YOU HAVE DIED TO SIN (Part 2)
“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.” (Romans 6:4 NKJV)
The Scripture aptly presents the truth that the born-again believers were baptized into Christ’s death and were also raised together with Christ to walk in the newness of life.
Romans 6:3-4 – NKJV
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 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.
The believers in Christ don’t die daily or gradually to sin; they died once and for all to sin through the body of Christ. But they are now alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11).
Walking daily in this revelation knowledge and spiritual reality is what guarantee a perpetual victory over sin. For it is only a man who is dead that is totally free from sin.
Romans 6:2, 7 – NKJV
2 How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Suppose the born-again believers were not dead to sin through the body of Christ and rose together with Him as entirely new creations in Christ. In that case, we still retain our old sinful, corrupt, and rebellious nature inherited from Adam through the natural birth.
It was our perfect death with Christ on the cross that delivered us from the slavery of Sin and Satan.
Romans 6:6 – NKJV
6 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.
It was our sinful nature that made us slaves of Sin and Satan. As long as we still have that sinful nature, we cannot stop practicing sins, and therefore we cannot be free from the captivity of Satan. Why?
1 John 3:8 – NKJV
8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
But thank God that our old man, the embodiment of sin in us, was crucified with Christ so that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Hallelujah!
If the believers don’t need to die daily to sin, having died and risen with Christ once and for all, how do we handle the daily temptations to sin?
Reckon yourself daily to be dead to sin!
Deny yourself daily!
Present yourself daily to God as one who is alive from the dead!
Romans 6:11-13 – NKJV
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 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.
Your daily victory over sin cannot come by you seeking, striving, or struggling daily to die to sin, but only by you reckoning yourself to be dead indeed to sin through the body of Christ, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Anything else you do apart from that will only result in frustration, failure, and defeat!
The word that was translated “reckon” in Rom. 6:11 is the Greek word “logizomai,” which denotes: “to reckon, count, compute, calculate, count over, to take into account, to suppose, to deem, to judge, to consider, take into account, mediate on” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon).
Therefore, when the Scripture commands you to reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin, the Scripture is saying to you in other words: “to consider yourself dead to sin; to regard yourself to be dead to sin; to count yourself to be dead unto sin; to think of yourself as dead so far as sin is concerned; to suppose, deem or judge yourself to be dead whenever sin beckons on you; to meditate on the truth that you are already dead to sin.”
Moreover, the Greek word “logizomai” conveys no causative meaning but rather only an inventory or assessment of a condition that already exists. Therefore, the state of being dead to sin already exists for Christians, but we have to seize this benefit by reckoning it to be so. In this verse, the use of the word “indeed” further establishes that this is already an accomplished work of Christ that we are simply appropriating (Andrew’s Study Bible).
Reckoning yourself to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God is an exercise you must do daily or constantly until the truth of your death and resurrection with Christ is infused or inculcated into your mind, and it begins to influence, dominate and control your imaginations, conversations, decisions, emotions, and actions.
Your daily or constant victory over sin and the flesh greatly depends on this truth and exercise!
If believers don’t die daily but once even as Jesus died once and was raised from the dead to die no more, why then did Paul say, “I die daily?” (1 Cor. 15:31).
Was Paul contradicting his revelation and testimony in his former epistles where he boldly said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20 NKJV)?
Certainly not!
While Paul was referring to physical death and resurrection in 1 Cor. 15:31, he referred to spiritual death and resurrection with Jesus in his epistles (Rom. 6:1-6, Gal. 2:20).
When you carefully examine Paul’s statement, “I die daily” in its context, you will realize that what Paul was saying, in other words, is that he faces and embraces the threat of death daily for the sake of Christ because he is fully convinced that even if he dies in the course of preaching the gospel, he will rise again on the day of resurrection to meet with the Lord Jesus.
That is why Paul asks these questions:
1 Corinthians 15:30-32 – NKJV
30 And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour?
31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
32 If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
Can you now see that regarding sin, the law, the flesh, and the world, Paul didn’t say he was dying daily, but instead he emphatically states, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me?”
Beloved, you too should quit seeking, striving, or struggling daily to die to sin, the Mosaic law, the flesh, and the world, but simply begin to reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin 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.” (Rom. 6:13 NKJV).
Prayer: My Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for opening my eyes of understanding to this great truth of my perfect and perpetual freedom from the dominion of sin, the law, the flesh, and the world through the body of Jesus Christ. Dear Holy Spirit, remind me daily to reckon myself to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, in Jesus’ name. Amen.