Romans 6:2

God forbid. See on Romans 3:4.

That are dead to sin. Rather, “who died to sin.” The Greek points to a particular time or event, in this case the believer’s surrender to Christ and his consequent rebirth and justification. Paul’s argument is that to live in sin is inconsistent with having once died to it.

Live any longer therein. It is one thing, because of the weakness of the flesh, to commit an occasional sin. It is quite another to live in sin. To live in sin means that sin is the element in which we live, the moral atmosphere that our souls breathe. Such a life is absolutely incompatible with faith. The faith in Christ that makes possible the justification of the sinner implies an unreserved willingness to do His will and a hatred of all that caused the Saviour such great suffering (see on Romans 3:28, 31). The faith that claims justification but at the same time permits a persistence in the old ways of sin is not faith at all. The evidence that a man is justified, born again, and passed from death unto life is that he now finds delight in obeying God’s law (1 John 2:1-6; cf. Romans 13:8). “In the new birth the heart is brought into harmony with God, as it is brought into accord with His law. When this mighty change has taken place in the sinner, he has passed from death unto life” (Great Controversy, p. 468). It is true that the believer may at times fall into some sin (see 1 John 2:1), but the evidence that a man has been really born of God is that he no longer continues practicing sin (1 John 3:9), or, as Paul describes it, he no longer lives in sin.