This is in agreement with what I was aiming at on Sunday.
3. Therefore, believers are commanded to become in practice what we are in Christ: dead to sin and alive to God.
Romans 6:11, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 6:13, “Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead.”
“Notice carefully, Paul does not draw the conclusion of a mechanical or automatic obedience from our death and resurrection with Christ. He does not say, “Since you all died to sin in Christ and are alive to God in him, there is no need for me to command you to do anything, and there is no act of obedience involved. There is only an automatic, mechanical outcome of sinlessness. You died to sin; so you automatically don’t sin. You are alive to God; so you automatically serve God. No need for commands.” No, that is not what he says. Instead he says, you died, so consider yourselves dead. You are alive, so consider yourselves alive to God. You are . . . so now become what you are. (emphasis mine)We are justified by grace through faith alone because of our union with Christ whose righteousness is counted as ours. And now we see that this same union with Christ explains why we will not continue in sin.
I hope you can see how crucial this is and will stay with me and learn with me how to live as justified people. O how free and peaceful and joyful and radical we would be if we learned this together. I will do my best to open it for us. Pray with me that we see it and live it – to the glory of Christ: our righteousness.”
(HT: DG)
