Count (3049) logizomai by Greek Word Studies

Consider (3049) (logizomai from lógos = reason, word, account) means to reckon, compute, calculate, to take into account, to deliberate, and to weigh. Logizomai refers to a process of careful study or reasoning which results in the arriving at a conclusion. Logizomai conveys the idea of calculating or estimating. Logizomai was a term frequently used in the business community of Paul's day and meant to impute (put to one's account) or credit to one's account. Logizomai is related to our English term logic (which deals with the methods of valid thinking, reveals how to draw proper conclusions from premises and is a prerequisite of all thought). Logizomai is used 40 times in the NT in the NASB (Mk; Lu; Jn; Acts; Romans 19x [11x in Ro4!]; 1Co 3x; 2Co 7x; Gal; Phil 2x; 2Ti; Heb; Js; 1P) and is translated: consider, 6; considered, 2; counted, 1; counting, 1; credit, 1; credited, 9; credits, 1; dwell, 1; maintain, 1; numbered, 2; propose, 1; reason, 1; reckoned, 2; regard, 4; regarded, 3; suppose, 1; take into account, 3; thinks, 1. Logizomai is used some 120 times in the Septuagint (LXX) (6" class="scriptRef">Ge 15:6; 31.15" class="scriptRef">31:15; 7.18" class="scriptRef">Lev 7:18; 17.4" class="scriptRef">17:4; 25:31; 27:23; Num 18:27, 30" class="scriptRef">30; 11" class="scriptRef">11" class="scriptRef">11" class="scriptRef">11" class="scriptRef">Deut 2:11, 20; 3:13; 1Sa 1:13; 18:25; 2 Sam 4:2; 14:13f; 19:43; 1Ki 10:21; 2 Chr 5:6; 9:20; Neh 6:2, 6; 13:13; Job 31:28; 34:37; 41:29, 32; Ps 32:2; 35:4; 41:7; 44:22; 52:2; 106:31; 119:119; 140:2, 4; 144:3; Pr 15:29; 16:30; 17:28; 24:8; Eccl 10:3; Isa 5:28; 10:7; 13:17; 29:16f; 32:15; 33:8; 40:15, 17; 44:19; 12" class="scriptRef">53:3f, 12; Jer 11:19; 18:8, 11, 18; 23:27; 26.3" class="scriptRef">26:3; 29:11; 36.3" class="scriptRef">36:3; 48:2; 49:20, 30; 50:45; Lam 4:2; Ezek 11:2; 38:10; Dan 4:35; 11:24f; Hos 7:15; 8:12; Amos 6:5; Mic 2:1, 3; Nah 1:9, 11; Zech 8:17; Luke 22:37; John 11:50; Acts 19:27; Rom 2:3, 26; 3:28; 4:3ff, 8ff, 22ff; 6:11; 8:18, 36; 9:8; 14:14; 1 Cor 4:1; 13:5, 11; 2 Cor 3:5; 5:19; 10:2, 7, 11; 11:5; 12:6; Gal 3:6; Phil 3:13; 4:8; 2 Tim 4:16; Heb 11:19; Jas 2:23; 1 Pet 5:12). Paul makes use of the LXX translation of the following two theologically significant verses in his arguments in Romans 4 that righteousness is obtained by faith not works... In the first LXX use of logizomai in Genesis 15:6 Moses records... Then he (Abram/Abraham) believed in the LORD; and He reckoned (logizomai) it to him as righteousness. (see note Romans 4:3) In Psalm 32:2 David records... How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute (LXX = logizomai) iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! (see note Romans 4:8) Note the concentrated use of logizomai in Romans. It follows that one will have considerable difficulty understanding this great letter if he does not understand the meaning and nuances of logizomai. Paul is telling his readers and us to reflect on our position in Christ and to place two things into our spiritual bank account: (1) We are "dead to sin" and (2) we are "alive to God in Christ Jesus." We each must take time to consider these facts and make this exercise habitual, not just giving it an occasional casual thought! These are profound truths. As someone has well said such meditative accounting will make for good "preventive theology". Too often we tend to focus on "corrective theology" emphasizing truths (which are valid and important) like If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1Jn 1:9) Paul in Romans 6:11 is calling for us to make it our practice to reflect upon our union and identification with our Lord Jesus Christ, because he knows that a thorough digestion and assimilation of this truth will serve to curb sins so we don't have to confess sins as frequently. Note also that Consider in Romans 6:11 is present imperative (this is Paul's first major command after building his sound doctrinal case for 5 chapters!) so we need to consider these truths carefully and continuously. This is a strong charge calling for a firm conviction regarding the truths he had just expounded. Reckoning means to continually count on the fact that God has actually done what he said he would do. Keep on counting yourselves to be what God says you are! Continually count on the fact that if God said it, he meant it, and therefore he did it. It means to live on the basis of the fact that God wasn't kidding when he said he would do this, therefore he did it, and therefore you can continually count on it. Reckoning is not claiming a promise but acting upon a fact. It's not make-believe. It's not getting yourself into an emotional tizzy, or pretending something is true that you know is not true. It's believing that what God has said he would do, he really did do, therefore it really is true, therefore you can depend upon it, therefore you can stake your life upon it, therefore it's an actual fact. What is in view is not a fictitious or “pretend” or “merely symbolical” event, but a settled determination to live in the light of Christ’s death and in the strength of a power which has already defeated sin’s reign in His death and your death with Him. Warren Wiersbe adds that... Reckoning is simply that step of faith that says, “What God says about me in the Bible is now true in my life. I am crucified with Christ.” Reckoning is faith in action, resting on the Word of God in spite of circumstances or feelings. God does not tell us to crucify ourselves, but rather to believe that we have been crucified and that “the old man” has been put to death. Crucifixion is one death you cannot inflict on yourself; you must be crucified by another. Reckoning is that step of faith that believes God’s Word and acts upon it." (Wiersbe, W. W. Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the New Testament. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books) (Bolding added) Paul uses logizomai in Romans 2 addressing "religious" readers (Jew and otherwise) who looked down upon the pagans in Romans 1, asking "do you suppose (logizomai - do you reason thus) this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?" (see note Romans 2:3) Paul's point is that the moralist falsely calculates and comes to the wrong conclusion regarding his own sinfulness and guilt. Logizomai means to think about something in a detailed and logical manner, reason about it, pondering it and finally drawing conclusions through the use of reason. For example, Paul writes that "When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason (logizomai) as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things." (1Cor 13:11) Logizomai means to put together with one’s mind. It means to regard as being, to count as true, or to occupy oneself with reckonings or calculations. Logizomai was used in early secular documents as follows -- “put to one’s account," "let my revenues be placed on deposit at the storehouse", "I now give orders generally with regard to all payments actually made or credited to the government.” Logizomai was a secular bookkeeping term which meant to make an entry in the account book or to put to one's account. It carried the economic and legal meaning of crediting something to another’s account. It means to calculate or reckon, as when figuring an entry in a ledger. The purpose of the entry is to make a permanent record that can be consulted whenever needed. It means to credit money to a particular account. It means that when you deposit $1000, the bank credits your account with $1000. Therefore when you write a check for $500, you don't worry about it because you are reckoning on the fact that money is actually in your account. As alluded to above, probably the most notable use of logizomai with this meaning is when "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned (logizomai - credited to his account) to him as righteousness." (see note Romans 4:3) Abraham believed God, and his act of faith was placed to his account in value as righteousness. He believed God and his act of faith was credited to him for righteousness. He believed God and his act of faith was computed as to its value, and there was placed to his account, righteousness. However, Abraham’s act of faith was not looked upon as a meritorious action deserving of reward. What his faith did do was provide a channel through which God worked His redeeming grace. Faith is a convicted heart reaching out to receive God’s free and unmerited gift of salvation. Logizomai is translated as “imputed” only once in the NASB (see note Romans 5:13) but nine times in the KJV (Click for the 9 verses). In Ro 4:8 (see note), the KJV reads "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." In other words the man is called blessed, to whose account no sin is charged. At the Cross, his sin was charged to the account of the Lord Jesus. In Ro 4:6 (see note), the man to whose account righteousness is put, is called blessed "just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works"). (NKJV) This is imputation, the act of putting something to someone’s account. In the case of the Lord Jesus, the sin of the human race was charged to Him. In the case of the believing sinner, the righteousness of God, Christ Jesus Himself, is put to his account. To reiterate, here in Romans 6:11, logizomai is used with the meaning of adding up a column (as in accounting) and coming up with the sum total, in the case of Romans 6:1-10, that total (the truth in those verses) being "in the black' so to speak, and providing each believer an inexhaustible, divine 'checking account', based upon the riches procured by the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. As John Gregory Mantle has written “There is a great difference between realizing, ‘On that Cross He was crucified for me,’ and ‘On that Cross I am crucified with Him.’ The one aspect brings us deliverance from sin’s condemnation, the other from sin’s power.” And so to "Consider" means to take all of the truths Paul has stated in (Ro 6:1-10 and the preceding chapters) and put them in the "calculator" of your mind. Think about them and come to a conclusion and let that conclusion affect the way you live. The hymn I Surrender All says it well... I Surrender All by Judson W Van De Venter All to Jesus, I surrender; All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live. Refrain I surrender all, I surrender all, All to Thee, my blessèd Savior, I surrender all. All to Jesus I surrender; Humbly at His feet I bow, Worldly pleasures all forsaken; Take me, Jesus, take me now. Refrain All to Jesus, I surrender; Make me, Savior, wholly Thine; Let me feel the Holy Spirit, Truly know that Thou art mine. Refrain All to Jesus, I surrender; Lord, I give myself to Thee; Fill me with Thy love and power; Let Thy blessing fall on me. Refrain All to Jesus I surrender; Now I feel the sacred flame. O the joy of full salvation! Glory, glory, to His Name! Refrain Wayne Barber asks "What facts are we to consider? Verse 2: We are dead to the sin of Adam. Verse 3: We were baptized into Christ Jesus and into His life. Verse 4: We are raised with Him into newness of life. Verse 5: We are intertwined into His life and death; forever identified with Him. Verse 6: Our old man, what we used to be in Adam, is dead. Verse 7: We have been justified from the sin of Adam, declared righteous because of what Christ did. Verse 8: We are believing daily that His life is ours now. Verse 9: We experientially know that since the death does not reign over Christ, it does not reign over