How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

I lifted this from a series of articles I wrote and sent out as my first good-newsletter — Grace Notes — in 1998. The series is called Licensed to Sin

How shall we who have died to sin still live in it?Romans 6:2

"How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" ? ! ? That's an answer?

Not exactly what we're used to hearing, is it? We demand practical answers. And here Paul gives us something that sounds more theory than real. I mean, who is he talking about? Who died to sin? Me? You? If it's true, I sure don't remember it, do you? But the question is based on an assumption. The assumption is that we have died to sin.

Sound too irrelevant? Have we settled for practical applications because raw truth seems too far-fetched? But, my friends, this is what Christ is all about. It's not true because it seems true. It's not true because you believe it to be true. It's true for one reason ... and only one reason: God sent Jesus to do what was needed to make it true.

Now, if Jesus did something so that we have actually died to sin, then that would change everything ... don't you think? And if so, aren't most of our practical applications just irrelevant blab? Why do you listen to it?

Don't you understand that the mind of Christ is totally irrelevant to the religious mind? And, you guessed it, the religious mind is not relevant to the mind of Christ, either. If you are trying to balance the conflicts that keep surfacing from this incompatibility you are going to be one frustrated puppy! Here are some options I can suggest to you:

• Adopt a solid system of theology to make it fit
• Ignore it, go have an emotional experience instead
• Join a local cult, learn some chants, go insane
• Quit while you are not so far behind
• Save time, check into a mental institution right now

The only real option is on the other side of death. And according to Paul that is exactly where you live. You have died to sin; how is it possible for you to live there anymore? The real question is: WHO ARE YOU? Or don't you know what had been accomplished when Jesus died and rose again?