Considering Ourselves: The Specifics

 Considering Ourselves: The Specifics

Paul exhorted the Roman Christians; “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).

Some Bible teaching stresses Paul’s call in this passage to consider ourselves dead to sin. This view argues that Paul calls on the believer to reckon himself dead to sin each time temptation arises. Thus, it is argued, he will find deliverance because if you’re dead to something, you can’t continue in it. However, the argument becomes vague at this point. The bottom line is that the battle against sin consists mainly of trying to convince myself that I’m dead to sin, even though I still desire it.

I used to find this teaching quite confusing as a young Christian. If you’ve tried to deal with burning temptation by telling yourself “I’m dead to this,” you know what I mean. It doesn’t work all that well. In fact, it doesn’t work at all. I always got the feeling I was trying to think my way into something that wasn’t quite true in the first place. I sure didn’t feel very dead!

But the verse doesn’t teach that we are dead. We are obviously not dead. The real point of the verse is not just that we are dead to sin but that we are alive to God! So we are alive, not dead. We were alienated from God in Adam. Sin and death reigned over us. In Christ, we see ourselves not enslaved to sin, not alienated from God, but alive to God. We are treasured in his eyes. We are welcome into the deepest level of intimacy with him because we are in Christ.

Only when we begin to see ourselves this way and consistently approach God accordingly will we experience the power promised in this passage. Only then will we:

•Begin to escape the performance fixation that leaves so many believers defeated and broken in their own self-effort.

•Realize the freedom and power of a perspective that is truly Christ-centered.

•Gain regular, increasing freedom from our sin habits.

•Be delivered from love demanding, self-pity, and selfish ingratitude.

•Enter into a new level of praising and worshiping God.

How vital it is that we come to the place where, like Paul, we can say, “The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20).