us. Verse 10: He has died to the sin once and for all. He ended its penalty and its power to those who have put their faith into Him, and now as He lives unto God, so we do because His life is in us." Kenneth Wuest has an extended but well reasoned note explaining that what Paul is doing using logizomai is to exhort "the saints that in their endeavor to live a life in accordance with the Word of God, they should take into account the fact that they are dead to sin, that they have been disengaged from the evil nature, that it has no power over them anymore, that they are scot free from it and can say a point blank "NO" to it, also to take into account the fact that they are alive to God, that is, that the divine nature has been imparted with the result that that nature gives them both the desire and the power to regulate their lives in accordance with the Word of God. Now, reckoning one’s self dead to sin and alive to God does not make one so. God constituted the saint so when He saved him. But the act of reckoning brings into better operation with beneficial results, the working of this inner spiritual machinery. For instance, there is a game in which a blindfolded person is brought into the room, and made to stand on a table board which rests on some books on the floor. Two young men lift the board about a foot, and warn the young man not to bump his head against the ceiling. Thinking that he is near the ceiling, he loses his balance and falls off. He lost his balance and fell because he reckoned himself where he was not. Just so, a Christian who fails to count upon the fact that the power of the sinful nature is broken in his life, fails to get consistent victory over it, with the result that he lives a mediocre Christian life. He reckoned himself where he was not. Another young man is blindfolded and stood on the board. He knows the game. When the board is lifted and he is warned not to bump his head against the ceiling, he remains perfectly straight and maintains his equilibrium, because he reckoned himself where he was. And so it is with a Christian who counts upon the fact that the power of the sinful nature is broken. He knows that he does not have to obey it, and that he has the power to say "NO" to it, and he turns his back on it and does what is right. The Christian who does not count upon the fact that the divine nature is implanted in his inner being, goes on living his Christian life as best he can more or less in the energy of his own strength, with the result that he exhibits a mediocre Christian experience. But the believer who counts upon the fact that he is a possessor of the divine nature, ceases from his own struggles at living a Christian life, and avails himself of the life of God supplied in the divine nature. So the first adjustment the Christian should make is that of counting upon the fact that the power of the indwelling sinful nature is broken and the divine nature imparted, and order his life on that principle." (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Studies in the Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament: Grand Rapids: Eerdmans) James uses logizomai (James 1:2) exhorting his readers "to count it all joy", to look at the trials they were going through and add in the truth that they had learned concerning that God would do for them and in them through the trials and finally come to a settled conclusion. Then proceed to live based on this reasoned conclusion. What and how we think about our identification and union with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection and our new relationship to the power of SIN (previously we were powerless but now we are able to say "no" to sin), will affect the way we live and how we respond to temptations from the flesh, the world and the devil. Paul is saying that since you now know something, you must "consider" it and put it into practice in your life. Ruth Paxson explains that consider or reckon (logizomai) means... believing what God says in Romans 6:6 (note) (knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin) and knowing it as a fact in one’s own personal salvation. This demands a definite act of faith, which results in a fixed attitude toward “the old man.” We will see him where God sees him—on the Cross, put to death with Christ. Faith will operate continuously to keep him where grace placed him. This involves us very deeply, for it means that our hearty consent has been given to God’s condemnation of and judgment upon that old “I” as altogether unworthy to live and as wholly stripped of any further claims upon us. The first step in a walk of practical holiness is this reckoning upon the crucifixion of “the old man." (Paxson, Ruth: The Wealth, Walk, and Warfare of the Christian) As has been stated above, the believer needs to accept what God says about him or her as true and then to live in the light of that truth, independent of one's feelings John Wesley said it this way... Frames and feelings fluctuate: These can ne'er thy saviour be! Learn thyself in Christ to see: Then, be feelings what they will, Jesus is thy Saviour still! ><> ><> ><> An illustration - 37 Years in the Jungle- In 1982 an unusual thing happened on the island of Guam (Click to read a very similar illustration of another Japanese soldier who remained in the Philippine jungle for 30 years!) A Japanese soldier came out of the jungle. He had been living in the jungle for 37 years, since the end of world war II. Why? Because when the news came at the end of the war, he couldn't believe that Japan had surrendered and the war was over. So for 37 years he lived in the jungle. During those 37 years was he free? Sure. At any time from 1945 until 1982, he was completely free to come out of the jungle. It's not like General MacArthur was