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October 23, 2019
David, what does it mean in Romans 6:6-7 when it says we are “dead to sin”?
While some (William G. T. Shedd) have argued that it means “death for sin” and teaches that we died for our sins in Christ, most have concluded that a break with the sin nature’s authority, and not sin’s penalty, is in view.
John Murray says we have made an “actual” instead of a “positional” break. He says this victory over the power of sin was achieved “once and for all” and is not achieved by a process, nor by our striving or working to that end. Murray hardly makes it clear how an actual, practical, and real break with the sin nature’s power and authority, achieved once for all, can leave us with the daily struggle. By using the word “actual” to justify his doctrine of perseverance in holiness, Murray is trying to make the text say that believers will never live in sin.
The fact that Paul says in Romans 6:7 that the man who has died is “justified” from sin implies that for Paul this death to sin is legal, forensic, and positional, and not automatically real in experience. Progressive/practical sanctification is desired, but not necessarily automatic or guaranteed.
Death to sin is real in our position but not necessarily experienced in this life. Paul’s commands to believers, to present themselves to righteousness and to reckon themselves dead to sin, imply that some might not necessarily do this. As Howe put it, “If the believer’s death with Christ described in Romans 6:1-10 is ‘actual’ [in experience], then exactly what is meant by Romans 6: 11? If death means cessation of existence actually, then why does Paul urge believers in that verse to reckon (count, consider as true, realize, believe) themselves dead to sin?” We should do this, but there is the possibility of negligence.
Sources Used
Dillow, Joseph. Final Destiny: The Future Reign of The Servant Kings: Fourth Revised Edition. Grace Theology Press.
Howe, Frederick R. “A Review of Birthright by David Needham,” BibSac 141, no. 161 (January-March 1984): 71, quoted in Dillow, FD, chapter 26, footnote 1310.
Murray, John Murray. “Definite Sanctification,” in Collected Writings of John Murray (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1977), 142. Accomplished and Applied, 142.
Shedd, William G. T. Commentary on Romans, reprint ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1967), 146