We Died to Sin

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Romans 6:1-2 NKJV

What does it mean that we died to sin? Here ‘we’ indicates the regenerated people, the born again Christians. Something has happened when we believe in Jesus Christ the Lord. What is it? Human beings are born in the fallen state since the fall of Adam. The devil deceived humanity to violate the command of God. The Scripture calls it sin. Whatever that is, humans inherently have a serious problem which leads to death. The death means not only the cessation of physical life but the absence of life like no excitement, joy, vitality, and love. It causes humans to be suffering endlessly from the sense of insignificance, pettiness, emptiness, meaninglessness, and worthlessness. The Scripture calls it the slavery of sin and death. The powerful dark force and relentless heavy burden are upon the shoulder of humans.

But that formidable force has been loosed to those who received Jesus Christ the Lord because the Son is incomparably more powerful than that of the devil (Mark 3:27).  The moment of release and liberation from the slavery and bondage of evil power through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ was when we died to sin. Humans are three-fold beings—body, soul, and spirit. The moment Adam fell was the time that the human spirit died by the invasion of the dark force of evil. But now the human spirit is recaptured by the invasion of the Holy Spirit through faith in the Son Jesus Christ. So, as Apostle John puts it, the children of light cannot go on sinning. “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” (1 John 3:9 NKJV)

However, the human body is not yet redeemed. The Scripture calls it the seat of sin. So, we sin and fail at times until the redemption of our body. “Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:23 NKJV) Even if we fail and make errors, the Scripture says that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus because the sons of light were propitiated through the blood of the Son (Romans 8:1).  

With this infallible hope given from the heaven above we persevere and endure and stay under His marvelous grace. “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.” (Romans 8:24-25 NKJV) On that day which is much closer and nearer than we first believed, we will be clothed with the heavenly tent which God made by His hand (Romans 13:11, 2 Corinthians 5:1-2).

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:1-8 NKJV)