coming in to get him. He was free. He could come out in 1950 or 1955 or 1969. He was completely free on a theoretical basis. But because he didn't believe it--because he didn't reckon the fact of his freedom to be true--he lived in self-imposed bondage in the jungle for 37 years. Was he free? Yes. Was he free? No, because he chose to stay in bondage, in hiding, in fear in the jungle. Many Christians are still living in the jungle of sin. The war is over, Christ has won, but they refuse to believe it. They live in self-imposed bondage to sin. They are still in the jungle spiritually because they refuse to believe that Christ has set them free. Michael Andrus agrees adding... Are you aware that there are countless Christians still doing hand-to-hand combat with their sin nature, unable to enjoy the peace that is available in Jesus Christ, because somehow they are appallingly ignorant of the fact that their Commander-in-chief has won a great victory and has called them out of the jungle of sin to a life of holiness. Oh, to be sure there are inevitable struggles and some failures ahead so long as we are in this world, but there is no need for us to live as though the final outcome of the war is still hanging in the balance. TO BE DEAD TO SIN : einai (PAN) nekrous men te hamartia: (Ro 6:2 Ro 6:7 Ro 6:10, Gal 2:19 Gal 5:24 Gal 6:14 Col 2:20 Col 3:3 1Pe 2:24 Titus 2:14) Read this passage in several different translations to help understand the meaning... Look upon yourselves as dead to the appeal and power of sin. (Phillips) Be constantly counting upon the fact that, on the one hand, you are those who have been separated from the sinful nature (Wuest) Consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken (Amplified) You too must continually consider yourselves dead as far as sin is concerned. (International Standard Version) You should see yourselves as being dead to the power of sin (NCV) To be (1510) (eimi) means to be and the present tense indicates continuous action (consider yourself to be continually dead to sin's power). To be or not to be (dead to sin), that is the question and the answer is that it is now possible for a believer because of Christ's death, burial and resurrection. The present tense in fact identifies this as what is to be continually true for the believer. Dead (3498)(nekros from nékus = a corpse, root of our English words necropsy, necrophobia, etc) means destitute of life, one who is now a corpse or has breathed one's last. The opposite of living. Spurgeon writes that... Being dead to sin must obviously be the opposite of being dead in sin. The latter must undeniably be a state of entire sinfulness—a state in which the soul is dead to all good through the power of sin over it. But right over against this, to be dead to sin, must be to be indifferent to its attractions—beyond the reach of its influence—as fully removed from its influences as the dead are from the objects of sense in this world. As he who is dead in the natural sense has nothing more to do with earthly things, so he who is dead to sin has nothing to do any more with sin's attractions or with sinning itself. Sin (266) (hamartia from the verb hamartano = miss the mark and so not share in the prize, to err, offend, sin, to act contrary to the will and law of God and so miss the mark in relation to God) in the present context does not refer to the sins we commit (missing the mark) but is personified by Paul as the evil nature still resident in the believer. Sin in this verse refers to Sin as a controlling power and as an enslaving tyrant. Paul's point is that believers have died in relation to the power of sin as their master and this truth leads to his exhortation in the next section (Romans 6:12ff) not to let sin reign and not to yield to its power. Sin is harsh taskmaster as illustrated by this little poem... Sin will take you farther than you ever thought you’d stray Sin will leave you so lost, you think you’ll never find your way Sin will keep you longer than you ever thought you’d stay Sin will cost you more than you ever thought you’d pay Puritan John Bunyan (of Pilgrim’s Progress fame) wrote that “Sin is the dare of God’s justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power and the contempt of His love.” In light of Paul's exhortation for us to consider ourselves "dead to sin", Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has some interesting definitions of "dead" describing it as "lacking power to move, feel, or respond, incapable of being stirred emotionally or intellectually, unresponsive, inanimate, no longer functioning, lacking power or effect, no longer have interest, relevance or significance, no longer active, completely out of touch with." Now substitute some of those definitions in Paul's phrase "_______ to sin" and meditate upon this simple but great truth. Again we may not feel like this is true in light of your ongoing struggle with sin, but it is true. God does not command us to become dead to sin (Click a for an in depth discussion of what it means to be "dead to sin" in Romans 6:2). God tells us that because of our union and identification with Christ's death, believers are dead to sin and alive to God. This reckoning is the "mental preparation" for his subsequent command to act in accordance with this truth (see Romans 6:12ff). Doctrine always precedes duty. God's enablement always accompanies His commands. However, even if we do not act upon this truth of our deadness to sin's power, the fact is still true. Counting ourselves dead to sin is not a feeling to feel, a promise to claim or a work to be done. It's a truth to be received and believed. It's a transaction which has already been carried out by Christ. We are not told to try to die to sin's power, but rather to realize that, in Christ and because of our identification and union with Him, we have died to sin. This truth is potentially one of the greatest incentives to motivate godly living. What does it look like when one considers themselves dead to sin? In one sense, we consider ourselves to be dead to sin when we respond to temptation as a dead man would. This practice is illustrated by the story of Augustine who was accosted by a woman who had been his mistress before his conversion. When he turned and walked away quickly, she called after him, “Augustine, it’s me! it’s me!” Quickening his pace, he called back over his shoulder, “Yes, I know, but it’s no longer me!” What Augustine had told her in other words was that because he was now in union with Christ, he was dead to sin and alive to God. Death means separation and a dead man has nothing to do with immorality, lying, cheating, gossiping, etc. Mounce has a pithy comment stating that... "For the Christian to choose to sin is the spiritual equivalent of digging up a corpse for fellowship. A genuine death to sin means that the entire perspective of the believer has been radically altered." (Bolding added) (Mounce, R. H. Romans: The New American Commentary. Broadman & Holman Publishers ) Ray Stedman provides a practical illustration of continually counting one's self dead to sin... "This means we must learn to recognize the sign of the old life within us, and refuse to let live what God has declared has no right to live. We must not presume to find good in that which God says is totally evil. In other words... stop protecting the self life! stop excusing it, and justifying it! This is the key point. Stop pampering yourself in these matters and making excuses for what God says is wrong, and, thus, letting live what God says is dead. There are many excuses: "Oh, I've got a hot temper, but it is just because I am Irish, you know. My whole family has this trouble, so there is nothing I can do about it." Or, "I am troubled with lust, but that is because I am a Latin." Or, "I am young." Or, "I am hot blooded." Or, "I am cold blooded." Or, "I am red blooded." Or, "I am strongly sexed." Or, we are loveless and we say it is our circumstances that make us this way. Or, it is the other people with whom we work. Thus, we are continually excusing ourselves, and giving the flesh reason to live. Every time you, as a Christian, let enter your thought life any of these things that God has said are the old Adam in you, you are presuming to let live what God declares has no right to live. The only life that God recognizes as having the right to live in you is the risen life of Jesus Christ. But you cannot appropriate that life until you give up trying to make the old life suitable. That is when the death of Christ becomes fully effective to you. "Well," you say, "does this happen in one great crisis?" Sometimes, yes. But I rather think that it is a result of a series of smaller crises, if I may put it that way. The Spirit of God knows that this thing within us, the flesh, this self-centered life, is what is destroying us. He takes the manifestations of it, one at a time, and makes us face up to them. Any failure to face up to one of these things, as the Lord brings it to our attention, means no further progress until we stop clinging to the specific thing that he is talking about. Whenever we put into action, even in little ways, what God declares to be a fact, nothing can stop us from the third and greatest step, which is yielding to, or appropriating, the life of Christ." (excerpt from The Day I Died) Paul is not speaking of a psychological mind game, by which we keep affirming something over and over until we are convinced against our better judgment or even against reality that it is true. We know we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus because God’s Word declares it is so. In other words, those are truths of faith and they must be affirmed in faith. ><> ><> ><> A devotional from Our Daily Bread entitled Learning To See - In his book An Anthropologist on Mars, Oliver Sacks tells about a man named Virgil. Blind from early childhood, Virgil underwent surgery decades later and regained the ability to see. But at first, like the blind man healed by Jesus outside Bethsaida (Mk. 8:22-26), Virgil had difficulty seeing. Although he could discern movement and color, he couldn't put images together to make sense of them. For a time, his behavior was still the same as when he was sightless. Sacks comments, "One must die as a blind person to be born again as a seeing person. It is the interim, the limbo . . . that is so terrible." That comment echoes Paul's teaching about burying our old, dead selves to walk in newness of life (Ro 6:4). It is a dramatic spiritual change that may bring a time of difficult adjustment. Ingrained habits and attitudes may hang on like withered leaves in autumn. To overcome sin, we must remember that it is no longer our master (Ro 6:11), and we are to refuse to let it reign in our lives (Ro 6:12). Instead, we are to offer ourselves to God as "alive from the dead" (Ro 6:13). As we take these steps, our spiritual blindness will become a thing of the past, and we will learn to see Jesus more clearly. --VCG (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved) Amazing grace! How sweet the sound-- That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, Was blind but now I see. --Newton Sin blinds--but God's grace restores sight. ><> ><> ><> Until a believer accepts the truth that Christ has broken the power of sin in their life, they cannot live victoriously, because in their innermost being they do not really believe it is possible. Ray Pritchard writes that to be "dead to sin" means that... "You are separated forever from the dominating ruling power of sin. It's like