Alive to God
"So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:11)
April 28, 2025
Dear friends.
All that we do should be done in the light of the new creation. As soon as Jesus stepped forth from the tomb, everything changed for us. According to Paul's Epistle to the Romans, chapter 6, we have died with Christ and have been raised to walk in newness of life. Our full, bodily resurrection is yet future, but even now we are living as if we had been raised from the dead with Jesus.
Francis Schaeffer wrote, "Jesus has risen from the dead in space and time and history and now we, on the basis of this, having been baptized into His death, may walk in newness of life in space and time and history. This is the key to the Christian life... We shall, in the future, be raised from the dead. Now the call is, by faith, to live in the present as though we were already in the future." (Francis Schaeffer, The Finished Work of Christ)
This is a two-fold reckoning: dead to sin, and alive to God. Perhaps, living as we do in this fallen world with the opposition of the world, the flesh, and the devil -- along with our many failures -- we may put more emphasis on the first ("dead to sin"), and less on the second ("alive to God"). We seek to avoid temptation, we say no to sin, we trust his forgiveness through Christ's atoning death (one sacrifice for sins for all time, Heb. 10:11-14). The Lord does not despise us coming to him in confession for cleansing, even though it be seventy times seven every day (John 13:8-10).
We are more than merely clean, however. We are alive in our new identity, not our old. We are beloved children of God. Our relationship with God is as secure now as it will be in heaven. In this sense, the new creation has already begun. We have been reconciled to God and we are enjoying his peace and presence even now. We are under his covenantal love. We see all things under his reign, moving ever towards the consummation of the age. We are alive, and in the words of C. S. Lewis we believe in Christianity as we do the sunrise, not only because we see it, but because by it we now see everything else.
It's this "new me" that is presently living for the Lord, giving him glory, empowered by the Spirit, seeing God’s hand in all things, and giving thanks to him in all things. We not only have put off our old identity, but we have also clothed ourselves with our new identity in Christ (see Colossians 3:1-17). This means that all of life -- all of our activities and service and character and toil and suffering, all things big and small -- all these can be in service to the Lord, for we have been raised to life. The Apostle Paul wrote, "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:17)
Abraham Kuyper, in commenting on that last verse, wrote, "Then in everything you are glad, because the majesty and the grace of God breathes upon you from everything and in everything. Then, in everything, you pray, not with the lips, but in the heart, because, in whatsoever you do, you feel your deep dependence upon his Almighty power. Then in everything you give thanks, because all trouble is outcome of his grace. And every adversity is intended to stimulate you, with the aid of ever more grace, to greater exertion of strength. Then everything will be done heartily, i. e., not mechanically, not slavishly, not of necessity, but willingly and gladly, because in this way you are permitted to do it in his service.” (To Be Near Unto God, chapter 98)
Today, if you are a believer in Christ, give thanks to the Lord that you have not only died with him, but you have also been raised with him to life!
IN OTHER READING.
-- Kuyper's chapter on "WHATSOEVER YE DO, DO IT HEARTILY, AS TO THE LORD" can be read here.
-- Here are my go-to commentaries on Romans.
-- “To be an enemy of the cross is to set ourselves against its purposes. Self-righteousness (instead of looking to the cross for justification), self-indulgence (instead of taking up the cross to follow Christ), self-advertisement (instead of preaching Christ crucified), and self-glorification (instead of glorying in the cross) – these are the distortions which make us ‘enemies’ of Christ’s cross” (John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ, p. 351, cited by Chris Northcott) Here's a helpful review of a classic work on Christ's death.
-- “Crowds cannot discern truth from error, nor can they form a precise judgment on any matter. A throng knows neither doubt nor uncertainty.” (“Rooted Yet Awake” from Comment)
-- I've been enjoying Poems Ancient and Modern, a Substack by Joseph Bottum and Sally Thomas. Today's poem: "Shiloh: A Requiem".
FINAL QUOTE.
“The same power that brought Christ back from the dead is operative within those who are Christ’s. The resurrection is an ongoing thing.” (Leon Morris)
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That's it for this week!
Sandy
Afterwords is an occasional newsletter on topics of interest to me (Sandy Young) since my retirement from full-time pastoral ministry. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.