Romans 6.11-Consider Yourselves Dead To The Sin Nature But Alive To God In Christ Jesus
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday June 26, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:11-Consider Yourselves Dead To The Sin Nature But Alive To God In Christ Jesus
Lesson # 190
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:1.
This evening we will study Romans 6:11, in which the apostle Paul commands the Roman believers to regard themselves as dead with respect to the sin nature but alive with respect to God in union with Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:1-11, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master 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. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 6:11 is a comparative clause, which draws the comparison between Christ’s death and resurrection and always living for the benefit of the Father and the justified sinner’s attitude towards himself as a result of having been identified with Christ in His death and resurrection through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Since the justified sinner has been identified with Christ’s physical death, which deprived the sin nature of its power over the justified sinner, the justified sinner must now regard himself as being someone who is dead to the sin nature.
Since the justified sinner has been identified with Christ’s resurrection, which permanently eradicates the sin nature, the justified sinner must now regard himself as alive to God.
Since the justified sinner is identified with Christ’s death, which deprived the sin nature its power, then the justified sinner is free to and obligated to live for the will and glory of the Father.
Since the justified sinner is identified with Christ in His resurrection and since Christ lives forever in a resurrection body for the will and glory of the Father, then, the justified sinner is free to and obligated to do so as well.
Since the justified sinner’s relationship with the Father is based upon Christ’s eternal life and identification with Christ in His death and resurrection, then the justified sinner is free to and obligated to live for the will and glory of the Father like Christ does.
Romans 6:11, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
“Consider” is the second person plural present (deponent) middle imperative form of the verb logizomai (logivzomai) (lo-gidz-o-my), which means, “to hold a view or have an opinion with regard to something as a result of a process of reasoning.”
It means that Paul wants the Roman believers to “hold the view or opinion of themselves” that they are dead to the sin nature and alive to God “as a result of reasoning” from his teaching in Romans 6:1-10 that they have been identified with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection.
The imperative form of logizomai indicates that Paul wants the Roman believers to agree with God’s viewpoint of them, namely, that they have been crucified and died and buried with Christ and raised with Christ.
Amos 3:3, “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?”
The imperative form of logizomai also signifies that they are to appropriate by faith that which God has done for them through the death and resurrection of Christ and by doing so they will be living in eternal life, which is extraordinary.
Paul reveals that he applied this principle to himself and appropriated the death and resurrection of Christ by means of faith in the Son of God.
Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
In Romans 6:11, we have a “customary present imperative” form of the verb logizomai emphasizing that the Roman believers were “to make it their habit” of considering themselves dead to the sin nature and alive to God.
The present imperative form of the verb means that the Roman believers are commanded to “make it their habit” of agreeing with the objective truth of the Word of God that they have been crucified with Christ and thus dead to the sin nature and raised with Christ, and thus alive to God.
So in Romans 6:11, the imperative form of logizomai emphasizes that the Roman believers are to agree with God’s viewpoint of them that they are dead to the sin nature and alive solely for His glory.
The verb denotes that believers are to adopt the opinion of themselves that God now has towards them as a result of their union and identification with Christ.
The word denotes that the believer is to draw the obvious conclusion that they are dead to the sin nature and alive to God and which conclusion is based upon reasoning from the objective facts that he has presented in Romans 6:1-10.
Romans 6:11, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
“Dead to sin” means that the Roman believers are being commanded by Paul to regard themselves as dead with respect to the sin nature.
In other words, Paul wants them to experience for themselves God’s viewpoint of them and what He has done for them through the baptism of the Spirit.
He wants them to experience to retroactive positional truth meaning that when Christ died, they died.
If they apply the doctrine of retroactive positional truth or in other words appropriate it by faith, this will affect their conduct.
Romans 6:11, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
“Alive” is the verb zao (zavw) (dzah-o), which refers to the manner in which a person behaves or conducts himself in relationship to the Father.
The verb refers to the justified sinner conducting himself in a manner that is consistent with his new position in Christ in which he has died with Christ and has been raised with Him.
It implies that the believer is to appropriate by faith the teaching that he is identified with Christ in His resurrection, which is called, “current positional truth” meaning that when Christ rose from the dead, God considers the justified sinner to have done so as well.
The verb zao speaks of the believer appropriating by faith the teaching that he has been crucified, died and has been buried with Christ as well as raised with Christ, which results in the believer experiencing eternal life.
The word refers to the believer experiencing his new position in Christ by appropriating by faith the teaching that he has died and has been raised with Christ.
“To God” is the noun theos (qeov$), which refers to the first member of the Trinity, God the Father since it is used in contrast to the Son, Jesus Christ and it has the article preceding it and when it does it refers to the Father.
“In Christ Jesus” denotes that the sinner has been entered into “union with” Jesus Christ through the baptism of the Spirit the moment he was declared justified by the Father as a result of exercising faith in His Son Jesus Christ as their Savior.
This union is indivisible and eternal in the viewpoint of God as a result of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit in identifying the justified sinner with Christ in His physical death.
In the Greek New Testament, there are at least eight different analogies that express the justified sinner’s union with Christ: (1) The last Adam and the New Creation (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 5:17a). (2) The Head and the Body (Col. 1:18a). (3) The Great Shepherd and the Sheep (Heb. 13:20). (4) The True Vine and the Branches (John 15:5a). (5) The Chief Cornerstone and the Stones in the building (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:5-6). (6) The Great High Priest and members of the Royal Priesthood (Heb. 4:14a; 1 Pet. 2:9a). (7) The Groom and the Bride. (Our wedding occurs at the Second Advent) (Rev. 19:7). (8) The King of Kings and the Royal Family of God (Rev. 19:14-16).
The prepositional phrase en Christo, “in union with Christ” is a reminder to the Christians as to what God has done for them through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and it denotes His viewpoint of the church age believer.
It summarizes the doctrine of positional truth and the justified sinner’s union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, His spiritual and physical deaths and His resurrection, which underlies Paul’s teaching in Romans 6:1-10.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase denotes the believer’s intimate, eternally secure position because of his union and identification with Christ.