Dead to Sin, Alive to God
Canon Vernon Hutton. Romans 6:11-14 Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.… I. WHAT IT IS WE ARE TO RECKON OURSELVES AS BEING. 1. Dead unto sin. (1) He who is dead is bereft of all power of thought or action. We may call him by his old familiar name, but he knows it not. We may appeal to him by all in which he used to be most keenly interested, but our words fall unheeded. (2) Such it is to be dead to sin. Temptation comes to him who is dead to sin and finds no part in him. Old sins which were once full of attraction he now cares not for; and they have no power over him. They are as much matters of indifference to him as last year's news, or last year's fashions. 2. Alive unto God. (1) To be alive to anything is to take a keen interest in it. The mother is alive to the needs of her children; the tradesman to the variations of the market; the general to every point of advantage for his own forces, or of difficulty to those of his adversary. (2) The Christian is alive towards God. He is sensitive to His smallest revelation. He listens for every whisper of His Spirit. He recognises His presence in all things. He is alive towards God because he has learned that he lives on God. Like the flower that ever opens its petals to the sun and closes them when the light and warmth of its rays are withdrawn, so the Christian soul is ever open to all the influences of God, and closed to the dark and chilling atmosphere of the world. II. WHAT RIGHT HAVE WE THUS TO RECKON OURSELVES AS DEAD UNTO SIN AND ALIVE UNTO GOD? Because we are members of Him who died unto sin once, and who now forever liveth unto God. 1. Jesus our Head and Representative lived a life that was completely dead unto sin (John 14:30), and His final struggle with it was on the Cross, which was the completion of His death unto sin. "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?" is His own challenge to His enemies, and one by one they were forced to own His sinlessness. Judas, Pilate, the penitent thief, the Roman centurion. 2. He liveth unto God. Throughout His earthly ministry He did so. From the first He is "the Son of Man who is in heaven"; He is never alone, for His Father is with Him. But it is in His resurrection that He is visibly shown to be living unto God. 3. It is into Him that we are incorporated. Therefore as He died unto sin and liveth unto God, it is both our duty and our right that we should thus claim the privilege He has won for us. III. THE BENEFIT WHICH WE GAIN BY THUS RECKONING OURSELVES. 1. To believe that we can do a thing goes a long way in enabling us to do it. We may have the power, yet if we do not believe that we have it, we lose all its benefits. This belief does not make the power, but it makes it operative. In like manner, to reckon ourselves to be anything is a great help towards being it. No doubt if we reckon ourselves to be what we are not we are guilty of self-deceit and vanity. But in seeking to avoid this mistake we must not fall into its opposite by refusing to claim what it is our right and duty to claim. 2. As Christians we have a right to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, and the fact that we can claim it will go far to make the claim a reality. When we realise that our true position is that we are dead to sin we can face temptation with certainty of success. When we are assured that we are alive to God we can feel more confidence that He is living in us, and that His life will be perfected in us. Many a battle has been lost through fear which would have been won if the defeated army had only "reckoned themselves" equal to the conflict. IV. HOW MAY WE BE SURE THAT THIS RECKONING IS NO MERE FEAT OF IMAGINATION OR FIGURE OF SPEECH, BUT A SOLID FACT? 1. As a matter of fact we do not find ourselves to be dead to sin. If it does not now win us by its open allurements, it lies in wait for our own unguarded moments. Neither are we yet truly alive unto God. Our moods vary. We are keenly alive to Him at one hour, and cold and indifferent the next. 2. There is but one way by which our actual condition may be made to correspond with our ideal; "through Jesus Christ our Lord."(1) It is because we are united to Him that we may reckon ourselves dead to sin. (2) It is because He to whom we are united is our Lord, that we have confidence that that which He bids us to be we may be. The more we realise that He is Lord of our inmost being, just so far will He bring it into subjection to Himself, and mould it after His own pattern. Is not all power given to Him? Has He not therefore power to make us indeed dead to sin and alive unto God? Believe it. Trust Him. (Canon Vernon Hutton.) Parallel Verses KJV: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. WEB: Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.