Friday, April 17, 2009

you're dead to me

Romans 6 is tough stuff. This morning I was trying to wrap my mind around Paul's words, "We have died to sin" (6:2) and "Consider yourselves dead to sin" (6:11). Those are tough teachings to grasp because quite honestly I don't feel like I've died to sin. In my experience sin feels very much alive and sneaking around in my life.

It's true that Paul doesn't say "sin is dead." It's clearly not. What he does say is that those who follow Jesus are "dead to sin." But what does that mean in real life when sin is still lurking around? As I was thinking about that this morning the infamous line attributed to The Godfather II, "You're dead to me", came to mind. When Michael Corleone told Fredo, "You're nothing to me now; you're not a brother, you're not a friend; I don't want to know you or what you do", he was telling his brother that he was dead to him. Fredo hadn't died (not yet anyway), but he was certainly dead to Michael. He had no place in his home. He didn't want to see him or hear his voice. He had no role in his or his family's life any longer. Fredo was dead to him.

I think that's a pretty good picture of what Paul is saying our relationship to sin should look like. We should treat it as if it is dead to us. It has no place in our homes or in our hearts. We don't want to look at it or know it or hear it or even know what it does. It has no role in our lives.

Sin is dead to us.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am preparing a teaching on Romans 6 and I had the same idea comparing our relationship to sin to the phrase "You're dead to me" in the Godfather II. So I searched Google for the phrase and came across this post and was presently surprised that someone else had made the same connection! :)

Anonymous said...

That should read - Pleasantly* ops!

Anonymous said...

You are dead to me is a game for narcissism. Come beg me to love you and plead with me I will enjoy it. Blame yourself feel badfeel sad so I can enjoy your misery. I cut you off now from your social circle of 200 people you know. Its a game I forget do it again. Its gas lighting moving geographically is only way out. Social evolution is forgiven achieving high community status. Ancient times food supply reproductive limitions a dead end evolutionary.