11/14/26 Redeemed in IAM

Romans 6:11: In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Last week we covered the expanse of counting yourselves dead to sin. This is a topic that is often ignored or put under language that is only known in church circles because it involves a process called sanctification. The subject, and this term, is only really ever used in church circles from the pulpit or in theological conversations and is not used in everyday language, which is why it is often avoided in this ministry because the general public won’t know what it means. The subject itself has faded over the course of the last 100 years after a push by holiness denominations such as my own.

According to Logos Bible Software Legacy Edition, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Revised states that sanctification as a concept is a crucial element of biblical doctrine concerning human life before God. At the very beginning of the history of God’s people, the divine word to Abraham is, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.” It further states that God demands human holiness and righteousness as essential for any right relationship with Him; therefore, some way of approach, some path of sanctifying or making us holy before a holy God, ultimately becomes necessary if full fellowship with God is to be achieved. Yet this idea of sanctification, a human progression toward and final achievement of holiness and righteousness, was not fully developed in the Old Testament. Instead, the human concept of sanctification arose fully only in the ethical teaching of the New Testament and in the church’s subsequent meditation on the New Testament view of the Christian life.

John Wesley believed that the process of sanctification is reached and achieved in this lifetime. There are others who believe the sanctification process is something that is only achieved at the physical death of the believer and follower of Jesus Christ. There is a tie in theological circles between holiness and right standing with God through the process of sanctification, which bears itself as a testimony outwardly in behavior, language, and morals in everyday life because the outward evidence of sinful behavior, language, and morals is apparent. Yet once sanctification has had its process, it no longer displays itself as readily. The comparison in this verse is to count yourselves dead to sin but alive in Christ.

This makes us ask, what is it to be alive in Christ? Again, we go back to what we summarized leading into this week, that these are spiritual components, not physical opponents, as given by the context of the entirety of the passage.

Spiritually alive in Christ Jesus seems rather obvious because there would be no spiritual life before the eyes of God the Father if not for redemption through the blood of Christ Jesus, and yet it is the redemptive blood of Christ Jesus that begins the work of being dead to sin. At the risk of sounding repetitive for things that were taught at the very beginning of the series, we will examine life in Christ. We are 20 weeks into the series, and yet here there is new ground ready to be dug into deeply.

This verse has stated a comparison between being dead in sin and alive in Christ. It is the weight and the penalty of transgressions, iniquities, and sin that make us dead before the eyes of a holy, righteous, and pure Deity, who is the Father Himself. When we were dead before Him, we longed to gratify the cravings of our flesh, following the whims and urges brought about from within ourselves and from external sources such as commercials and media. This is what provokes the wrath of God because it is an affront to the Lord Himself.

But God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ when we were dead in our transgressions, iniquity, and sin, and began the path of sanctification because it is by grace alone we have been saved due to the kindness expressed to us in the redemptive blood of Christ Jesus. We also are given this added ingredient through that kindness, called grace. This grace is what saves us while we are still operating in our fallen nature. Grace is created and operative through faith in who Jesus Christ is as the Son of God and the Savior of the world, as well as the embracing of the redemptive blood that gives us life in the first place. This faith is not from ourselves; it is also a gift from God.

Alive in Christ means that we have changed and deviated from what seems to be normal, culturally acceptable behavior and how we are viewed by those around us as just an everyday person. Yet when we have embraced being alive in Christ, things start to change. As stated, we are no longer driven by our ego, no longer driven by our pride, no longer driven by greed, and no longer driven by lust. We gain signs in this rebirth, outwardly displaying compassion, mercy, and grace toward fellow human beings, which emanate from within us by the Spirit of God because they are the character traits of Christ displayed to a world that views them as abnormal. That’s why Christians are viewed as strange by the secular world.

We are to hunger and thirst for righteousness. We are to operate in a system embedded within us to fulfill the two greatest commandments: love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. If love is the operating system, then anything outside of love has got to go: gossiping, slander, malice, rage, lying, and envy.

When this is going on, people around you will ask, “What is going on? You don’t seem like you.”

And you can respond, “I was once dead, but now I am alive. It is Christ who lives in me!”