So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11)
Don’t you love doughnuts? I love doughnuts. Doughnuts of all kinds: yeast, cake, glazed, cream-filled, chocolate covered, maple with bacon, rainbow-colored sprinkles, the list goes on. This passage in Romans reminds me of the scene in the movie The Help when a recently fired black maid named Minny gave her former employer Hilly her famous chocolate pie as a gift. Hilly immediately gobbled up the pie with great relish, eating not one but two slices, much to Minny’s schädenfreudal delight. You see, little did Hilly know that Minny’s pie had one special ingredient — poop. This was a revenge pie since Minny was treated cruelly and was ultimately fired by her boss, a racist, snobby, bourgeois narcissist. Minny gave her the dubiously delectable dessert to “apologize.” Upon finishing, Minny proceeded to tell Hilly what the special ingredient was. Needless to say, that pie was no longer delicious to Hilly, but repulsive and completely detestable. She immediately ran to the bathroom in disgust.
Sin is the same way. It is like a wonderful, warm, gooey sugar glaze on a doughnut made from poop. On the outside it is delicious, sensual, and tantalizing, but its content, the inside is nothing more than undesirable putrid stuff. Sin is repugnant to God, and it is costly—so costly that it cost Jesus his life! But He did it willingly and gladly in order to save ours. He “ate” that poopy doughnut for us, and not just that doughnut, but ALL THE DOUGHNUTS, and suffered the consequences of it (rejection and judgment by God) so that we could feast on the true and eternal delectable delights of everlasting life!
Paul, in this passage is telling us to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to Jesus Christ. If we could just take a moment to recognize sin for what it really is, not just what it appears to be, we would be much less tempted and much less inclined to indulge. God, grant us the wisdom to discern the disgust of sin and choose to delight in You instead!