What can we learn from a snake playing dead?

Did you know there are snakes that will pretend to be dead? When threatened, some snakes will roll over on their backs, contorts their frames, and stick out their tongues to fake like they’re deceased. My California Kingsnake doesn't do it, but many others do. It’s an effective technique to use when they’re not able to slither away from a potential predator like a fox, or a bobcat, or a curious human being. How did snakes learn this behavior? Why do some snakes do it and others do not? And the most important question of all. What can a child of God learn from a snake playing dead? Well, I’m glad you asked.

It is simply amazing the truths we can discover when we combine God’s natural revelation (the world) with God’s special revelation (the Word). As it so happens, the book of Romans has something to say about this idea of playing dead. Let’s start at chapter six, but please remember that Scripture interprets Scripture. In other words, if we don’t understand a particular passage, there are other passages that will shed more light on the one we’re trying to understand. Paul ends chapter five with the famous lines, “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” He anticipates the response of his critics, and cuts them off at the pass. The apostle teaches in chapter six, verse one: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”

That’s how our sinful nature responds to the doctrine of grace. Our carnal minds will always look for loopholes and excuses to indulge the flesh. If left unchecked, our wicked hearts (Jeremiah 17:9) would take this truth of amazing grace and turn it on its head. The critics of grace exclaim, “If sin causes grace to abound, we can help grace to abound by continuing to sin.” That’s twisted, as in 2 Peter 3:16 twisted!

The apostle answers in verse two, “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” Paul’s direct and forceful answer is, “Heck no! You cannot continue in sin! Do you know why you cannot continue in sin? Because those who have died to sin are not compelled to live any longer in it. Christians have died to sin. This is not referring to the daily denying of self and taking up our cross from Luke 9:23. This is talking about a one-time event that happened in the past, when we were initially adopted into the family of God.

Verse three starts with a rhetorical question. “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” Quick question. Is “baptized into Christ Jesus” referring to water baptism? According to Ephesians 4:4-6, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Do you reckon the one baptism here in Eph. 4 is referring to water baptism? I don’t think so.

“Seven Baptisms in the Bible” is the title of an article I read recently. The author listed the baptism of Moses in 1 Cor. 10, the baptism of John in Mark 1, a few other baptisms, and he saved the baptism "in the name of Jesus" from Acts 2 as his last example. He then concluded by saying the one baptism mentioned in Eph. 4 is water baptism in the name of Jesus. I’m afraid my brother is mistaken, but that is the standard teaching of many denominations today.

But how can he draw such a conclusion when he failed to mention in his list of seven baptisms, the command of Jesus in Matthew 28 to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? More importantly, he also failed to list the baptism of the Spirit into the body of Christ that’s taught in 1 Cor. 12:13, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free…” That’s a major miss in my opinion (Mk.12:24).

Many types of water baptisms are mentioned in the Bible, but there is only one baptism that all believers share in common. I submit the one baptism mentioned in Ephesians 4 is not a physical baptism into water, but it’s a spiritual baptism into the one body of Christ. When a person - whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free - exercises faith in the finished work of Christ on Calvary, he or she is supernaturally baptized into the spiritual, universal body of Christ.

Verse four continues with the idea of baptism, and layers in the theme of the resurrection. “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” According to 2 Cor. 5:17, believers are “in Christ,” which means we associate with Christ, we unite ourselves with Christ, we equate his experience as that of our own. Verse three states we were baptized into his death, and according to verse four, we were buried with Him. But Jesus didn’t stay buried, did he? No, he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father! And now that I’m in Christ, his resurrection from the dead represents by resurrection from being dead in trespasses and sins (Eph.2:1).

When Christians are physically baptized into water and raised out of the water, that act of obedience symbolizes a spiritual reality that occurred at the selfsame moment he or she trusted in Christ for salvation. I was saved during a Sunday morning worship service at Sixth Avenue Chapel while stationed at Fort Ord, California. Later that afternoon, I was baptized. But I never had any doubt about my salvation between the time I left the morning service and the time I was baptized at the afternoon service. As a matter of fact, when I got back to the barracks after the morning service, I wanted everyone to know what happened to me (Romans 8:15,16)! I shouted throughout the barracks, “I’M SAVED! I'M SAVED!” I didn’t shout, “I will be saved once I’m baptized this afternoon!”

It’s not the water that saves. Faith in the gospel message is what saves us (Romans 1:16). Paul said, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel…” (1 Cor. 1:17). Baptism doesn’t initiate my death and my regeneration; baptism represents my death and my regeneration. Water baptism is a physical expression of a spiritual reality that already exists (1 Pet.3:21). And what is that spiritual reality? At the exact moment I trusted in Christ for my salvation, I was saved. At that very moment in time, by the work of the Holy Spirit, I was buried with Christ through baptism into his death, and just as Christ was raised from the dead, I now walk in the newness of life! All praises to the Most High!

