The Four Cornerstones of Romans (Part 8: Reckon yourselves as dead to sin)

Start this post series from the beginning, here.

The Four Cornerstones of Romans (Part 8: Reckon yourselves as dead to sin)

I’d like to summarize things in this section and bring as much clarity to Romans 6 as possible, before we move on to chapter 7. Chapter 6 is of great importance because it is firstly a foundational chapter that will provide us with stability and grounding in our Christian walk, but secondly, it provides us with the information we need to know to ensure this foundation is being laid properly in our lives.

In Romans 5, Paul has led us through the positional aspect of justification which happens when you believe in Christ through the message of the grace gospel. Justification is a verdict of righteousness and innocence declared upon us by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. It is God’s work and something that happens outside of our influence and control. We are literally transferred from the administration of Adam into the administration of Christ. When we are moved into Christ’s administration, EVERYTHING changes. It is this understanding (and faith) that we need to know and become very acquainted with. The section in this study called, “The Two Administrations”, is what I refer to here.

So, when we get to chapter 6, we need to bring with us the knowledge and understanding of chapter 5. We approach this chapter, that speaks of having died to sin, with the understanding that we are transferred into Christ’s administration, and that we are subject to the attributes of that administration.

In Romans chapter 6, Paul hammers home that we need to know something. Our response to this chapter is not in doing anything, but rather in learning something. Romans 6 is all about a change of mind or more accurately, renewing the mind.

The reality of justification (righteousness), and our daily walk in this Christian life comes by the knowledge and faith that we have DIED! Not death as in physical or spiritual death, but death as in becoming dead to the functioning and operation of sin. When knowledge of justification, righteousness, and life, (the attributes of Christ’s administration), becomes the inherent pattern of thinking in our minds, we become naturally non-functional (dead) to sin. When our thinking is aligned to the Word and we give ourselves over to obedience to it, we start to die to the Adamic nature and the operation of sin in our lives, and we start to walk in that newness of Christ’s life within us.  Through justification, we have learned that we are dead to sin positionally in Christ. The object now is to bring our physical state of mind and experience into the same conformity as our spiritual position. Without renewing our mind to conform to our positional standing, we are never going to overcome sin in our daily ‘earthly’ walk.

Romans chapter 5 emphatically states our positional death to sin. Romans chapter 6 emphatically tells us to start learning and knowing the truth of our death, and to start having it influence us. It is vital that we start to think differently, taking our positional standing and applying it to our thoughts and responses. Paul says we are to reckon (consider, understand) ourselves to be dead (non-functional) to carnal things.

How do we do this? How do we become non-functional to sin?

The answer is in knowledge and the application of, or outflowing of, that knowledge in our lives. We cannot do anything to defeat sin. We cannot set rules for ourselves. We cannot do it by sheer willpower. We cannot enforce a change in our habits. In other words, we cannot choose to change through mental accent. It must come from a change in heart. It comes from a conviction of truth. To defeat sin, we grow in knowledge of the truth, and we allow the conviction it brings to influence our thoughts and behaviours. In essence, this is walking by faith, or being led by the Spirit. When the Word is in us through reading and study and understanding, and then that knowledge flows out of us, naturally, in the circumstances of life, this is what Paul means by “walking in the Spirit”. We are walking by the Spirit of Christ that is inspired by, and contained in, the Word.

When we start to grow in knowledge –the foundational truth presented in Romans chapters 5 to 8, that truth will start to change our pattern of thinking. The renewing of our mind in the Word will progressively change (mortify) the flesh. This will lead to progressive victory over sins in the flesh and contribute to a walk of sanctification as Christ is formed within us.

You can’t defeat sin by doing things in the flesh. The flesh is sinful! It is tainted with sin. To defeat sin, you need a new mind, or rather, a renewed mind that thinks according to the new administration of Christ.

Rom 8:5  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

In closing this post, I want to inform you that the learning does not stop at this concept of dying to sin in the flesh. We will also be introduced in chapter 7 with the knowledge that we must also depart from the law. Carnal living and living under the law are the two stumbling blocks on the road of grace. If we are to remain in grace and set ourselves up to grow and mature in Christ, then we must be knowledgeable about these stumbling blocks of carnal living and the law. These two dangers stunt the progress and growth of Christian living and are the primary cause of many Christians remaining babes in Christ and who can only feed on the milk of the Word.

This study will continue with Romans chapter 7 next.