watching a lion roar at the zoo. You may get a thrill from listening to the lion roar in his cage. But as long as the lion is behind bars, you're safe. The lion can roar all it wants but it can't do anything to you unless you do something stupid like crawl into the cage. Then you have problems. Sin is like a roaring lion. As long as you understand that the power of sin is broken, sin cannot dominate your life unless you choose to let it dominate your life." (Three Steps to Victory: Ro 6:8-14) Here are several practical aspects of knowing one is dead to sin We can have confidence in the midst of temptation, knowing that with sin’s tyranny broken we can successfully resist it in God’s power. (1Co 10:13). We have confidence that we cannot sin our way out of God’s grace. Just as we have been saved by God’s power alone, we are kept by His power alone. (Jn 10:27-29). We have confidence in the face of death. (Jn 11:25,26; see note Ro 8:1, Heb 2:14). We know that, regardless of what happens to us in this life, no matter how disastrous it may be, God will use it not only for His glory but also for our good. (see note Romans 8:28). John Gill writes that "to be dead indeed unto sin" is a call for saints to "believe their discharge from it, and not fear condemnation and death on account of it; and that it shall not be imputed to them, or have any damning power over them, since Christ has died unto it, or for it; and therefore should have no fellowship with it, nothing to do with it, as being dead unto it, and that to them." John MacArthur adds that... "The Christian's biography has been written in two volumes. Volume one is our old nature before salvation. Volume two is our new nature. Volume one ends with our death in Christ, and volume two begins with our resurrection in Christ. It is both impossible and inconceivable to relive volume one because we are dead to it." (MacArthur, J: Dying to Live--Pt 3) The KJV Bible commentary has an excellent note writing that... “This ‘reckoning’ is no vain experience but one which is morally fruitful, because the Holy Spirit has come to make effective in believers what Christ has done for them, and to enable them to become in daily experience, as far as may be in the present conditions of mortality, what they already are ‘in Christ’ and what they will fully be in the resurrection life” (F. F. Bruce, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, p139). When we daily count ourselves to be dead to the penalty of sin and alive unto God, there will be no temptation to continue in sin for we will refuse that temptation out of thankfulness to God for counting us." (Dobson, E G, Charles Feinberg, E Hindson, Woodrow Kroll, H L. Wilmington: KJV Bible Commentary: Nelson) Matthew Henry writes that "The strongest motives against sin, and to enforce holiness, are here stated. Being made free from the reign of sin, alive unto God, and having the prospect of eternal life, it becomes believers to be greatly concerned to advance thereto. But, as unholy lusts are not quite rooted out in this life, it must be the care of the Christian to resist their motions, earnestly striving, that, through Divine grace, they may not prevail in this mortal state. Let the thought that this state will soon be at an end, encourage the true Christian, as to the motions of lusts, which so often perplex and distress him." (Matthew Henry's Commentary) BUT ALIVE TO GOD IN CHRIST JESUS: zontas (PAPMPA) de to theo en Christo Iesou : (Ro 6:13; 1Cor 6:20; Gal 2:19,20; Col 3:3-5) (23; 5:1; 16:27; Jn 20:31; Eph 2:7; Phil 1:11; 4:7; Col 3:17; 1Pet 2:5; 1Pet 4:11) It should be noted that the Greek text emphasizes the contrast between the two exhortative clauses more than can be readily appreciated or easily expressed in English. The death to sin is only one side of the equation. The old man is gone, but the new man continually lives. Alive (2198) (zao) means to be alive physically and refers to existence as opposed to death or nonexistence. It means to enjoy real life or to have true life, as God meant it to be lived. Zao is present tense speaking of continuous activity. Spurgeon writes that... To be full of life for Him—to be altogether active and on the alert to do His will; to make our whole lives a perpetual offering to Him, constantly delivering up ourselves to Him and His service that we may glorify His name and subserve His interests. Alive to God reflects the believer's new relation to God in Christ, a spiritual reality which is a complete reversal of the relationship we had with God when we were in Adam. To be alive to God means to converse with Him, to have a regard for Him, to delight in Him and to have a concern for His glory. The love of God reigning in the heart is the life of the soul towards God. It is to have the affections and desires alive toward God. Wuest adds that that "alive to God" means that "the divine nature has been imparted with the result that that nature gives them both the desire and the power to regulate their lives in accordance with the Word of God." (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Studies in the Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament: Grand Rapids: Eerdmans) In Christ Jesus (Click for Paul's 26 uses of the specific phrase "in Christ Jesus " - make a list of what you discover from your observations) is one the great truths taught by Paul and here is the key to a believer's now being alive with respect to God. "In Christ Jesus" also expresses the believer’s intimate, eternally secure position because of union and identification with Christ. Just as a human being cannot live their physical life unless they are in the air and the air is in them, one cannot live the supernatural, spiritual life of God unless he or she is in Christ, and Christ is in them. Christ is our