Death and life...the two points that Paul has really been driving home in Romans. As lost people we are a spiritually dead people...the old man that loves and pursues sin, the very sin that separates us from God, has to be put to death in order to be adopted into the family of a holy God...adoption that not only means walking in newness of life - being made spiritually alive, but life eternal!
Being joined with Jesus in His death, we experience the power of God as He regenerates us - He puts the old man to death and raises us to eternal life, joining us with Jesus in His resurrection!
Everything Paul has explained up to this point has been about how God's power takes affect in our lives, what happens to us, not what we do. God causes this death and resurrection in our lives, God causes us to be joined with His Son, God regenerates our souls, through His Son, so that we can be set free from sin - we have no power of ourselves to cause these things to happen.
Now, in verses 10 and 11, we see a transition. Paul continues to speak of Christ's death and life, but he begins to move towards our responsibility for a response - tying everything he has been saying back to the question he started with: "How can we who died to sin still live in it?"
Paul has revealed in different ways how, being joined with Christ, we have died to sin - which he repeats here in verse 10: "For the death he died he died to sin, once for all" Being baptized with Christ in His death, we need to understand that this applies to us...we, too, have died to sin, once for all. The miracle of our old man, with his sinful lusts and desires, being put to death is a death a Christian only experiences once, as we are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. If we have died to sin this way, how can we still live in it?
Paul isn't saying that we who have died to sin no longer sin...but instead that we who have died to sin should live lives that reveal the miracle of regeneration that has taken place inside of us. Our lives should show that we have been united with Christ in newness of life - a life that is now characterized by longing to know God, desiring God to be glorified in our lives through our obedience to Him and our love for Him and others, moving away from sin and towards God, and when we do sin - conviction and repentance become our response.
While we still battle, sin no longer has the power to control us or condemn us, and we need to grasp this in order to live confidently in Christ! We can defeat sin!
Dying to sin means we also live...we are joined with Christ, and Paul says in verse 10: "but the life he lives he lives to God." We, with Jesus, now live our lives to God...we used to be focused on ourselves, how we could satisfy ourselves - and we can conjure up so many different ways to do this, some seem harmless, some may even seem 'good' in the way they affect people around us - but the truth is, before we are joined to Christ in His death to sin, all of our actions are self serving and rob God of His glory.
But now, but now....we, with Jesus Christ, live our lives to God - we are free to give all to Him, to serve Him in complete submission, wanting Him to be lifted up in our lives above all else, dying to ourselves daily in order to be used by Him for His glory. Sure, we still struggle with pride and selfishness, those poisons run deep, but we are no longer controlled or condemned by them, we are free to battle them as they are revealed to us...the beautiful power of regeneration means that, in spite of our struggles, our main desire is that God be glorified through us!!
Paul has used these two points in verse 10 as motivators as he transitions to our response.
1. You, with Christ, have died to sin.
2. You, with Christ, now live to God.
"So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (vs 11)
This seems pretty basic, we already know from the previous verses that we are joined with Christ in His death and resurrection, Paul has made it a point to thoroughly drive those points home (though I would argue that we still don't understand the power of this death and resurrection). Yet, here in verse 11, as Paul once again reminds us that we are joined to Christ, there is a small phrase that is so important: you also must consider... Paul, up to this point, has been describing things that happened to us, by the power, the grace, and the mercy of God, that changed us from who we were to who we are, but that focus has changed with this phrase, this command.
There is an expected response now, from those who have experienced God's power of regeneration in their lives. Paul will go into much more detail about it in the following verses, but it starts with this small command...you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This command is a direct response to the question in verse 2 "How can we who died to sin still live in it" and this command also begins to display how, as God's children, we can live a life that glorifies Him above all else! This should be our sole desire, that drives everything else in our lives!
So, as we get ready to dig throughout these upcoming weeks into how we are to respond to God's grace and mercy in our lives, that have changed us in such a powerful way, start by asking these very important questions:
1. Have I died to sin? Am I convicted when God reveals sin in my life? Do I repent when convicted?
2. Do I now live my life to God? Is God being glorified through me what drives me each day?
Meditate on these questions, pray over them, and allow God to mold you. Then, as we move forward, the response that is expected of God's children won't be work, or a checklist, but acts of love towards the God that set us free from eternal condemnation, giving us eternal life with Him!
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