“God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6).
What does it mean to be, “Alive together with Christ?” It follows that if we are alive with Christ, then we must be dead to something else. The apostle Paul used this terminology when he said in, Romans 6:11, “You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Dead to sin. That’s a pretty graphic description. Have you ever seen a dead body or a picture of a dead person. It can be frightening. There is no response from a dead person. Their body changes over time becoming more corrupt until they don’t even look human. This description may be too graphic for some, but there is an important point to this. Paul is drawing an extreme contrast of what it means to not only be dead to sin, but alive in Christ.
Sin cannot make the dead respond. In the dead body there is no power to act, to obey, or to embrace. Dead is dead. But to be alive in Christ means just the opposite, and more. If we are alive in Christ it means that we have been given the power to live for Christ. Sin need not be master over us. It is possible, under the power of the Holy Spirit, to resist temptation and be found exuberantly alive in Jesus Christ.
What sin do you struggle with? What sin seems to control you from time to time? It is possible to gain mastery over it. The secret is in Paul’s words to be, “Made alive together with Christ.” Obedience to Jesus brings victory.
Memory Verse
“You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).
Application
What sin seems to control you? Write it down, then present it to the Lord, admitting your struggle. Symbolically, destroy or burn that paper, telling God that you want nothing to do with that sin anymore. Consider yourself dead to it just as that paper has been destroyed. As the Holy Spirit to help you with the power to have victory over that sin in your life.
