Dead to Sin, Alive to God

What we believe has a major impact on what we do and how we live.  If I truly believed valuable gold coins were being sold in a shop for a fraction of their value, I would purchase all the stock I could.  But if believed them to be lead adorned with gold spray paint, I would not consider buying a single one.  While the cruel dictator rules with oppression the people feign reverence in the presence of his person and images.  Yet when they believe the cruel dictator is dead and beyond power to torture and murder them, they celebrate without fear when statues are torn down and images desecrated.  As beliefs in our minds are lived out, so spiritual realities have a practical impact on our decisions daily.

Paul wrote in Romans 6:8-11:  "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹ knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. ¹⁰ For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Christians are those who believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died on the cross and rose from the dead, and by faith in Him we are born again.  Because Jesus is risen from the dead, death has no dominion over Him.  This is the reality we appropriate by faith in Jesus practically:  we reckon (consider, credit) ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God.  Sin and death no longer have dominion over us because we are in Christ.

There is a difference between something being "dead to me" and I reckoning myself "dead unto" it.  To say something is dead to me acknowledges existence of the thing but I am choosing to treat it as if it does not, I don't care about it or want anything to do with it.  This won't prevent us coming into contact with the thing we are pretending is dead to us and it exerting sway over our minds or bodies.  To reckon myself dead unto a thing is quite another.  Everything and everyone in the world can continue as it is by I am not impacted by it at all.  Nothing can have a hold on me because I am dead:  I cannot be tried in a court of law, forced to pay a fine, or serve time in prison.  Paul says we are to reckon or consider ourselves dead to sin, and because we are dead in Christ sin wields no authority or governance over our decisions.  Having been raised to new life by faith in Jesus, we are to reckon ourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus our LORD.

Reckoning ourselves to be dead unto sin and alive unto Christ is not a mind game we play with ourselves, but is the spiritual reality of our new identity in Jesus by faith.  Romans 6:13-14 continues:  "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. ¹⁴ For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."  Believing Jesus died and rose and again, we reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, alive to God and present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness.  Sin does not have dominion over us, yet because we live in bodies corrupted by sinful thoughts and desires we can imagine the only hope for us walking righteously is in the eternal state.  Paul destroys this foolish misconception.  By God's grace through faith in our risen LORD Jesus we can present ourselves to God as being alive from the dead.  Since we believe Jesus died and rose from the dead, on that basis we consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God.  Having been made righteous by faith, by His grace we yield ourselves to walk righteously.