Death and Life

Paul asked the Christians in Rome, "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Rom 6:2). He goes on to explain in what sense we have died to sin -- buried with Christ and raised to "newness of life" (Rom 6:3-4), and that's all clear, but that question nags at me. "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?"

We (believers) live in this constant dichotomy. "What I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate" (Rom 7:15). Because we, you see, are in a different position than unbelievers. We are in a different category than the unregenerated. They are "slaves of sin" (Rom 6:17). They sin because it's their nature to do so and they have no other options. They are hostile to God. If "good" is defined as "love God with all your heart," they can't. And we ... can.

Paul says, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God" (Rom 6:12-13). So we do it by choice. Paul says we can be "slaves of righteousness" (Rom 6:20). We can be "alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom 6:11). That's what I want. I want to be dead to sin and alive to God. I don't want to just visit that place; I want to live there. I won't be able to this side of human life, but I can get ever closer. That's where I want to be.