How Are We Supposed to “Die to Sin”?

We Have Died to Sin 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? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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. —Romans 6:1–4 Paul knows his audience, as he’s been proclaiming the gospel to communities like the Romans for a long time. He skillfully anticipates the objections in the hearts of his hearers. When they heard in Romans 5:2 that we stand in God’s grace, they may have thought—as you and I may sometimes think—that if there’s more grace when I sin, and grace is good, why not sin more? He replies emphatically, as he has a few other times so far, “By no means!” May we never rationalize our sin as a way to display more of God’s grace. To do so is to misunderstand God’s grace, at best, and exploit it, at worst. We have died to sin; we can no longer live in it. If we believe in the Lord Jesus, we no longer live under the reign of sin but rather live under the reign o...