Romans 6

Verse 11 "count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

Paul has just spent 5 chapters telling the Romans about how salvation comes from faith in God's grace alone. He uses chapter 6 to warn them from accepting God's grace in vain and living a life of sin and wickedness.

(It should be noted that when Paul wrote this letter there were no chapters and verses, it was meant to be read as a whole letter. All of Paul's letters are meant to be read as whole letters.)

There is a tendency to read the parts of the bible that we like and ignore the parts that we don't like. We like the parts about grace and forgiveness and not being able to earn our salvation... But we don't really like the parts about having to live a good life and stop sinning.

Because it is hard to stop sinning.

Paul says that we need to count ourselves dead to sin. That verse reminded me of Band of Brothers, a mini-series about the men of Easy company and their battles in World War 2. In one of the early episodes a soldier is paralyzed by fear and his commanding officer tells him that the only hope he has is to accept the fact that he is already dead. (See the clip below)

The only hope we have to live the life God desires for us is to accept the fact that we are already to sin.

But we don't to be dead to sin, because there is a small part us that believes that sin is fun. The great theologian Billy Joel did say that "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners are much more fun."

But that's a lie. We have all seen the effect that sin has on our lives. Lies ruin relationships. Friends and families are torn apart by unfaithfulness and lust. Economies crash because of greed.

I'm note sure how to count myself dead to sin. But the first step is realizing that there is a better way to live.

The experiences I have had living the way God intended are the best experiences of my life.

Unfortunately I am still alive to sin.