Dead Men Don’t Sin

We started a new section of Romans today, looking at Romans 6:1-11 and especially at the first two verses.
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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.5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
In this passage Paul takes up the very important question of the Christian’s relationship to sin. If we are saved by grace, why not keep sinning? If grace abounds when sin abounds, why not keep sinning that grace may abound? Paul rejects this thinking forcefully. “By no means!” But his reason for rejecting it is most interesting. “How can we who died to sin still live in it.” In other words – “Dead men don’t sin.” Now by this Paul does not mean it is completely impossible for believers to sin. He means that our “old self” (vs 6) has been crucified with Christ, and because of that, we are no longer “enslaved” to sin. In other words, because we have died with Christ, the sovereignty of sin over us, and our enslavement to it has been undone. But, it would seem, this does not mean we are totally free of it. We must still “not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.” vs 13. For Paul the fact that we have been united to Christ, and therefore to His death, means that we have died. And because we have died, we must not, in fact cannot, continue in sin. Christian, you are not enslaved to sin, so do not sin! Christian, you have been raised with Christ, so walk in newness of life!