Blessed morning!
Title: Reckon yourself dead to sin
If you’re struggling to shake off a bad trait or less-than-ideal lifestyle, you’d do well to fill your heart with what Pastor Prince shared in church yesterday. The Good News is that you are already dead to your sins. The key is even though you are still losing your temper or have a bad addiction, God’s Word says you are to reckon yourself as “dead to sin.”
Romans 6:9-12 (NKJV)
Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
“He died to sin once for all” - At Calvary, Jesus took all our sins and died to sin once and for all. He died to imputed sin (our sins imputed to Him). This means He died to the guilt, judgment and condemnation of sin. Likewise, we also have died to the guilt, judgment and condemnation of sin because Christ took them all upon Himself at the Cross for us.
Jesus left sin and death behind Him. Thus we who are in Him are to right believe sin and death are behind us.
“Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” - Romans 6:11. “Likewise” means “in the same manner”. So in the same manner Jesus is dead to sin and alive to God, we are also dead to sin and alive to God in Him!
The word “reckon” in Greek is “logizomai”. It’s a term commonly used in book-keeping, meaning counted or calculated as. For example, if a man logizomai he has $1,000 in the bank, it is because he has $1,000 in the bank. Logizomai has nothing to do with suppositions. It has got to do with truths.
So when God says you are to reckon yourself dead to sin, it’s based on the truth that when Jesus died in our place at the Cross, He took all our sins - past, present and future - and they all died with Him. Death and sin no longer has dominion over Him. His sacrificial death is the truthful foundation that we can reckon (logizomai) and count ourselves as dead to sin. His resurrection is a truth that we can be alive to God!
What Jesus accomplished at the Cross is once for all. Likewise, we’ve all died to sin once and for all at the Cross. We have nothing to say to sin except to declare: “I am dead to sin!”
But what if still see your sinful nature such as anger, depression or self-pity arising? The devil wants you to be self-occupied. They may look and feel real. But according to God’s Word, they are dead. God’s word is truth. And God’s word clearly says you are dead to them.
Said Pastor Prince: “God’s truths outlast facts. Once Jesus died on the cross, sin has been removed from you. That’s the truth. The fact may be that in your body you still sin, for example you get angry or bitter.
“Understand that before you received Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you had a sinful nature. But once the divine exchange took place. Jesus became sin so that you have become the righteousness of God in Him. So we are to receive His righteousness. You are now in Christ and made a new creation where old things have passed away and all things have become new (2 Cor 5:17).”
So consider not your body or your mind. Consider God’s Word in your spirit man. You are the righteousness of God in Christ and have been made a new creation in Him! When you keep declaring this, you are giving glory to Christ and His Finished Work and acknowledging that God’s word is truth in your life!
And all of the Beloveds say, “God’s Word is truth in my life. I reckon myself as dead to sin. I am the righteousness of God in Christ! Amen 🙏!”
Dead to sin and a new creation in Christ,
Dn Pete
