Dead to Sin

In every analogy we need to consider at what point the parallel
or similarity is being drawn; we must not press a resemblance at
every point. For instance, when Jesus told us to become like
little children, he did not mean that we were to copy every
characteristic of children (including their immaturity,
waywardness and selfishness), but only one, namely their humble
dependence. In the same way, to say that we have 'died' to sin
does not mean that we must exhibit every characteristic of dead
people, including their insensibility to stimuli. We have to
ask ourselves: at what point is the analogy of death being made?
If we answer these questions from Scripture rather than from
analogy, from biblical teaching about death rather than from the
properties of dead people, we shall find immediate help. Death
is represented in Scripture more in legal than in physical
terms; not so much as a state of lying motionless but as the
grim though just penalty for sin. Whenever sin and death are
coupled in the Bible, from it second chapter ('when you eat ...
[i.e. sin], you will surely die') to its last two chapters
(where the fate of the impenitent is called 'the second death'),
the essential nexus between them is that death is sin's penalty.
This is plain also in Romans, in which we read that those who
sin 'deserve death' (1:32), that death entered into the world
through sin (5:12) and that 'the wages of sin is death' (6:23).
Take Christ first: 'the death he died, he died to sin once for
all' (Rom. 6:10). The natural and obvious meaning of this is
that Christ bore sin's condemnation, namely death. He met its
claim, he paid its penalty, he accepted its rewards and he did
it 'once for all' (*ephapax*), an adverb which is many times
applied to his atoning death in the New Testament. In
consequence, sin has no more claim or demand on him. So God
raised him from the dead, in order to demonstrate the
satisfactoriness of his sin-bearing, and he now lives for ever
to God.
What is true of Christ is equally true of Christians who are
united to Christ. We too have 'died to sin', in the sense that
through union with Christ we may be said to have borne its
penalty. Some may object that we surely cannot speak of our
bearing the penalty of our sins, even in Christ, since we cannot
die for our own sins; he alone has done that. Is not the
suggestion that we could a veiled form of justification by
works? But no, it is nothing of the kind. Of course Christ's
sin-bearing sacrifice was altogether unique, and we cannot share
in its offering. But we can and do share in its benefits by
being united to Christ. So the New Testament tells us not only
that Christ died instead of us, as our substitute, so that we
will never need to die for our sins, but also that he died for
us, as our representative so that we may be said to have died in
and through him. As Paul wrote elsewhere, for example, 'we are
convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died' (2 Cor.
5:14). That is, by being united to him, his death became their
death.

--John Stott, From "The Message of Romans"