spiritual life. There is no living to God but through Him -- through Christ as the Head from Whom we receive vital influence; through Christ as the Root by which we derive sap and nourishment, and so life. John spoke of life in Christ in his summary of the purpose of his gospel, stating that "these (things) have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life (zoe) in His name (in Christ)." (Jn 20:31) Matthew Poole commenting on Ro 6:11 writes that "believers are alive unto God in Jesus Christ, receiving from Him that virtue whereby their spiritual life is begun, maintained, and perfected." (Matthew Poole's Commentary on the New Testament) Note how various translations express our new relationship to God... "alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus." (Amplified) "able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus." (NLT) "but living a godly life through Christ" (People's NT Commentary) "alive and sensitive to the call of God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Phillips) "alive to God, alert to Him, through Jesus Christ our Lord" (TLB) "alive in relation to God, because you are in Christ Jesus" (Weymouth) ".you are living ones with respect to God in Christ Jesus." (Wuest) Ray Stedman (in True Baptism Of The Spirit) has a wonderful way of making these profound Pauline passages prolifically practical... "When you feel temptation in your body or your mind, then there are two things you are to do: First, remember that you don't have to obey sin. You just don't have to. You are free to refuse it. You are free to say, "No, you don't have the right to use that part of my body for a sinful purpose." And, second, remember his power is in you to enable you to offer that same part of your body to God, to be used for his purposes. Now, that may mean a struggle, because the strength of sin is very strong. When we start to turn away from evil in our bodies, the habits of our lives are so deeply engrained that oftentimes it is very difficult, and we struggle. But we have the power not to sin because we have God himself within us -- the living God...There will be a struggle; it is not always easy, but we have the strength to do it and we have the right to do it. We have the freedom not to sin and the desire not to sin. That is what God has brought to us in Christ....Paul is describing the two steps that we are to repeat over and over again, in dealing with evil in our lives." Oswald Chambers writes that... Eternal life was the life which Jesus Christ exhibited on the human plane, and it is the same life, not a copy of it, which is manifested in our mortal flesh when we are born of God. Eternal life is not a gift from God, eternal life is the gift of God. The energy and the power which were manifested in Jesus will be manifested in us by the sheer sovereign grace of God when once we have made the moral decision about sin. “Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost”—not power as a gift from the Holy Ghost; the power is the Holy Ghost, not something which He imparts. The life that was in Jesus is made ours by means of his Cross when once we make the decision to be identified with Him. If it is difficult to get right with God, it is because we will not decide definitely about sin. Immediately we do decide, the full life of God comes in. Jesus came to give us endless supplies of life: “that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Eternal Life has nothing to do with Time, it is the life which Jesus lived when He was down here. The only source of Life is the Lord Jesus Christ. The weakest saint can experience the power of the Deity of the Son of God if once he is willing to ‘let go.’ Any strand of our own energy in ourselves will blur the life of Jesus. We have to keep letting go, and slowly and surely the great full life of God will invade us in every part, and men will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. A J Gordon in his book The Ministry of the Spirit has the following thought provoking discussion on Death to sin "Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 6:11, R. V.). This is the condition of making true (Ed: experientially) in ourselves what is already true for us in Christ, of rendering practical what is now judicial; in other words, of being dead to the power of sin in ourselves, as we are already dead to the penalty of sin through Jesus Christ. As it is written in the Epistle to the Colossians: "For ye died," judicially in Christ, "mortify " -- make dead practically -- "therefore your members which are upon the earth." (see notes Colossians 3:2; 3:5). It is this condition which the Holy Spirit is constantly effecting in us if we will have it so. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live." (see note Romans 8:13). This is not self-deadening, as the Revised Version seems to suggest by its decapitalizing of the word "Spirit." Self is not powerful enough to conquer self, the human spirit to get the victory over the human flesh. That were like a drowning man with his right hand laying hold on his left hand, only that both may sink beneath the waves. "Old Adam is too strong for young Melancthon," said the Reformer. It is the Spirit of God overcoming our fleshly nature by His indwelling life, on Whom is our sole dependence. Our principal care therefore must be to "walk in the Spirit" (see notes beginning Galatians 5:16) and "be filled with the Spirit," (see note Ephesians 5:18) and all the rest will come spontaneously and inevitably. As the ascending sap in the tree crowds off the dead leaves which in spite of storm and frost cling to the branches all winter long, so does the Holy Ghost within us, when allowed full sway, subdue and expel the remnants of our sinful nature. (Ed: This describes a continual process, one which