Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:11
Many years ago, I read an account of a missionary trying to take the Gospel to people living on some remote south Pacific islands. These people had some customs that the missionary found difficult to understand and impossible to accept. On one occasion, he went to visit a village chief who was very sick. The chief had several wives who were gathered around him and who were lamenting sorely. A translator informed the missionary that the local witch doctor had already determined that the chief was going to die. A custom in those islands held that when a chief died, his wives were all to be buried with him. So the witch doctor had ordered the chief’s wives to all be held ready to be killed, in preparation for the chief’s death and burial. Medicine provided by the missionary was able to save the chief’s life, and the lives of his wives. But until the chief was healed, his wives were reckoned dead, just like we as Christians are to be reckoned dead to the sin and the world.
Like the chief’s wives, we are still alive physically. And the life we are living is in sinful flesh, capable of all manner of wrong. But, because the Holy Spirit lives within, we are also capable of obeying God, of living in a manner that is pleasing to him. So the choice is ours, to surrender to the temptations and weakness that would drag us down, or to surrender to the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, Who enables us to live in victory over sin. How do we make the choice to live in victory? By reckoning ourselves dead to sin, and by embracing the new life that is ours in Christ.
If we consider ourselves dead to sin, we will cease looking to the world for our pleasures and entertainment. We will see the evil in those things that are done to appeal to the flesh. We will also turn away from the bad companions of the world who will corrupt our language and habits, and will draw us into their disobedience and blasphemies. But we will do much more than turning away from the bad, we will turn toward the good. We will discover in the Word of God all we need to strengthen, encourage, and build us up in our most holy faith. We will find in prayer and meditation that which will strengthen our faith and deepen our convictions. We will find in the Lord’s people the companionship that is far richer than the friends of the world. We will find in serving God and His people the satisfaction of investing in eternal things. All because we reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive unto God.
We are dead. The more we realize that fact, the more we realize how alive we are in Christ. – Jim MacIntosh