WANTED DEAD AND ALIVE
Romans 6:11-14 NKJV
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
One of the challenges with reading the epistles, the letters to the churches, is that they deal with spiritual realities not delivered in story form. And outside of chapter four, which has the story of Abraham, the book of Romans is a classic example. Paul begins his letter with spiritual truths that are a result of our union with Christ. He ends his letter with practical applications of these new spiritual realities.
So, instead of getting bogged down in what you don't understand as you read the chapter, focus on the nugget or two that resonates with you. Every year I go through these epistles, I see something new and gain a better understanding of truths I have seen before. No one has arrived at complete Biblical knowledge. The Bible is a living document, and we are constantly learning.
In our verses for today, we see the spiritual reality of being dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. The best way to approach verses like these is to simply accept them in faith as opposed to dismissing them because of feelings. Paul said to reckon yourselves to be dead, separated, from sin. Paul did not say feel as if you are dead to sin. The Greek definition for the word reckon is to consider or to calculate. Some translators have said reckon is an accounting term which helps us with what to do with being dead to sin. We account it done in Christ apart from feelings or reasonings.
And because we are dead to sin and alive to God, we have the ability to no longer allow sin to rule over us. We can say to sin, you're not the boss of me. We can now present ourselves to God as being spiritually alive from being spiritually dead. And our bodies are under our control, so we present them to God and consider ourselves to be forces for righteousness. Sin no longer rules over us because God's grace has made us free from sin.
APPLICATION
In a Wednesday night service a couple of years ago, I did an informal poll with those in attendance. I asked for a show of hands of those who were new creations in Christ, and a majority of hands went up. Then I asked who had been made the righteousness of God in Christ, and the number of hands was smaller. Finally, I asked who was dead to sin, and the number of hands was significantly reduced. And yet, every question was based on a scriptural truth.
If we are going to accept being a new creation in Christ, then we need to accept being dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. This does not mean we never sin and we are no longer tempted to sin. What it does mean is that we have the advantage in Christ and that sin does not have to dominate us. When we accept this spiritual reality by faith, we put ourselves in a much stronger position to live free from sin and in fellowship with the Lord.
PRAYER
Lord, thank You that I am dead to sin and alive to You in Christ. I am so grateful that sin does not have to dominate my life.