Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Truth to Learn
Our lives should no longer be characterized by sinfulness.
Behind the Words
“Certainly not!” is a familiar expression with Paul. It is translated from the Greek words mē genoito. Mē is a particle of negation, meaning “not.” Genoito is a form of ginomai, meaning “to begin to be” or “to cause to come into existence.” In this expression it is used in the very rare optative mood (there are fewer than 70 examples of the optative mood in the entire New Testament). A literal translation of these two words is “May it not be!” In today’s vernacular we might say “No way!”
“Died” is from the verb apothnēskō, which is made up of apo, meaning “from” or “away from” and thnēskō, meaning “to die.” Hence, apothnēskō means “to die away from” or “to die off.”
We have talked before about the fact that Greek is an inflected language. That is, the form of a word indicates how it is used in a sentence. We see some of this in English. For instance “I” is a subject and “me” is an indirect object. The word translated “sin” is in the form of an indirect object. Hence, it could be interpreted as “in sin,” “to sin,” or “by sin.” Paul has already taught us that we are dead “in sin” and “by sin.” Now he is teaching us that we are also dead “to” or “with respect to” sin.
Meaning Explained
This verse is a direct response to the previous one: “Should we continue in sin so that grace may abound?” Paul’s response is, “No way!” He is proclaiming that we should never even consider continuing our sinful ways just so that God’s grace will increase. Paul carries this even further by asking, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” In other words, if we have, indeed, died with respect to sin, how can we possibly live with respect to sin any longer?
In order to understand this better, it might be helpful to understand what the concept of death really means. We think of death simply as “absence of life,” whereas in reality it means, “separation from life.” By looking at it this way, perhaps you can understand what Paul is saying. We who have been separated from sin (because God has cast our sins as far from us as the east is from the west) cannot possibly be continually in its presence anymore.
Before we were saved, we had no choice but to continually live in a sinful manner. After all, we were controlled by our sin nature. But, because our sins have been paid for and our sin nature has been crucified with Christ, we now have a choice as to how we live.
Application
Paul says we have an obligation to stay away from a life of sinfulness because God has declared us righteous. We also should be motivated by an intense sense of gratitude to God for wiping out our sin debt, which should cause us to want to live an obedient life that will testify to God’s grace!
So I ask you, “How do you want to live; in sinful selfishness or in grateful obedience?
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2018 Will Krause. All rights reserved