Dead to Sin - Alive to God

Galatians 2:19-20 “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

I read a great little devotional the other day how that one of the greatest doctrinal truths of the Bible is that the Christian life is one of victory over sin. The law of God has condemned us as lawbreakers (Sin is simply the breaking of God’s Law, so, actually, it is God who we sin against), but Christ died for our sins, and “you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ” – Romans 7:4. The law of God is not bad; on the contrary, it is good. It’s just that nobody (except Jesus Christ) can actually live by then without breaking some of them. They allow us to know what sin is and that we are sinners in need of a Savior to redeem and forgive our sins. Christ did that at the cross when we believed, repented and received the gift of God.

1 John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

We should live in victory over sin, but somehow we still stumble. The remedy for such lapses is at hand, of course. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” - 1 John 1:9. Nevertheless, if Christ is really living in us by His Spirit, if we have really been “born again” (born of the Spirit, reborn from above), then we cannot continue to live in sin. “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” – Romans 6:2. The new nature is not the old nature. “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin” - Romans 6:6-7. Christians have died and were raised to new life with Christ in baptism of the Holy Spirit with a regenerated heart, mind and soul. Set free by the finished work of Jesus Christ.

The devotion concludes that the secret to making this doctrine practical reality in our lives is simply the motivation of gratitude. In the words of our text, “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” We already have the necessary resources: forgiveness, freedom from guilt, eternal life, and the indwelling Spirit of Christ. We must simply avail ourselves of His power, because He loved us and saved us. “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” – Romans 6:11.

That’s what it means to be dead to sin – alive to God / alive in Christ.

Praise be to God!

Brian