Thursday, Oct. 11

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In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. - Romans 6:11-14

I don’t know about you, but when I hear or read about how Christ sets us free from sin, and how we are to be new creations in Him, I can’t help but wonder why it seems so hard and why it takes so long for this to become a reality in my life.  One of the best explanations for why we do not always experience the reality of our new life in Christ I have ever read comes from Martin Lloyd-Jones’ commentary on Romans 6...

Imagine a country where one group of people enslaved another group for centuries. Whenever one member of one group meets a member of another group, they beat up or abused that person. Then one day, a good and wise king comes into power and he declares the slaves to be free, and he outlaws all oppression. Do you think that’s all it takes for those people to be really free?  The oppressing group would continue to harass the formerly enslaved group and the formerly enslaved group would continue to tremble in fear and do what they were told even though the oppressing group no longer had any legal power over them. They were free but they remained slaves. Their status changed but their condition (their reality) had not caught up yet.

In other words, when we struggle with temptation, it is because we are living under the old regime, and our reality has not yet caught up with our new status in Christ.

In this passage, Paul is giving us a very important practical way to experience the reality of our new-self in Christ.  Paul’s first command in Romans is (6:11), In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  “In the same way” means, “Just as Christ died definitively and finally to sin, so you should count yourselves in Him to be done with sin. Just as Christ has risen from the dead and now lives in God’s presence far removed from sin, so should you live in Him, since in the future you will live forever with Him. 

“Count yourselves” is in the present tense and means, “keep on counting it to be true.” You don’t count it to be true because you feel dead to sin and alive to God, but rather because God says that it is true. And the truest thing about you is not what you feel, but what God declares to be true. 

Victory over sin begins with your mind, how you think.
(In Rom. 12:2, Paul says that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds)

Now we need to be clear about something, Paul is NOT just advocating the power of positive thinking.  This isn’t just a mind game, where you tell yourself over and over that it’s true until it actually becomes true.  Paul isn’t saying to deny reality by thinking positive thoughts. He isn’t saying, “Visualize yourself as being dead to sin and then you’ll act that way.”  Rather, he is saying, “This is the fact of who God has made you in Christ.  You are no longer in sin, but rather, you are now in Christ Jesus, dead to sin and alive to God.”  Paul says we must ponder that, reflect on it...think on that truth!  As you think, so you will act.  So consider it over and over as often as you face temptation.  Living in light of your union with Christ is the key to overcoming sin!

Jeff Frazier