Dead to Sin | GRACE, THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL by Andrew Wommack

Dead to Sin

Let’s return to Romans 6:2 and go into some detail concerning this first reason Paul gave for “Why live holy?”

How shall we, who are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

We need to understand what truly happened the moment we were born again. The old sin nature that we were born with was crucified, dead, and buried; and we were born again with a brand-new righteous nature. The old nature that expressed itself through sin is now gone. A new nature, which desires to express itself through holy living, has now taken its place.

For further study, I highly recommend my teaching on Spirit, Soul & Body.1 In it, I expound much more upon these foundational truths concerning what happened inside you the instant you were born again. Understanding the interaction between your body, soul, and born-again spirit will set you free to confidently walk in intimacy with the Lord and actually experience the abundant life He’s provided.

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Buried with Him

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Romans 6:3

This isn’t talking about water baptism. Some people teach that, but Scripture plainly reveals that there is more than one baptism. In Hebrews 6:2, the Word talks about “the doctrine of baptisms [plural].” First Corinthians 12:13 describes us being baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ, which is what Romans 6:3 is talking about.

Other baptisms, besides this one, include the baptism in the Holy Spirit and water baptism. (See Acts 11:16.) As you can see, there are several New Testament baptisms. Therefore, it’s important to recognize which one a given passage of scripture is referring to. Is it talking about the Holy Spirit baptizing someone just born again into the body of Christ, an older Christian baptizing a new convert in water, or Jesus baptizing a believer with the Holy Spirit and fire?

In Romans 6:3, this passage of scripture is referring to how the Holy Spirit supernaturally places us into the body of Christ the instant we’re born again. When that happened, we were baptized into His death. This means we partook of Jesus’ death.

Therefore we are buried with [Jesus] by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the

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glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been [past tense] planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this.

Romans 6:4-6

We participated in Jesus’ death when the Holy Spirit placed us in Christ and made the things that He died to accomplish a reality in our life. That happened in the past, the instant we were born again. But since appropriating what Jesus did for us takes our cooperation, the scripture then refers to the end result. In other words, every Christian has participated in the death of their old man through Jesus. But we haven’t all participated yet in His resurrection life, which is a by-product of being placed in His body, because we must know this:

Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Romans 6:6

Action or Nature?

We are now dead to sin. It’s important to understand that Paul was talking about sin (sin nature), not sins (individual actions of sin). Out of the forty-nine times this word sin is used in Romans (sin, thirty-seven times; sins, four times; sinned, five

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You can’t change your nature simply by decreasing your actions of sin!

times; sinners, two times; sinner, one time), forty-seven times it’s talking about the old sin nature (“old self” in the NIV), not indi-vidual actions of sin. We know this because the Greek word from which sin and sins was translated forty-seven out of the forty-nine times isn’t a verb, but a noun.2 If you remember English class, a noun always describes a person, place, or thing.

Only two times in the entire book of Romans is sin referred to as an action:

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remis-sion of sins [actions of sin] that are past, through the forbear-ance of God.

Romans 3:25

What then? shall we sin [commit actions of sin], because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

Romans 6:15

But in the rest of Romans, the word sin and all its other English forms (sins, sinned, sinners, sinner) were translated from a Greek noun.3 Therefore, in the entire book of Romans, other than the verses in 3:25 and 6:15, Paul was referring to the driving force that compelled us to sin (our old sin nature), not individual acts of sin.

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dealt with it.
sin nature—and
root of sin—our
went to the very
Christ, God
Through Jesus
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Children of Wrath

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Romans 5:12

Through Adam, sin entered into the world—not actions of sin, but the sin nature. You were born a child of the devil.

We all… were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Ephesians 2:3

Ye [non-believers] are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.

John 8:44

What makes people commit actions of sin is the fact that they have a sin nature. Even if somehow or other

we could deal with our actions of sin and restrain the amount of sin we commit (like

the religious nonbelievers Jesus was speaking to in John 8:44), there’s still no human way to deal with that sin nature. You can’t change your nature simply by decreasing your actions of sin! This is what most legalistic people focus on. They wrongly emphasize actions and holiness as

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the basis of their relationship with God. “Don’t lust or steal. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t do these things. If you can just act right, then you’ll be right.” That’s exactly opposite of what the Word teaches. The reason nonbelievers act wrong is because they have a wrong nature driving and compelling them to do actions of sin.

“Knowing This”

Through Jesus Christ, God went to the very root of sin—our sin nature—and dealt with it. He didn’t just give us the ability to overcome actions of sin, but He dealt with the part of us that was corrupted and forcing us to live in sin. When Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t take only our physical actions of sin, but He also took the very root of sin—our sin nature—upon Himself.

He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

2 Corinthians 5:21

Jesus didn’t just bear sin—He became sin. He took that sin nature upon Himself and suffered that separation from God. He endured our rejection and punishment from God for sin and died to that old sin nature. Jesus literally and completely put it to death and was resurrected from the dead with a brand-new life, which is no longer corrupted or susceptible to sin. This brand-new life doesn’t have that propensity, drive, or constant motivation for sin

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in it. Because of that, the actions of sin have no more dominion or place in His life.

If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this.

Romans 6:5,6

Through Christ, we also are dead with Him unto sin and we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection when we know this:

Until your mind is renewed, you’ll continue functioning the way you were previously programmed.

Our old man [our old sin nature] is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Romans 6:6,7

In other words, one of the reasons why people who have truly been born again still live in sin is because they don’t know what has happened to them. They don’t know that their old sin nature has been crucified and put to death in Christ. You have to know this!

