DYING TO LIVE

Read Romans 6.

As you read the title, you may have thought this would be a meditation on heaven.  Although that is our ultimate experience of eternal life, it is but the pinnacle of what we can already experience—abundant life now, rooted in our union with Christ!

This experience is anchored in a truth we must COMPREHEND, “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.” (v.6‬). The reality is that our union with Christ is such that all He is and has done has come to be our experience.  When Jesus died on the cross, we died with Him!  When He rose again, we rose with Him!  Eternal life is simply the life of the Eternal God in us—all Jesus is for all I need.

Based on what we comprehend concerning our union with Christ, we must CALCULATE as true, “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (v.11‬). Paul uses an accounting term here.  Let me explain this way—you have a dollar amount in the bank. You know this, not because you physically can see and hold cash in your hand, but you calculate by faith what the bank tells you and act on it as being true by using your debit card or writing a check. So, if you can trust a bank, can’t you trust God?  He says you are dead to sin and alive in Christ!

From comprehending this truth and calculating it as a promise from God, you then CHOOSE to live accordingly,  “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.” (v.13‬). A dead slave would be free from his master’s control. Since we are crucified with Christ, the old master—sin—has no claim on us.  Yet, being raised from the dead in Christ, we have a new master—Jesus.  In the same way we once yielded our body for sin’s passions, we now surrender it for the Savior’s purposes.

In Christ you are free;
Free to be all He wants you to be;
Free, for we died with Him on that tree;
Free, for my life is the Risen Christ in me!