Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

Roman 6:7 "because anyone who has died has been freed from sin"

I was in bible study on Tuesday when this verse hit me like a ton of bricks. I read it over and over again and couldn't understand why this verse struck a chord. I tried to talk it out with the youth and all that came out was gibberish. I can't help but think there is something supper profound about this verse and for some reason I can't put it into words. My head doesn't understand it yet it does. You see I know what the answer should be, if someone came up to me and asked me what I thought this verse meant I would give them the answer that has been given to me in sermons and even in bible classes at Gordon. For some reason when I ask myself what does this verse mean I don't want to give myself that answer.

I feel the typical answer is so generic and not very thought provoking...its just an answer. I feel there's too many answers in this world and not enough questions.

Ok now back to the verse.. Here's how I would word it, I guess how I see it, "in ordered to be free from sin you have to die". The only way to get away from it is to not live. My bible, like most bibles divides books into sections and gives them title. The title where I found this verse is "Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ". As a person with a very vivid imagination the first thing that comes to mind is when some one gets really angry at another person and they declare them dead to them. "Your dead to ME!!" and doesn't want to see or talk or even think about that person. Act as if that person doesn't exist. I think that's what we have to do to sin, not let it pronounce us dead but pronounce it dead to us.

The only way to overcome sin and be freed from its awful grasp is to die to it...now. I guess I kept thinking about physical death...but why go on living with something that only seems to hold us back when we can shun it from our life now...and the reality is that we don't have to physically die because someone else has...I guess that's what I'm having a hard time with...if I want to get rid of sin I should die, if I want to get rid of this thing that tortures me and my soul I should die but I don't have to physically do it. Oh the mystery of the cross is a big one. It doesn't seem fair yet it is. The thing is when we shun sin we embrace Christ and when we close one door the one behind us opens and takes us out of this claustrophobic space that we put ourselves in.

So pronounce sin dead to you and run towards the warm embrace of life in Christ.