Prior Programming

In our born-again spirit, we’ve been set free. In our recre-ated righteous spirit, we no longer have the nature of the devil

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driving us to be like him anymore. However, your spirit isn’t the only thing influencing your heart. You also have an unre-newed mind that has been taught and trained how to act in a certain way—in accordance with your old sin nature. Before being born again, your old nature—reinforced by everything in this world system—taught you how to think selfishly, how to operate in anger, bitterness, fear, unbelief, and in a number of other fleshly ways. Until your mind is renewed, you’ll continue functioning the way you were previously programmed.

Your natural mind is similar to a computer. It can do only what it’s been programmed to do. Once you’re in Christ, you have been freed from sin. That old man has been put to death and there’s no longer a sin nature compelling you to live in sin. But you might still be living in sin if you haven’t reprogrammed yourself by renewing your mind. As a matter of fact, many Christians still seem driven to sin.

By observation, many people can’t see any real difference in their motivation for sin before and after they’re born again. Although it seems like we still have this drive toward sin, these scriptures tell us that it’s not our old self, our old sin nature, our old man compelling us to sin, but rather an unrenewed mind. That old man taught us to act certain ways.

Once you know this—that your old man is crucified and dead—then the body of sin (the programming in your unre-newed mind that it left behind) can be destroyed so that hence-

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forth you should not serve sin. If you know these things, then you can break this dominion of sin in your life. Sadly, most Christians are still laboring under this false impression that there’s still a part of them sold out to the devil and there’s nothing they can do about it.

You may be wondering, Well, what about Romans 7? Later in this book, I’ll be contrasting Romans 7 and 8 in detail. But I don’t believe the Scripture teaches that born-again believers still have this old man. This is exactly what Paul was talking about here in the first half of Romans 6. Your old man was crucified with Christ. You’re dead. “But if I’m dead, then why am I still committing sin and still experiencing this drive toward sin in certain areas? If I’m dead, wouldn’t that be different?” Not unless you’ve renewed your mind.

Your natural mind is going to function the way it was programmed until it’s reprogrammed. You can have the life of God in your born-again spirit and be a totally brand-new being in your spirit, but you can still experience a bent toward certain sins. Your mind is just following its prior programming.

Wall-to-Wall Holy Ghost

I don’t remember buttoning my shirt this morning because this action has become almost automatic to me. Since I’m not even conscious anymore of the fact that I did it, it’s become

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“natural” for me. But it hasn’t always been that way. I remember struggling to button my shirt as a kid. It always seemed to come out wrong. Although learning to button my shirt took me some effort, I’ve learned it so well that now it’s just like it’s my nature.

I remember sitting on a couch in our home and my grand-mother teaching me to tie my shoes. It was an ordeal then, but now I don’t even think about it. It’s automatic. It’s natural. I just tie my shoes when I need to without any conscious effort.

That’s the same way it is with our habits, lusts, desires, and drive for sin. Before we were born again, we had a nature that just drove us toward sin. Our actions of sin came because of our nature of sin. This nature drove us and was reinforced through society. Everybody else had an old nature too, so we were bombarded from every angle all the time with how to be selfish, self-centered, hate people, advance ourselves, and take advan-tage of others. We’ve been taught how to be depressed, constantly look on the negative side of things, be mean to others, and many other sinful actions. All of these things are acquired traits from the nature that was originally on the inside of us driving us to do them. But now that we’re in Christ, it’s not that way anymore. That old nature isn’t there driving us anymore.

The only thing causing us to remain under this bondage of sin is an unrenewed mind. We don’t know that we’ve been freed. We think, I’m only human. I’m just a man, or I’m just a woman, and sing songs like, “One Day at a Time, Sweet Jesus.” But it’s not

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All born-again believers in Jesus Christ have been freed from the dominion of their old sin nature.
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true. We’re not only human. We’re not just a man, or just a woman. We’ve been born again and there’s now a brand-new born-again part of us. One-third of us is wall-to-wall Holy Ghost. We’re a new person in Christ. We have a new nature in Him.

If I don’t know and understand this, if I think that I’m only human, then when supernatural opposition comes, when demonic powers arise against me, and when temptations get strong, I might resist for a while, but then

I’ll think, Well, I’m only human. I’m just a man. I can only do so much. There are limits to what I can stand, and then I’ll wind up giving in to the temptation.

I need to understand that I’m a new person in Christ with a brand-new nature full of God’s supernatural ability on the inside of me. If I know this and I’m grounded in it so much that what I see, taste, hear, smell, and feel doesn’t domi-

nate me, then my opinion of my born-again self is based on God’s Word. If that’s controlling and dominating me, then I can overcome those temptations and lusts for sin.

F-R-E-E-D from Sin

Back in the 1800s, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed all of the slaves in the

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USA. They were freed—F-R-E-E-D—but they weren’t neces-sarily free—F-R-E-E. There are documented cases of a number of African Americans who did not hear about the Emancipation Proclamation. Some of the slave owners didn’t inform their slaves. Back in those days, they didn’t have access to mass media and communications the way we do today. It took some of those slaves years to hear through the grapevine that they had been freed.

They were freed, but they weren’t free because they didn’t know something. They could have been free, but it was dependent upon them knowing the truth, and then having enough boldness to step out and test that truth by standing up against that old master and drawing on the legal system’s power and authority to back them up.

He that is dead is freed from sin.

Romans 6:7

All born-again believers in Jesus Christ have been freed from the dominion of their old sin nature. Does that mean that we’re going to walk free? Well, that depends on how much we know.