March 13, 2019 CONSDIDER YOURSELVES
Romans 6:11-13 “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lust, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
It sounds rather simple-‘just consider.’ Yet, that is the precise key for us if we are to live according to the gospel and the plans of God, and to live victoriously. In this case, the word consider means to ‘count as so.’ Not to consider ourselves dead to sin guarantees a life not lived according to the ways of God. You could say that the gospel and all of its promises and the truths we find there do not become experiential for us apart from us considering ourselves dead to sin. Not only are we to consider ourselves dead to sin, we also are to consider ourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus. No doubt, our consideration of these things is of upmost importance. Because of much erroneous teaching we have been exposed to on the subject of our old man being crucified with Christ, we may believe that we have to live simultaneously with both the old and new nature at work in us, making it impossible to live without sin. Concerning sin, we are quick to call such things as murder, lying, hatred, drunkenness, and etc. as sin, but at the same time not considering such things as harboring wrong thoughts, silently judging others, being critical, being unloving, insisting on our own way, etc. as sin. Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins and He broke the power of sin that man had been subject to since the fall of man. Trusting Jesus as Savior is turning from our life and taking on His life; being baptized in water is a picture of us being buried with Him and then raised in newness. “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4. It is critical that we see our old self as being buried with Him, and then realizing that we were raised with Him in newness. The awesome truth is that we can “walk in newness of life,” no longer subject to the power of sin-no longer does sin have to rule in our mortal bodies! We can now present all of the members of our body-all of us-as alive unto God and instruments of righteousness. We can live and not sin. It’s not about ‘sinless perfection’ but about us living in newness. The scriptures tell us that if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, and we are told that if we sin, we are to confess it to the Father. If we sin, it is not because Jesus death was insufficient or because it was beyond our power not to sin, but simply because we chose to sin. As simple as it sounds, let us consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to unto God and let us live as new creations, not subject to the power of sin.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Galatians 5:16 “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Blessings,
Buddy
Romans 6:11-13 “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lust, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
It sounds rather simple-‘just consider.’ Yet, that is the precise key for us if we are to live according to the gospel and the plans of God, and to live victoriously. In this case, the word consider means to ‘count as so.’ Not to consider ourselves dead to sin guarantees a life not lived according to the ways of God. You could say that the gospel and all of its promises and the truths we find there do not become experiential for us apart from us considering ourselves dead to sin. Not only are we to consider ourselves dead to sin, we also are to consider ourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus. No doubt, our consideration of these things is of upmost importance. Because of much erroneous teaching we have been exposed to on the subject of our old man being crucified with Christ, we may believe that we have to live simultaneously with both the old and new nature at work in us, making it impossible to live without sin. Concerning sin, we are quick to call such things as murder, lying, hatred, drunkenness, and etc. as sin, but at the same time not considering such things as harboring wrong thoughts, silently judging others, being critical, being unloving, insisting on our own way, etc. as sin. Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins and He broke the power of sin that man had been subject to since the fall of man. Trusting Jesus as Savior is turning from our life and taking on His life; being baptized in water is a picture of us being buried with Him and then raised in newness. “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4. It is critical that we see our old self as being buried with Him, and then realizing that we were raised with Him in newness. The awesome truth is that we can “walk in newness of life,” no longer subject to the power of sin-no longer does sin have to rule in our mortal bodies! We can now present all of the members of our body-all of us-as alive unto God and instruments of righteousness. We can live and not sin. It’s not about ‘sinless perfection’ but about us living in newness. The scriptures tell us that if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, and we are told that if we sin, we are to confess it to the Father. If we sin, it is not because Jesus death was insufficient or because it was beyond our power not to sin, but simply because we chose to sin. As simple as it sounds, let us consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to unto God and let us live as new creations, not subject to the power of sin.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Galatians 5:16 “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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