What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

24. WHAT IS SIN?

Sin is the transgression of the law.

—1 John 3:4

Sin is today what Sangster would call a “blurred word.” It has lost its sharp edges. It has, in fact, almost disappeared from popular speech. We hear much of vice, a great deal about crime, but sin has practically been dropped from the popular vocabulary.

The term needs exact definition. Here are four views of its nature and effects.

1. It is a delight that deceives us.

“Whosoever sins against light kisses the lips of a blazing cannon” (Jeremy Taylor).

Sin is a kiss that kills.

Sin is a hooded harlot whom men think beautiful and long to embrace, but when they take her to their breast she is unveiled as a loathsome hag.

2. It is a drug that dopes us.

“Every sin works like a drug, and continued sin tends to stupefaction” (John Henry Jowett).

“The more sense of sin the less sin” (Samuel Rutherford).

There is this curious paradox in human life that it is not the sinner but the saint who knows most about sin. This is because it drugs its devotees.

3. It is a disease that destroys us.

You may remember John Newton’s nimble lines:

The worst of all diseases

Is light compared with sin;

On every part it seizes

But rages most within.

’Tis leprosy and fever

And palsy all combined,

And none but the believer

The least relief can find.

4. It is, as John in our text expressly tells us, a disobedience that demoralizes us.

There is an oft-told tale of how Calvin Coolidge, having heard a sermon whose subject was “sin,” was asked by his wife what the preacher had said about it. Coolidge replied: “He said he was against it.”

Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste

Brought death into the world, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden.

John Milton, Paradise Lost

1. Reasoning—v. 1. Should we continue in sin so we may have more of God’s grace? See 2 Tim. 2:19. Newness of life in Christ—2 Cor. 5:17.

2. Rejection—v. 2. When in Christ, we no longer live in sin but have crucified the flesh, the affections and lust—Gal. 5:24; Gal. 2:20.

3. Relations—v. 3. Those in Christ must share in His death. Jesus spoke of self-denial—Luke 9:23. A Christian life is surrendered to God, not patterned after this world—Rom. 12:1–2.

4. Results—vv. 4–5. We are buried with the Lord in baptism, and raised with Him. Baptism is symbolic of inner cleansing, burying our sin, then rising to walk in newness of life in the Spirit—Gal. 5:16. We are to walk by faith, not by sight—2 Cor. 5:7

1. Denial—v. 6. The “old man” is crucified. By birth, we were the children of Satan—John 8:44. In Christ we are the children of God—John 1:12.

2. Death—v. 7. Dead to sin, we are freed; no longer a servant of sin—John 8:34; no longer do we sin by choice and habit—John 8:32, 36.

3. Dominion—vv. 8–9. Death had dominion over us (1 Cor. 15:51–58), but Christ conquered death for us. See John 11:25–26.

4. Design—vv. 10–11. “He died once but now lives. He died to break the power of sin, and the life He now lives is for God. You must do the same thing! Think of yourselves as dead to the power of sin. But now you have new life because of Jesus Christ our Lord. You are living this new life for God”—NLT.

1. Denounced—v. 12. Don’t allow sin with its lusts to rule you—Dan. 1:8; James 1:14–15. Lust brings separation from God.

2. Dedication—v. 13. Don’t yield your body to sin, but to God. See Ps. 119:9, 11.

3. Dominion—v. 14. Sin doesn’t have to control you. We are not under the law—Rom. 8:2; 2 Cor. 3:17.

Salvation brings freedom from sin. Some return to the old ways of sin. Heed Paul’s advice—Gal. 5:1. We need not be bound by any sin; there is power to overcome every temptation—1 Cor. 10:13.