“How can we who died to sin still live in it?” – Romans 6:2b

“Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.” – Thomas Watson

It is no secret that Christians sin.  Not only do we sin, many of us are eager to avoid any insinuation that we shouldn’t, and when we have let our fellow man down we repeat the worn out cliché “Christians aren’t perfect; they’re just forgiven!” as if this makes it alright.

We have collectively set the bar at “sin” so that when we do sin, we have simply aligned ourselves with expectations.

The only problem with this view point is that it has no support in scripture. Sure, we see from Biblical testimony that God’s followers are far from perfect, but this is always presented as part of the problem, not a pattern for us to emulate.

There are many reasons why Christians sin and there are many ways for us to avoid sin.  It is my goal in writing this to outline a few of these reasons and to share Biblical principles that will help us avoid sin in the future.

Problem: We sin because we expect to sin.

If we wake up each morning with the expectation that we are going to sin, we have already lost the battle.  There is little difference between expecting to sin and planning to sin.  Paul addresses this idea in Romans 6:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 

Even though God’s grace is abundant in our sin, this is no excuse or motivation to sin or to not avoid sin.  In Christ, we have the victory whether we sin or do not sin, but for the believer to sin is going against his nature. 

Solution: Consider yourself dead to sin.

Paul finishes his thought by saying:

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:9-11)

Just as Christ was victorious over death and death no longer has power over him, we, in Christ, are victorious over sin. We are dead to it.  It should no longer rule us.

Problem: We give ourselves the option to sin.

Another reason we sin is because at some point we considered that we were choosing between two alternatives: righteousness and sin.  We layed these two options before us, considered the pros and cons, and decided to partake of sin.

Solution: Sin is not an option.

Part of considering ourselves dead to sin is removing that as an option.  James 3:11 asks, “Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?” In John 8:12 Jesus says “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 

It is not only not ideal for a Christian to continue in sin, it is illogical.

Problem: We do not know God’s word.

In 2 Kings,  King Josiah orders that the temple be repaired. In the process of this repair, Hilkiah the priest finds the Book of the Law. Hilkiah brings the book to the king and the king has his secretary read it to him:

When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.” (2 Kings 22:11-13)

If we do not know God’s word, we do not know what sin is. If we do not know what sin is, how can we avoid it?

Solution: We must know God’s word and make ourselves responsible to it.

“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” – Psalm 119:11

Problem: We do not see or believe the benefits of righteousness.

Many people view righteousness as doing something you don’t want to do and not doing things you want to do…all to please God.  I know this because this was my point of view for much of my life.

With this attitude, living a holy life is nigh impossible. 

Solution: We must believe in God’s goodness and the goodness of His commandments.

“But you are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are true.” – Psalm 119:151

God was not haphazard when he identified sin to us. He did not do it simply to create an arbitrary standard. He didn’t give us His commandments simply to keep us busy or defeated.  God’s commandments show us who we are.

In Knowing God, J.I. Packer explains how this works:

God commands are true. Why are they so described? First, because they have stability and permanence as setting forth what God wants to see in human lives in every age; second, because they tell us the unchanging truth about our own nature. For this is part of the purpose of God’s law: it gives us a working definition of true humanity. It shows us what we were made to be, and teaches us how to be truly human, and warns us against moral self destruction. This is a matter of great importance, and one which calls for much consideration at the present time.

Problem: We do not truly believe we can avoid sin or live a holy life before God.

Most Christians believe it impossible to avoid sin, and if they do believe it possible, they do not believe it possible for any length of time.  Because of this, most choose to loose the battle because they cannot win the war.

Solution: We must believe that God does not give us an unattainable goal and that He provides us ways to avoid temptation, as He promises.

As Christians, we absolutely can please God.  Do we please Him by living in sinless perfection? No, not exactly. We please Him by striving to live in sinless perfection.

See, it’s not about whether you will be successful 100% of the time. It’s about whether or not you are trying to align youself with the heart of God and view sin as He does.

Additionally, we have God’s promise that we absolutely can avoid sin when we are tempted:

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”  – 1 Corinthians 10:13

It goes without saying that a prerequisite for applying this is believing it.

So what do we do with the knowledge that we probably will not successfully avoid sin for the rest of our lives (the ability or not to do this aside)?  We can answer this question by examining our response to other things we are unlikely to achieve.  It is unlikely that you will go the whole rest of your life without getting sick, but do we not wash our hands and avoid germs? It is likely that most of us will hurt a loved one at some point in the future, but does this mean that you should not try to avoid hurting loved ones?  Of course not.

Apply the same standard to sin.

Summary

Sin is always associated with death.  Romans 6:23 warns us that the outcome of sin is death. We see in Genesis 3 that one of the consequences of sin is death…both spiritually and physically. The latter being representative of the former.

We are crucified with Christ and consequently we no longer live. Christ, rather, lives in us. (Galatians 2:20)

How can we who died to sin still live in it? Quite simply, we cannot.

Christians aren’t perfect, but they should try to be, by the power of Christ.

[*Thanks to Josh Stone who first called my attention to Romans 6 and what it means for believers.]