Verse five, “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,” We have been united together with Christ in both the likeness of His death and the likeness of His resurrection. This is not something we do for ourselves. This is the work of God through the person of the Holy Spirit. We’re baptized by the Spirit into Christ, into His death and His resurrection.

Verse six, “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” The Bible talks about our “old man” and our “new man.” Colossians 3:9-10 is directed to believers, “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” Even though our sin nature is still intact, Christians are partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Thus, the old man and the new man. The old man, the body of sin, was crucified with Christ in the spirit realm. Since the body of sin is now dead, we are no longer slaves to it.

Verse seven and eight, “For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” We died with Christ, and a dead person is free from the pull and temptations of sin. Please note that the apostle used eight verses to state and restate the spiritual truth that believers are united with Christ in his death, burial and his resurrection. And in verse eleven, he gives us a command. In other words, he first lays a solid foundation of knowledge and truth, and then he shows us how we are to live out that knowledge and truth in our daily walk of faith. Many folk love to be in the assembly listening to the word. That’s a good thing, but that’s not the endgame. “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas.1:22).

If you’re into memorizing Scripture, and I hope that you are, Romans 6:11 is a real gem: “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” This is one of the most effective spiritual techniques you’ll ever learn! Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are dead to sin. Check this out. Unbelievers are dead in sin, our Redeemer died for sin, and believers are dead to sin. “I have been crucified with Christ…” (Gal.2:20).

Now that this dynamic truth has been firmly established, what am I to do with it? I’m to “reckon” or “consider” myself dead indeed to sin, but alive to God. I am to act on that truth, I'm to walk in the light of that truth ! Since the word of God states that believers in Christ are dead to sin, I must now, by faith, consider it to be so. I must appropriate this truth by reckoning myself dead to sin. I consider it to be an actual, spiritual fact; a truth that is settled forever in heaven (Psalm 119:89). In Christ, I’m dead to sin.

The practical application of this truth is played out when Satan tempts me to sin against the Lord. How should I respond? If I’ve hidden God’s word in my heart, I can resist the devil by wielding the sword of the Spirit (see my January 2022 blog for further instructions). And now, Romans 6:11 provides another option, another technique. In my mind’s eye, in the spirit realm, I fall on my back, contort my frame into the sign of the cross, and with my tongue I confess: “When the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary, I died with him. Guess what, Satan? I’m dead to sin, and you're dead to me.”

This is a truth that will make you free! The world, my flesh, and the devil may tempt me to sin, but they won’t get a response. Why no response? Because a dead person can’t respond to temptation. Can you tempt a dead man to steal? Can you entice a dead woman to lie? You can certainly try, but you’re wasting your time because a dead person will never, ever respond! The crux of the message, my friend, is simply this: when trouble knocks at the door, don’t answer. Play dead.

One point of clarification before I close. A snake may play dead to escape from danger, but the believer in Christ is not just playing dead to sin, we are dead to sin. Dead to lying, dead to cheating, dead to hypocrisy, dead to all the misdeeds of the flesh. And such were some of you (1 Cor.6:9-11). It’s a matter to knowing the truth and appropriating the truth into your daily walk. In Hosea 4:6, God said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). Truth = Freedom; Ignorance = Bondage.

Not knowing this marvelous truth in Romans 6 is akin to what happened during the dark days of the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. It went into effect on January 1, 1863. On that historic day, every negro slave living under the whip of the Confederacy was legally free. According to the law of the land, slavery was abolished, gone with the wind. But do you think the wealthy plantation owners were inclined to inform their negro workforce of the Emancipation Proclamation and let them all just walk away? Heck no! Until the enslaved population became aware of their freedom, the legal fact had no impact on their lives. How could it, if they knew nothing about it? In fact, Union soldiers carried thousands of copies of the proclamation of freedom and passed them out as they made their way through the South during the war. Once the slaves became aware of this declaration from the leader of the nation, they knew for sure that they were legally and truly free. Their old masters can protest till the cows come home. I’m sure many did, but the fact remained that their former slaves became consciously aware of their freedom, and their subsequent actions were those of free people.

According to the proclamation from the King of heaven and earth, Christ has set us free from the power of sin. How did he do it? He died to sin. And since believers are “in Christ,” and “crucified with Christ,” we are free from sin because we died to sin. The old man, the body of sin, will protest and try to keep us enslaved; but the highest authority in the universe has proclaimed our emancipation and commanded us to reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin! That awesome, my friend, and you better know it! May God give us the wherewithal to live in the light of that truth.

If a snake is clever enough to play dead when threatened by a human, shouldn’t a Christian be wise enough to “play” dead when tempted by the old serpent?

Grace, Peace and Jahspeed!