Unlimited: Count Yourselves Alive

Oct 14, 2022 692

Unlimited: Count Yourselves Alive

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11).

Paul is speaking here about how we are to view ourselves as a result of having been saved.

The phrase “count yourselves” echoes Paul’s description of how we receive the righteousness of God. It is “credited” to us, which means it isn’t earnt or deserved but comes from entirely outside of ourselves. In the same way “count” ourselves dead to sin.

We do this not because there is no sin in our flesh, but rather because we know that Christ has died and risen so that his righteousness might be credited to us. Because we believe that his righteousness has been credited to our account, regardless of the flesh, we adopt a new attitude towards sin and God.

Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God.

I once asked a spiritual mentor what the difference was between a Christian and an unbeliever. I had always thought that a Christian must sin less than the unbeliever.

“Oh no!” this wise old man said to me, “that’s not it at all! The difference between a Christian and an unbeliever is that when a Christian sins, he hates the sin and loves God, but when an unbeliever sins, he loves the sin and hates God.”

That’s precisely what the apostle Paul means here when he tells us to count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God. It’s about our attitude.

Spiritual Application

A person who is not under grace will love sin and reject the Saviour. A person who is under grace will love the Saviour and hate sin. Reflect on that. To which class do you belong?

Eliezer Gonzalez

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