Someone made a great statement back in preaching class in seminary:
“If there’s a mist in the pulpit,
there will be a fog in the pews.”
Isn’t that good? But it is so true, and when the Apostle Paul starts Romans chapter 6, he creates a mist in our minds that grows into a fog for others as soon as we try to teach it. I’m referring to another of Paul’s confounding statements:
“How can we who died to sin still live in it?”
Paul forms this as a question, but with the question He is declaring a fact: We have died to sin.
I could never understand this. Never, until I understood Identity. Let me explain. The first few verses of Romans 6 set the table for our understanding of Identity. And our identity is found in the Greek word for “baptism,” which occurs three times in these verses.
The original definition of baptizo (the Greek Word) meant literally “to dip or immerse” something into a liquid, like a dye to color it, or in water to cleanse it. Figuratively, it meant “to identify something with that which it was immersed into.” Thus, a cloth is baptized (dipped) into a dye, so that the cloth and the dye have the same identity.
This understanding of the Greek definition must be in our minds as we come to study Romans 6. In verse 2, again, Paul asks, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?”
When did you die to sin?
We died to sin when Jesus died to sin.
How could that be? He died 2,000 years ago. I haven’t yet died.
Not physically, but you have died in your spirit.
This is accomplished through baptism. Not the water baptism done down at church. Being dunked in water cannot bring about our death to sin. But the ancient Greek understanding of baptism can do this.
When you accept Jesus Christ as your savior, the Holy Spirit dips your spirit, or immerses your spirit, into the historical life of Christ Jesus. Your spirit life —not your physical life, of course— is immersed into the history that Christ lived in 33A.D. Your spirit was immersed into Christ’s death, His burial, and His resurrection, so that His death, burial and resurrection become your death, burial and resurrection, too. Through this baptism His history becomes your history. His death becomes your death, and so, His resurrection becomes your resurrection. This changes your identity. Your spirit is now identified with Christ, and His life becomes your life in the spirit.
Since He died to sin, you have died to sin. Your soul has not died to sin. Your body has not died to sin. Only your spirit was immersed by the Holy Spirit into Christ. Therefore, your spirit has died to sin, and you should no longer live in it (Rom 6:2).
Romans 6:7 Paul re-phrases it this way: he who dies is freed from sin. If you die, then you are no longer going to sin. Dead people don’t sin, in case you hadn’t noticed.
You died. Your spirit died through being immersed into Christ, who died.
Therefore, you are no longer a sinner in your spirit. Your body and soul can overwhelm you, take control of you and lead you to sin. But your spirit has been made a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), and your spirit does not sin.
God made you brand new at the level of identity. Spirit is the place of identity, and your spirit has been “dipped” into Christ, so that His life is your life. His identity is your identity. Even the Apostle John says in I John 4:17, ” . . . as He is, so are you now, in this world.” As He is, so are you. Well, He is righteous and He does not sin. So, it is for me, in my spirit.
My spirit does not sin, so I should no longer live in sin.
So many people in my Christian reading and listening are trying to get me to quit sinning by guilting me, shaming me, scaring me, or lecturing me. God has a better way. He dipped my spirit into the breakthrough freedom of Christ. My spirit is now free to express the resurrection life of Christ.
Application: just be who you are, and walk in the Spirit. You are a spirit-being, and your spirit will not sin. Your soul and body will be triggered to lure you into sin. So, walk in the Spirit, and from your spirit you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Gal 5:16).
The truth will set you free, so ask the Holy Spirit to teach this to you.
-Carter