Edmund Dantes is dead. I am dead? What does this mean?
As a believer, I have been crucified with Christ and raised with Him on the third day. This is taught but what does it really mean? Clearly I am not physically dead so it must mean something else. Primarily this death is in regards to sin. We are dead to sin as believers, and yet we still sin.
Sin is part of this world. Psalm 14:3 shows that there “is none that does good, no, not one”. The verse that starts so many gospel presentations, Romans 3:23, backs this up, “all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.” In some ways I have always been dead; prior to my conversion I was “dead through [my] trespasses and sins” Ephesians 2:1. I believe that when I prayed to accept Christ as my Savior, God imputed the perfect life and righteousness of Christ into my “account” so now when he looks at me, God see's what I could never give Him: a perfect life spent in service to Him and for His glory.
But this does not mean that I am off the hook. When I sin, legally my relationship with God has not changed. I am as justified (only by His grace) as I ever have been or ever will be. Salvation is not based on my perfection but is the free gift of God. I am still an adopted son of God but there are consequences in terms of our relationship with God and until we confess we will remain at a distance from Christ. Wayne Grudem writes, “When we sin as Christians, it is not only our personal relationship with God that is disrupted. Our Christian life and fruitfulness in ministry are also damaged. Jesus warns us, 'As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (John 15:4). When we stray from fellowship from Christ because of sin in our lives, we diminish the degree to which we are abiding in Christ.”
So going back to the original question, what does it mean to be dead? I took this phrase from Romans 6:11 which reads, “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (ESV). The also is sometimes translated “in the same way” but to what does it refer. Romans 6:10 says, “For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.” So we are called to be like Christ and are dead to sin.
This means sin holds no power over us. We are not under the curse of the law any more but under the grace and freedom that comes from trusting in Christ as our savior. Christ has lived the life we could not for us, and as such we are freed from having to fulfill the laws demands. If salvation was based on our works, then Christ died for no purpose. He died to bring us into communion with God and rends the curtain as it were. We therefore are called to live lives of holiness, growing into the image of Christ, not because it earns us anything but out of thankfulness to our Saving God.
Practically we must acknowledge 2 things in our fight with sin. First and foremost, sin holds no power and we don't need to give into temptation. Sin holds no power. Second, we must never admit defeat; sin has no dominion and we can never say "I will never change." We must hold fast the promise that God will complete the work that he has began in us. We will never be free from sin but sin cannot beat us. It's going down, but it's going down swinging.
Another way we were slaves to sin is in our death. When one dies in rebellion to God, forsaking His love and statutes, they are condemned to an eternity apart from God. When a believer dies, we leave our corrupted mortal bodies and join Christ in glory, in bodies that will never perish as we worship and commune with God forever. All eternity! We will never be free from sin in this life, despite the extent of our growth in Godliness, but when we die sanctification is complete. Death no longer holds the sting it once did, for we know that those believers who die are, for the first time, at peace and we will join them when our time in the “shadowlands” is done.
I am not a sinner! I am a Child of God, in Christ, who still sins. I am dead to sin.
1 comment:
Hi,
I've devoted much of my time to correcting a very widespread misunderstanding about the term "impute." Many are extremely shocked to hear this, but the Bible never uses the term "impute" in reference to imputing our sins to Christ or imputing Adam's guilt to man, or even Christ's Righteousness to us.
In my study on this topic of imputed righteousness, the Greek term “logizomai” is the English term for “reckon/impute/credit/etc,” (all terms are basically equivalently used) and when I look up that term in a popular lexicon here is what it is defined as:
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QUOTE: “This word deals with reality. If I “logizomai” or reckon that my bank book has $25 in it, it has $25 in it. Otherwise I am deceiving myself. This word refers to facts not suppositions.”
LINK: http://tinyurl.com/r92dch
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The lexicon states this term first and foremost refers to the actual status of something. So if Abraham’s faith is “logizomai as righteousness,” it must be an actually righteous act of faith, otherwise (as the Lexicon says) “I am deceiving myself.” This seems to rule out any notion of an alien righteousness, and instead points to a local/inherent righteousness.
The Lexicon gives other examples where “logizomai” appears, here are some examples:
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Rom 3:28 Therefore we conclude [logizomai] that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Rom 4:4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted [logizomai] as a gift but as his due.
Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon [logizomai] ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 8:18 For I reckon [logizomai] that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
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Notice in these examples that “logizomai” means to consider the actual truth of an object. In 3:28 Paul ‘reckons’ faith saves while the Law does not, this is a fact, the Law never saves. In 4:4 the worker’s wages are ‘reckoned’ as a debt because the boss is in debt to the worker, not giving a gift to him. In 6:11 the Christian is ‘reckoned’ dead to sin because he is in fact dead to sin. In 8:18 Paul ‘reckons’ the present sufferings as having no comparison to Heavenly glory, and that is true because nothing compares to Heavenly glory.
To use logizomai in the “alien status” way would mean in: (1) 3:28 faith doesn’t really save apart from works, but we are going to go ahead and say it does; (2) 4:4 the boss gives payment to the worker as a gift rather than obligation/debt; (3) 6:11 that we are not really dead to sin but are going to say we are; (4) 8:18 the present sufferings are comparable to Heaven’s glory.
This cannot be right.
So when the text plainly says “faith is logizomai as righteousness,” I must read that as ‘faith is reckoned as a truly righteous act’, and that is precisely how Paul explains that phrase in 4:18-22. That despite the doubts that could be raised in Abraham’s heart, his faith grew strong and convinced and “that is why his faith was credited as righteousness” (v4:22). This is also confirmed by noting the only other time “credited as righteousness” appears in Scripture, Psalm 106:30-31, where Phinehas’ righteous action was reckoned as such. This is confirmed even more when one compares another similar passage, Hebrews 11:4, where by faith Abel was commended as righteous.
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