Rom 6:11

“LIKEWISE RECKON YE ALSO YOURSELVES TO B DEAD INDEED UNTO SIN, BUT ALIVE UNTO GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.”

“likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin.”

2 things the Believer MUST DO to live an overcoming Christian Life:
A. The Believer MUST reckon himself to be dead unto sin.
B. The Believer MUST also reckon himself alive unto God.

“reckon”: to reckon, count, compute, to take into account”

the keys here are Knowledge & Faith. This “knowledge” comes about through the teachings here in the 6th Chapter of Romans.

The Believer is to have Faith in this Knowledge.

The Believer is also to take into account the fact that he is alive unto God, that is that the Divine Nature has been imparted with the result that this nature gives him both the desire and the power to regulate his life in accordance with the Word of God.

**Now, reckoning oneself dead to sin and alive unto God does not make one so. In other words, the mere fact of saying this, or even repeating it over and over again, effects no positive results within itself.

One must have a working knowledge of what Jesus has done for us, understanding that part of that great work was to give us dominion over sin in our everyday lives, having Faith in that, and CONTINUING everyday working at that.

Example:

Imagine there being some people playing a trick on someone, In the floor is a sheet plywood, propped up by some books. The young man steps onto the board, and his bystanders blindfold him. They move the board with him standing on it, place him back in the same spot and tell him to watch his head and not to bump it on the ceiling. The man, thinking he is higher than he really is, loses his balance and falls off of the board.

The second man comes in, and already knows the game. The do the same thing with him. But, he knows that they have not placed him higher up, so since he knows where he is at, he maintains his balance and does not fall off of the board.

The same things happens in the life of the Believer. Many Christians, not having the proper understanding of what actually happened, and what position that being “In Christ” has them at, they falter and find themselves giving into sin, not realizing that they are free from the Sin Nature and the acts that it causes them to commit acts of sin.

But the Believer who counts upon the fact that he is a possessor of the Divine Nature, ceases from his own struggles at living a Christian Life, and is availed to the Life of God supplied by the Divine Nature.

**sometimes I struggle with this, but I look back to before I knew the Lord and received Him into my heart and life. And I recall that back then, I didn’t even have a DESIRE to do the will of God, much less care that there was a God out there. That’s how I know that I am saved! I know that now in my heart and life, there is the desire to do good and to please God…by that and that alone, I know I am saved. If I didn’t love Christ, I wouldn’t even have a desire to please God, that is a manifestation, in and of itself, of being a true child of God.

There are more points I want to bring, but it seems that this could get pretty long, so I will stop it short and begin a new one, for the sake of the reader’s eyes. ☺