Freedom From Sin and Ongoing Sin in the Believer’s Life

Romans 6:7–12 reads:

"For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.’’

Paul uses an illustration: a dead person is beyond the reach of sin’s claims. Then he says believers are “dead with Christ” and therefore “freed from sin” at the level of judicial standing. In Christ, sin is not being imputed to us as a ground of condemnation. We have died with Him to sin’s legal dominion.

However, Paul immediately commands, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin.” “Reckon” is a call to deliberate consideration and accounting. He wants believers to think, and keep thinking, in line with what is true of them in Christ. Our mortal bodies still have desires and lusts; sin can still “reign” in practical experience if we simply yield to those desires.

Thus there is a distinction:

• Judicially, in Christ, we are dead to sin and freed from its condemning power.
• Practically, in our mortal bodies, we can still obey sin’s lusts unless we consciously “reckon” our position and refuse to let sin reign.

We still sin because we still inhabit mortal bodies with fallen desires, and because we do not always bring our thinking into line with our position in Christ. Paul’s exhortation is not that sin is impossible, but that, because we have died with Christ, we should consider ourselves dead to sin and act accordingly, not allowing sin to exercise ruling power in our bodily life.

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