What Does it Mean: To be Dead to Sin?

The Bible has multiple verses which indicate we are to be dead to sin. Two of them are Rom 6:2 and Rom 6:11, which follow (with a little context):
Rom 6:1   What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2   God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

One of the greatest divisions within Christianity is in the understanding of what sin is. If you look up the greek word that was translated into English as, "sin", you'll find several similar meanings. (Go here for a thorough definition.)  Most people who've done ONLY this part come away with the idea that it means to err or miss the mark. Now that doesn't seem too hard to understand, does it? The trouble is that what you get from the dictionary is only a short explanation of the meaning behind the word in Greek as it existed when Christ took on flesh and preached among us. However, Christ didn't just leave the word as he found it. Rather, he (and his followers) added meaning to that original context.

When you read the Bible to see what it was that the Bible means with the word sin in the context of what Christ meant with it, you can look at James 4:17 since that verse tells what sin is. That verse says, "Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does [it] not, to him it is sin." Notice that it says, "to him" it is sin. Why? There's the idea of the importance of intentions. We see this importance also in Mat 5:28, where Jesus tells us, "But I say unto you, That whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." The part where it says, "to lust after her" shows us that it is not the looking which is sin (adultery), but rather that the intentions are the problem.  If a man is in a crowd of people looking for his wife or daughter and sees a bunch of women who are neither his wife nor his daughter, he has not sinned because of having looked at a bunch of women...unless he has intended to lust after them. The importance of intentions are also evident in Luke 6:45 which states, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." So, when you read the Bible, keep in mind that the word "sin" was not used the same way in all places. Think about what was meant by it. Is a particular text speaking about any mistake you make, or only mistakes with wrong intentions?

My point here is that if your ultimate goal in life is to serve God rather than to serve self, then ultimately, your intentions will be right. Then, when you look at people, whether you are a man looking at women or a woman looking at men, your intention will be to be a servant of others rather than to be trying to get what isn't rightfully yours. If your ultimate goal is to serve God, then when you realize you've done something God didn't want you to do, you will fix your course and again serve God (that's repentance). If you believe in God, and are intent upon serving him, then he will forgive you for your past sins (if you ask). Then, he can also cleanse your conscience of your past misdeeds. From this perspective, God is not being unreasonable when he tells us to "be perfect even as the father in heaven is perfect," because he isn't telling us to never again make a mistake, rather he is telling us to follow after him and give up all wrong-doing in our lives. This is what is meant by being "dead to sin." Using only the meaning of, "to miss the mark, to err" it is completely impossible to ever "stop sinning," like Jesus commands us to do in numerous places (see John 5:14 and 8:11 for examples). If, though, Jesus only meant to live up to the truth that we know, every one of us can do that by simply asking Jesus to cleanse our consciences and give us right intentions. Then we can act out of those right motives and have confidence before God.

Now, you have a choice to make: Are you going to go through the rest of life simply saying, "No one is perfect," and therefore thinking that it doesn't make any difference how you actually live since you can't be perfect anyway? Or are you going to give up serving self and live your life to serve Christ thereby doing what is right?

Has this post been helpful to you? Am I being ridiculous? Have I neglected to take something into account and you can help me grow closer to Christ by correcting me? I'll be O.k. with your comments regardless of whether you like or hate my views. Let me know what you think. I value your feedback. Thanks and God bless.

How Dracula Can Help your Preaching

Do you ever have to work at coming up with topics to preach on?  You may well not be a pastor, but you might still want to be able to share the gospel with people, (or maybe you just like vampires!) and if you have new ideas on how to do that, it will make it easier to keep engaging those around you. So, here’s a new idea for you: copy Dracula! (the book, not the villain) I know that sounds like an odd thing to recommend, but here’s what I mean. We all know that when we want to become better at something, one way to do that is to copy those who are the best at it. Bram Stoker’s book, Dracula, is one of the greatest horror stories we have.  On the one hand, the Bible tells us that “God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2Ti 1:7) So, I’m not trying to get you to be afraid. However, the Bible also tells us, “The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do [his commandments]…” (Psa 111:10)  The second part of Proverbs 1 is written as being from the voice of wisdom and ends with the words, “but whoever listens to me [wisdom] will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.” So, it will be of great use to our audiences if we can bring them the fear of the Lord. I’m not saying that all our time should be spent trying to make people afraid. Rom 2:4 says, “…the goodness of God leads to repentance.” So, our preaching has to be balanced. But, people love to read about villains they love to hate, otherwise, Dracula would not have been so successful (as a book). So, how can Dracula be useful to us in our efforts to teach people the fear of the Lord? First of all, he sticks in your mind, as your words to people about the Lord should. Another thing about Dracula that makes him a great villain is that he is obviously bad. One of the biggest hurdles we face when trying to evangelize is that people don’t actually see sin as being bad. The book, Dracula, shows us how to make things that are bad appear as being bad. Jonathan Harker, the main character aside from Dracula himself, doesn’t really understand what Dracula is for the first several chapters. And yet, he is still subject to mounting fear. One of the biggest things that bothers him about his situation is the isolation. He is all alone in a castle where his only companion is his captor. Why is he all alone? Although I didn’t get this part from the book, sin and evil isolate us. Sin breaks our relationships with those around us and with God. Thus, it is natural that Dracula must be largely alone. That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed reading some ways that fiction can be used to strengthen our message about the most real subject there is: God.

Tell me what you think. I’d love to read your reactions to my ideas.