believe about Jesus. Many doubt whether Jesus rose from the dead. A Muslim objection is that Jesus did not die on the cross, so neither then did Jesus rise from the dead.[8] Many so-called Christians also don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead. But for Paul, it was the basis of our hope. We believe we will also live with him. As Jesus’ lives, so we will live. Our hope lies beyond the grave, for death ruled over Jesus for only a short time. From early on Good Friday afternoon till early on Easter Sunday morning, that far, and no further, did Jesus allow himself ruled by death. For Jesus submitted to death only to subdue it for us. And death will rule those who trust in Jesus for only a short time.
So in light of Jesus' death, in light of Jesus' resurrection, and in light of our death with Jesus, and our future resurrection with him, we are to consider ourselves dead to sin. Verse 11:
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Paul wants us to change our thinking about sin.
Notice how God is a wise father in his dealings with us. When I’m at my best as a dad, I give my kids reasons why they should obey me. I reaffirm that I love them: that is why I discipline them. I tell them about the dangers of disobeying, and the benefits of obeying. I could just command them, and sometimes I do, because I’m tired or frustrated, or because sometimes there’s just not time for a committee. But in my short experience I’ve found the more time consuming method is more effective.
Well, look at what God’s done in this chapter. God hasn’t just commanded us not to sin. God has spent 10 verses telling us what we mean to him, who we are in his sight, and what he has done for us, though Jesus Christ. And now he bids us to obey him. God says, "I think of you as forgiven. Heaven is your home, because of Jesus' death and resurrection. So don’t go back to what you were. Think differently about your sin, because I think differently about you. You are dead to sin, so live it out. Live out who you are in my sight." Verses 12-13:
12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
God is saying to us, "make decisions about sin in keeping with who you are. You are dead to sin. Therefore consider yourself dead to sin. You are alive to God. So live for God, not the things to which you died."
I would like us all to turn to Colossians chapter 3. I would like to step us through verses 1-14. It is a passage very similar to Romans 6. For Paul says we have died with Jesus, so we need to put to death. And I would like us to notice the way Paul says why we should put things to death, and what the things are that we need to put to death.
1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature:
You see Paul’s logic. You died with Christ, so put to death. And now Paul sprinkles through the why with the what.Verse 5:
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Because of who we are, we need to learn contentment with our sexual situation. We must not listen to the lies of our heart about these matters. Then Paul gives us more reasons why. Verses 6-8:
6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these:
And then Paul gives us some more things to put to death:
anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips.
We all have these things in our hearts don’t we? They rise up when we’ve been hurt, or when life is frustrating, or we feel we’ve been wronged. These we must put to death. Look at how Paul commands us not to lie. Verses 9-10:
9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self. Which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator ….
12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
God loves you. He chose you. Therefore, love one another. Forgive one another as Jesus forgave you. For those things will bind us together. Brothers and sisters, we are dead to sin. Let us live out this death.
Amen.
[1] D A Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, 75-76. Carson attributes it ultimately to Catherine the Great. Moo, Romans, 356, attributes it to Voltaire.
[2] Moo, Romans, 356.
[3] Bruce, Romans, 127.
[4] J M Boice, Romans: Vol 2, 644-5.
[5] What then is the function of our baptism? Why does Paul say it is through baptism that we died and are buried with Christ? I think Paul is showing the effect of baptism when it’s received rightly. We know that many people receive the sign of baptism. But we see few actually following Jesus and counting themselves dead to sin, because they haven’t combined the sign with faith. Baptism is the sign. But the reality it signifies is trusting Jesus, resting on him. And so Paul is speaking of the sign, baptism, when it is combined with faith. After all, Paul has been talking all about faith from chapter 3:21 to chapter 5 verse 2. We see this link between faith and baptism in Galatians 3:26-27: "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have been clothed with Christ."
[6] Compare the account which Moo provides (Romans, 364) but does not follow.
[7] Compare Acts 13:38.
[8] Bill Dennet, 62.