I Am A Child Of God

 Meditations on Romans

August 11, 2021

I Am A Child Of God

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:11 (NKJV)

Read: Romans 6:6-11

Most translations use the words, ‘consider yourselves,’ in verse 11, but I do not believe this phrasing captures the power of Paul’s teaching. The NKJV uses the words ‘reckon yourselves,’ 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. Reckoning or 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 Jesus’ people.

As he did in Galatians 2:20, Paul uses the stark language of the believer being co-crucified with Christ to illustrate the total realignment of our lives when we come home to God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Paul is teaching that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5) He uses the cross 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 today whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15), Paul is calling the people of Jesus to remember who they are and to live out of that reality.

My Takeaway: 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. Like Luther, I have a ‘go-to’ phrase to remind me 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?

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.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2021 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.