The concluding part of this chapter opens with a practical exhortation founded upon the great
judicial transaction of our being dead with Christ and alive unto God. Let us meditate upon its full
significance in the light of the preceding verses:"Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (verse 11).

We have seen previously that the apostle speaks of the manner in which the believer is delivered
from the power of sin as a principle of action, and the whole question of his conduct was seen to
rest on Christ Jesus and His work. We have to look to Him for the solution of all the problems
of practical moment that arise day by day in our lives, and one of our most difficult problems is
how to regard the uprising of the evil nature in our hearts. This nature asserts itself in spite of the
sense of God’s love within us. We may have cherished the vain hope of growing out of such
tendencies, and year by year of approaching nearer a state of holiness and perfection.

If so, honesty must compel us to admit that so far as our hearts are concerned, little or no real
progress is made toward the extinction of inward evil. This chapter, however, sheds light on this
problem. It shows that the evil nature whose presence and action we mourn received its utter
condemnation in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin itself (speaking now not of sinful acts but
of that which is the origin of them) was judged at the cross when He who knew no sin was made
sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). And we learn that in the mind of God we are associated with the Lord
Jesus Christ in His death, and thus, as descendants of the first Adam, we have passed into non-
existence, but have also partaken of the risen life of Christ beyond the judicial death.

Reckoning Ourselves Dead to Sin

The apostle had spoken of the death of the Lord Jesus, and that He now lives to God in a state
altogether apart from sin. The Lord passed through this evil world uncontaminated by sin within
and without. He went to the cross absolutely pure, but was there made vicariously the abhorrent
thing, and was judged on account of it. But rising from the dead and being exalted by the right
hand of God, a new state of things ensued_a new creation_of which Christ is the Head. And in
this newness of life sin is a past thing. The apostle therefore directs believers to regard themselves
as having already passed from death to life where Christ is:"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

The verb "reckon" carries us back to the fourth chapter of this epistle, where we read of God
reckoning Abraham righteous because of his faith. The patriarch believed God in a matter which
seemed in itself most improbable. For in the ordinary course of nature it seemed an incredible
thing that blessing should flow to the earth through the unborn seed of an old man and woman.
But Abraham believed the Lord and His promises, and this was counted to him for righteousness
(Gen. 15:6). God looking down from heaven regarded Abraham as a righteous man. His faith was
in connection with the seed which was to come, that is, Christ; and indeed this confidence was
true also of all the Old Testament saints. There might be and was failure, as there were faults; but
wheresoever there was faith in the Coming One it was reckoned for righteousness.

Here we are exhorted to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. It must
be carefully observed that this is an exercise of faith. If we consider ourselves conscientiously we
shall find ourselves capable of sinning, if not actually sinning. We fail to find inward or subjective
evidence that we are dead to sin. But faith accepts the testimony of the Word of God that I am
associated with Christ in both death and resurrection. Hence I am dead to the dominant power of
sin and alive heavenward. This status I must accept if I believe God rather than self.

To God or to Self?

We must broaden our views of what sin really means. Taken comprehensively it includes all that
lacks due reference to God. Actions precisely similar in outward appearance may nevertheless
differ in essential quality and value according as they are done to self or to God.

An instance of this is recorded in the Gospels. It occurred in the temple courts at the time when
the offerings were being placed in the treasury chest. Here was an opportunity of making a
sacrifice to God by depositing a sum of money for the use of the temple service. Many rich and
influential persons gave substantial amounts, doing so in an ostentatious manner to attract the
attention and admiration of their neighbors. Thus the offering became to them a means of self-
advertisement, and they gained as their reward the notice of their fellows. But the Lord observed
among the offerers a person of another order. There was a poor widowed heart in the company
overwhelmed with gratitude and praise to God. Something had happened in her experience which
caused her to be full of thanksgiving to God who had granted her some special fulness of blessing.
She was therefore impelled to offer some sacrifice of her goods to His service (Luke 21:1-4).

What should she render to the Lord for all His benefits? Two mites constituted her sole livelihood.
Under such circumstances should she not divide the small pittance, giving a part and reserving a
part? From the point of view of what is called practical economics this course would seem the
more reasonable. But the widow did not regard the matter from the standpoint of her own present
or future needs, for she was full of a sense of the great kindness of Jehovah to her. She resolved
she would not hold back anything, being a contrast with Ananias and Sapphira of a later day. She
placed her all in the box_her two mites. Her gift was to God. She gained the victory over self,
and everything having been offered to God, the gift was appraised by the heavenly standard. Her
motives gave the sacrifice of her goods a value above that of all the rest.

Another example of this truth is to be gathered from the Epistle to the Philippians. Paul, by
reference to himself, shows how worthless, though moral in themselves, acts become when the
will of God is contravened. In the third chapter he speaks of himself and of what he was before
he knew the Lord. He enumerates the privileges he possessed at that time only to pronounce them
to be not only valueless but even offensive. His circumcision and law-keeping were quite proper
matters for satisfaction until he learned the super-excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.

The qualities he names are not such as are sinful in themselves, but such as might reasonably give
him confidence in the flesh. And the flesh is not necessarily the evil principle. It is the natural way
of doing things, that is, always acting from the individual’s own standpoint, without looking above
and seeking the will of God.

Saul of Tarsus before his conversion had a position of pre-eminence. If any one might have
confidence in the flesh, he most surely might have done so. Did he not contend zealously for the
law? Was he not desirous of keeping it to its most minute particular? Yet at the very time during
which he supposed he was doing God service he was persecuting the Church of God.

Touching the righteousness of the law, he was blameless. Can you imagine anything more
desirable in a man? In outward demeanor he was perfect and upright so far as the eye could see.
But having learned the truth of the person of the Christ in glory, he counted the whole of his own
attainments in this respect as nothing and worse than that.

He wrote then quietly in prison, looking back upon his past life in the light he had received
through advancing years, without a warped imagination and without self-deception, and he
describes his early days as blameless. The statement is a remarkable one; but whatever gain this
unblemished character might have been to him he counted it but loss for Christ. He reckoned
himself to be dead indeed to those things and alive to God through Jesus Christ the Lord. The
things he mentions had no more effect upon him than upon a dead person.

This piece of autobiography is an illustration of our text. What Paul wrote by way of doctrine in
Romans, he exemplified from his own life in Philippians. In the earlier epistle he spoke of being
alive to God through Christ Jesus the Lord. In the later we see the activities of that life expressing
themselves in intensity of desire and earnestness of effort.

There was therefore a continuity in the life of the apostle. He did not depart from the self-
renunciation of his early days. His enthusiasm did not wane as trials and persecutions multiplied.
Neither did self assume a Christian garb. Christ was the dominating object before him, as the
Epistle to the Philippians reveals. In practice he was still reckoning himself dead to sin, but alive
to God.

(Note:This subject will be concluded in the issue after next (March-April 1977), Lord willing,
with a discussion of our yielding ourselves to God and yielding our members as instruments of
righteousness unto God.)