Alive to God in Christ Jesus

Wednesday, July 03, 2013         Alive to God in Christ Jesus

“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 6:11

I don’t think the phrase consider yourselves, quite captures the power of Paul’s teaching in Romans 6. The KJV uses the word ‘reckon’ which comes closer. The root of the Greek word Paul used is an accounting term for calculating the total, or sum of something. When a shop owner closes for the day, the cash register is emptied and counted. The day’s income is calculated, or reckoned. The total income was already a fact before the shop owner counted the money. The money was already in the register. Counting the money only reveals to the shop owner what is already true.

Paul is urging the followers of Christ to reckon what Christ has already accomplished for his people. Remember, what is true for Jesus, is true for his people. Jesus has conquered the power of sin and death, so also Christianoi, the people of Christ, as the first Christians were known.

Paul uses the metaphor of baptism because it is a good way to illustrate what is true. In Chapter 6, Paul was not referring to the water baptism we receive when we join the church; rather this is the baptism by the Holy Spirit, into the life of Christ, when the believer makes their confession of faith. Paul is teaching that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone, a new life has begun! He uses baptism to help us understand that we have died with Christ, and we have been raised to new life in Christ.

Paul is urging the followers of Christ to live out of their new identity as the beloved children of God, as Jesus’ people. Just as Joshua called the people of Israel to “choose you this day whom ye will serve” (Joshua 24:15 KJV), Paul is calling the people of Jesus to remember who they are and to live out of that reality.

When my teenage children would leave the house for an evening out, my parting words to them were, “Remember who you are.” They knew I was reminding them they were the beloved children of God, and to behave accordingly. When Martin Luther was feeling pulled by temptation he would shout, “I am baptized!” That was his way of reminding himself he belonged to Jesus, and it helped him exercise integrity at the moment of decision. The phrase, ‘exercise integrity at the moment of decision’, is embedded in me, and is what I use to remind myself to live out of the truth of my core identity: I am a child of God.

What helps you choose each day to live out of the reality of your new life in Christ? To help you process that question, I suggest you read the entire sixth chapter of Romans. Read it in different translations, and include my favorite translation of Romans 6, The Message.

  

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  In addition to this BLOG they are distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com. The Kindle version will follow soon.

·        The second edition First Think – Then Pray has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.