Dead to Sin, Alive to God

Discover the Power of Reckoning to Set You Free in Christ

Smith

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781498288903
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

If you have been born again through faith in Jesus Christ, now reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ! Learn to think about your "new self" in Christ as God does.With a pastor's heart, Stuart C. Smith explains why the key to New Covenant sanctification is the important concept of biblical reckoning. Obedience to Paul's command in Romans 6:11 can transform your life. Reckoning is not something to do but something to think. So powerful is this thought that it inevitably leads to action. Learn how to overcome the power of sin by a stronger power, and the desire to sin by a stronger desire--adoration of Jesus Christ. Bring your thinking in line with your identity. You are a new creation in Christ, a saint, an adopted child of God, and victor over Satan. Learn about the Father's passion for you, and seek to satisfy his passion for a holy and pure bride for his Son.Midway through the book, these principles come alive in the experience of Cody, a young man who leaves his troubled past for a new life of freedom in Christ.

Part 1

Volunteering for Christ

Biblical reckoning is a command the Apostle Paul gave to those who have already trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation. Before we can reckon, we must first believe. So before exploring the subject of reckoning, I want to give you an opportunity to settle the matter of your salvation.

Sin is a problem for every human being because it is a barrier that prevents relationship with God, now and in eternity. Sin separates us from the holy and pure God, and the penalty of sin is death (Isa 59:2; Ezek 18:4; Rom 6:23).

God took the initiative to rescue humanity by himself becoming a man, Jesus, whose death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin. The message of the gospel—this word literally means good news—is that God in his kindness freely offers salvation to every human being who receives Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord (John 3:16).

These two short chapters introduce the gospel and the life that awaits those who volunteer to follow Christ.

In chapter 1, I wonder how one of the Old Testament saints, the author of Psalm 119, might have felt upon hearing that salvation had to come by the death of God’s only Son. His first response may well have been disgust, followed by amazement, and then delight. How do you respond? I hope you choose to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you may do so by means of the included prayer.

If you decide to commit your life to Christ, chapter 2 briefly describes the adventure that awaits you. As one of the Lord’s volunteers, you will join his spiritual fight against the enemies of God and of the human soul. This chapter also introduces the book’s theme.

1

Two Men and Two Questions

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

Now, to help me present the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, I introduce you to a couple of men. The first man—we don’t know his name—lived some three thousand years ago. He had struggled early in his life and then found comfort in God. Later in life, he sought to counsel a younger generation in the riches of God’s word, and Psalm 119 is his prayerful testimony. He began the second stanza with this question: “How can a young man keep his way pure?”

Only someone with a strong devotion to God who overcame the many obstacles to a pure life in an impure world would think to pose such a question and then presume to instruct others with his answer. Of course, this man’s desire to live righteously was exceptional for the time in which he lived, as it is for anyone in any era who loves God.

About one thousand years later another man wrote a question, this one posed strangely different from the psalmist’s: “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” Imagine the response of the psalmist had he been able to gaze into the future and read this question posed by the Apostle Paul to the believers in Rome (Rom 6:2).

The author of Psalm 119 knew very well what sin is, because he was on the receiving end of others’ scorn and he was painfully aware of the selfishness and deceit in his own heart.

But the psalmist would have been mystified by the claim that some people in the future would be dead to sin. He had learned to keep sin at bay by his disciplined devotion to Scripture. But how could it be possible that people will actually die to sin?

A Mystery Revealed

It’s doubtful the author of Psalm 119 knew that God would become a man named Jesus, live a sinless life, and volunteer to die on a cross. For sure he was familiar with the concept of atonement from having observed the annual ritual of the sins of the people being placed on the scapegoat (Lev 16:8–10).

But God in human flesh taking those sins on himself? And how can God consider those who trust in Jesus to have died with Jesus? Paul, are you telling me that those believers can now consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ? Alive? Jesus rose from the dead? And his followers rose with him?

Our psalmist friend would have been astonished at all these revelations. He would have considered them impossible, scandalous, even disgusting—that any man, let alone a man who is also God, would have to die for the sins of the people. That was what the blood of goats and calves was for, he would have thought. We know why he would have been confounded and amazed, because the New Testament says the gospel was a mystery.

In the New Testament we learn that our salvation required shedding the blood not of an animal, but the blood of Christ (Heb 9:12). A mystery, as the Bible considers it, is something that had been hidden and was revealed. In this sense, both the gospel and Christ himself are mysteries that were hidden from previous generations and were revealed after Jesus died for humanity’s sin and rose victoriously from the grave (Eph 6:19; Col 1:26, 2:2; 1 Tim 3:16).

Old Testament saints did not know about the gospel, but they were saved by God’s grace through faith just as we believers obtain salvation today, because God applied Jesus’ blood retrospectively for the atonement of their sins as for ours (Rom 5:12–19). Being the godly man he was, and being reminded of the many OT passages that point forward to the coming of a Savior who would suffer (Isa 53, for example), I think the author of Psalm 119 would have caught on quickly to the mystery that was unveiled in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And he would have been delighted to discover in that gospel the ultimate answer to his question, for only by faith in Jesus Christ do young men and women keep their way pure.

Make Your Salvation Sure—Right Now

Here now is how you can put your faith in Jesus Christ.

This is the promise of Scripture: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:13). This is a promise to save you from the guilt, condemnation, and spiritual death that come upon every soul who rejects Jesus Christ (Rom 6:23). It is also a promise to give you the many benefits of a heart-to-heart personal relationship with God.

When you call upon the name of the Lord, understand that you will be giving him the deed to your life, because he bought you with the price of his life (1 Cor 6:20), and you will live no longer for yourself but for him who died and was raised for you (2 Cor 5:15). You can talk to God through prayer, saying something like this:

Dear God, I agree that I have sinned and that I need your forgiveness. I want the salvation you promise. Thank you for sending Jesus to die in my place and make it possible for me to live. Today I call upon you for the gift of salvation through Jesus. I want that gift, and I am making a decision to turn away from my former life of sin. I now pledge my allegiance to you as my Lord. Thank you that you have heard my prayer and saved my soul!

If you prayed this prayer in faith, God is now your heavenly Father and he has adopted you into his family. Jesus Christ considers you his friend and brother. The Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, now indwells you, and he will begin his work of conforming you to the likeness of Jesus.

The Bible teaches us how to grow in our relationship with ...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction
• Part 1: Volunteering for Christ
• Part 2: Reckoning Defined
• Part 3: Reckoning Applied
• Part 4: Reckoning Illustrated
• Part 5: Lifelong Love and Surrender
• Summary: A Model for Reckoning
• Conclusion: The Book That Reads Me
• Appendix: Scriptural Declarations of Freedom in Christ
• Afterthought: The Father’s Smile and Blessing
• Bibliography