Winning The Battle Over Sin {Romans 6}

By Sue Desmarais

This past week has been one of the hardest weeks ever for me! A very close friend’s husband lost his battle with opioid drugs and alcohol addiction. The sad truth is, he died just days after he had told his wife he was ready to turn his life around and come back to be the husband and father God had ordained him to be. His heart desired to turn/repent and do things God’s way, but he couldn’t free himself from the control the drugs now had over his body.

The truth is, he is just one of many!

Sin starts out masking itself as something to be desired. Sin is FUN---enjoyable! Holiness is dull, boring and no fun at all! Right? That what our enemy would like us all to think. No one takes the first drink of alcohol determined to become an alcoholic, or prescriptions drugs planing to become dependant on them to function. No one lusts after things not promised to them in hopes that whatever it is will take them down a path that can ultimately destroy their life and others, especially those they love most! We all think we’re above all that. Just a little won’t hurt, we’ll be able to stop at anytime. I bet most, if not all of us, can recall a time when those very thoughts, or some like them swirled in your mind. What’s important is what we did with those thoughts! This is what Paul is addressing here in chapter 6.

The word that came to mind most as I read over Romans 6 is, SURRENDER. Each of us have a choice before us daily. All of us must choose each day to surrender to the world’s sin, or God’s righteousness. Hear me when I say, you will surrender and become a slave to one or the other, which is why chapter six is so crucial to the book of Romans, because here is where Paul let’s us know that we can live in victory over sin and how; for Christ’s death and resurrection not only paid the penalty for our sin, but also provided the power that we need to overcome sin on a daily basis.

There is so much found in this one chapter that I have struggled on what and where to focus my post, but I finally settled on where we receive the power for freedom from sin!! For, I know none of us, if given the choice, would choose to live as a slave to sin’s power to destroy us and others. The victory over sin is found in Romans 6:3-4, “ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Baptism is the picture of Jesus’ death (standing in the water -death on the cross), burial (going down under the water) and resurrection (being raised up out of the water to a new life).

Paul goes onto tie these verses with his  first command in Romans 6:11, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” “Even so” means, just as Christ died for our sin, so you too should count yourselves in Him to be done with it. Just as Christ has risen from the dead and now lives far removed from sin, so you too should live in Him, since in the future you will live forever with Him in heaven.”

It’s also important to note that the word,“consider” is in the present tense which means, “keep on counting this to be true.” However, we won’t count it to be true because we feel dead to sin and alive to God, but rather because God Word says that it’s true! Victory over sin begins in our minds, and Paul will go on to speak more about this concept in the chapters to come.

For now, I’ll leave you with Paul’s last words in chapter 6, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (6:23). We’ve been given a gift, the most precious gift. God would never demand anything from us without also giving us the ability to do it! He has given us everything we need in Christ Jesus our Lord. Surrender to Him and His righteousness (way of doing things) and you WILL have all you need to live a victorious life this side of paradise.

I love this song by Nicole C. Mullins It’s a great reminder of what can happen when we call on Jesus:
https://youtu.be/VmiebkAEzfc