to sin described in verse 2 is a moral death is to tear the indicative out of Paul’s gospel and replace it with the imperative, which is a distortion of his theology. When Paul says we have died to sin, he is not exhorting believers to cease from sin (a command in the imperative mood); he is proclaiming to them the good news that they have died to sin (a statement of fact in the indicative mood). The judicial interpretation is attractive, and on this reading believers are dead to sin in God’s sight