dead and alive

Romans 6: 11 "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."

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Dead and alive at the same time.  

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This seems like the ultimate contradiction.  But that is the reality for the child of God.  The fact that a person is able to "consider" anything means they are alive and have choice about attitude and commitment.  So it is possible, even essential, that the believer in Christ to commit to the new life he has.  As Paul stated just prior, in verses 7 and 8: 7 "For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him."  And earlier yet, in verse 3, Paul teaches how our Baptism, following faith in Christ, is an identification with His death, appearing to disappear from life under the water's surface, only to identify with His resurrection as we break up and free from the depths.  

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We, who have trusted in Christ, no longer fear natural death because we have already died the most important death.  We have died to the rule and reign of sin and we have become new creatures in Christ.  But we still have choice and we still inhabit this mortal body.  And so the teaching of Paul in verses 1 and 2: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?"

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Are you dead?  Are you alive?  Or, more importantly, are you both dead and alive!!

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blessings,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."