For in that he has died, he has died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
So also *ye*, reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Paul has just said that Christ died to sin once and now lives to God. Now he turns that fact on the believer with one command — so what does it ask of me, and how can I count myself dead to sin while sin still stirs inside me?
The ESV says "consider"; the writers quoted here use the older wording, "reckon." The command rests on facts already settled:
Once we know this, the reckoning commanded in verse 11 becomes perfectly plain to us. Our case is governed by Christ's, for we are identified with Him. Did He die to sin? Then we are dead to sin, and so we reckon it. Does He now live to God? Then we now live to God, and so we reckon it. Our reckoning is not make-believe. We are dead to sin and alive to God by His own acts, accomplished in the death and resurrection of Christ.
The word "likewise" sets the believer's death to sin on the same footing as Christ's:
Now notice what follows. Everyone believes verse 10 is true of the blessed Lord. Nobody believes that He died to the love or the practice of sin, but to sin itself. But what does verse 11 say? "Likewise reckon" — that is, account. "Likewise" means "in the same way." It plainly means that the believer is to reckon himself dead to sin and alive to God in the same sense that Christ is.
It is an accounting word, not a report on my inner state:
I would not have to reckon if I were really dead, and the context makes that clear. "Reckon" is the estimate I form by faith of my condition and standing. It is the estimate of my faith, not a statement about the state I am in. The same is true of "alive": the statement here is not that I have life, but that I account myself so.
Turning this into a matter of experience leads to one of two bad ends:
We reckon this so, we do not feel it to be so. It is an entire mistake to imagine that this being dead to sin is a feeling or an experience. That mistake carries serious consequences. We cannot feel Christ's death on the cross, and it was there He died to sin, and we because He died. If it were experience, it would have to be a perfect one — never an evil thought, feeling, or desire in the heart. And that would be true of all Christians always, not just the more advanced. This is contrary to everyone's experience. Trying to produce such a condition in oneself ends in the misery of utter failure, or, worse still, in self-satisfaction.
The verse has a negative side and a positive one, and neither stands alone:
In the same way we are responsible to reckon for ourselves. As to sin — dead TO IT; as to God — alive IN CHRIST JESUS. It is not that sin is dead; it is that we reckon that in Christ's death we have died to it. It is not that we already have our resurrection bodies; it is that we reckon that in Christ Jesus we are alive to God.
Where does the right to reckon come from? One writer answers with a picture:
An illustration may help. Suppose you had committed murder. Someone else was accepted as your substitute and hanged instead of you. The person who took your place would certainly be dead indeed to sin. And would you not clearly be entitled to take the same position? So it is with the believer. Christ has died on our behalf. The value of His death is all for us. Our connection with it is of the most vital kind. It is in Him that we can reckon ourselves "dead indeed to sin."
Reckoning is not the same as realising, and the command itself shows that sin has not left the believer:
Note carefully the force of the apostle's word, "reckon." How very different it is from our word "realise"! We can realise natural or physical facts. But with a spiritual truth, it is not a question of realising but of reckoning. How can I realise that I am dead to sin? All my experience, my feelings and my inner sense of myself seem to contradict the truth flatly. I cannot realise that I am dead; but God tells me I am... If I were sinless, if I had no sin in me, I would never be told to reckon myself dead to sin. I would never need to hear the words, "Let not sin reign in your mortal body."
- Ground. Christ died to sin once and now lives to God. Your reckoning agrees with what God has already done in that death and resurrection.
- Gauge. "Reckon" is an accounting word — the estimate faith forms of my standing, not a report on how I feel.
- Guard. Treating this as experience ends in either the misery of failure or self-satisfaction.
- Grip. Hold both halves — dead to sin and alive to God — and hold them only "in Christ Jesus," where His death counts as mine.
- Goal. Sin still lives in the believer. That is exactly why God commands the reckoning — so sin does not reign.