will not attain absolute perfection in this life, but indeed will attain such perfection in the eternal life to come when we are glorified and finally, fully free from not only the presence of sin but the pleasure of sin! Hallelujah!) One cannot fail to see that asceticism (Ed: This can be very subtle - listen to Ray Stedman's Mp3 on Legalism which gives an excellent warning on how not to walk by the Spirit) is an absolute inversion of the Divine order, since it seeks life through death instead of finding death through life. No degree of mortification can ever bring us to sanctification. We are to "put off the old man with his deeds." But how? By "putting on the new man who is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." (see note Colossians 3:10) "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death," (see note Romans 8:2), writes Paul. It is a pointed statement of the case which one makes in describing the transition from the old to the new in his own experience, from the former life of perpetual defeat to the present life of victory through Christ. "Once it was a constant breaking off, now it is a daily bringing in," he says. That is, the former striving was directed to being rid of the inveterate habits and evil tendencies of the old nature -- its selfishness, its pride, its lust, and its vanity. Now the effort is to bring in the Spirit, to drink in His divine presence, to breathe, as a holy atmosphere, His supernatural life. The indwelling of the Spirit can alone effect the exclusion of sin. This will appear if we consider what has been called "THE EXPULSIVE POWER OF A NEW AFFECTION." "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world," says the Scripture. But all experience proves that LOVING-NOT IS ONLY POSSIBLE THROUGH LOVING, the worldly affection being overcome by the heavenly. And we find this method clearly exhibited in the word. "The love of the Spirit," (see note Romans 15:30) is given us for overcoming the world. The divine life is the source of the divine love. Therefore, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." (see note Romans 5:5) Because we are by nature so wholly without heavenly affection, God, through the indwelling Spirit, gives us His own love with which to love Himself. Herein is the highest credential of discipleship: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another ." (John 13:35). As Christ manifested to the world the love of the Father, so are we to manifest the love of Christ -- a manifestation, however, which is only possible because of our possession of a common life. As one has truly said concerning our Savior's command to his disciples to love one another: "It is a command which would be utterly idle and futile were it not that he, the ever-loving One, is willing to put His own love within me. The command is really no more than to be a branch of the true vine. I AM TO CEASE FROM MY OWN LIVING AND LOVING, AND YIELD MYSELF TO THE EXPRESSION OF CHRIST'S LOVE. And what is true of the love of Christ is true of the likeness of Christ. How is the likeness acquired? Through contemplation and imitation? So some have taught. And it is true, if only the indwelling Spirit is behind all, beneath all, and effectually operative in all. As it is written: "But we all with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit ." (2 Cor. 3:18, R. V.). It is only the Spirit of the Lord dwelling within us that can fashion us to the image of the Lord set before us. Who is sufficient by external imitation of Christ to become conformed to the likeness of Christ? Imagine one without genius and devoid of the artist's training sitting down before Raphael's famous picture of the Transfiguration and attempting to reproduce it. How crude and mechanical and lifeless his work would be! But if such a thing were possible that the spirit of Raphael should enter into the man and obtain the mastery of his mind and eye and hand, it would be entirely possible that he should paint this masterpiece; for it would simply be Raphael reproducing Raphael. And this in a mystery is what is true of the disciple filled with the Holy Ghost. Christ, who is "the image of the invisible God," is set before him as his divine pattern, and Christ, by the Spirit, dwells within him as a divine life, and CHRIST IS ABLE TO IMAGE FORTH CHRIST FROM THE INTERIOR LIFE TO THE OUTWARD EXAMPLE. Of course LIKENESS TO CHRIST IS BUT ANOTHER NAME FOR HOLINESS, and when, at the resurrection, we awake satisfied with his likeness (Ps. 17:15), we shall be perfected in holiness. This is simply saying that sanctification is progressive and not, like conversion, instantaneous. And yet we must admit the force of what a devout and thoughtful writer says as to the danger of regarding it as only a gradual growth. If a Christian looks upon himself as "a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season," he judges rightly. But to conclude therefore that his growth will be as irresistible as that of the tree, coming as a matter of course simply because he has by regeneration been planted in Christ, is a grave mistake. The disciple is required to be consciously and intelligently active in his own growth (Ed: see note Philippians 2:12), as a tree is not, "to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure." (see note 2 Peter 1:10) And when we say "active" we do not mean self-active merely, for "which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto his stature?" asks Jesus. (Matthew 6:27, R. V.). But we must surrender ourselves to the divine action (Ed: compare note Romans 12:1) by living in the Spirit and praying in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit (see notes Galatians 5:16, Galatians 5:25, cp led by the Spirit - note Galatians 5:18), all of which conditions are as essential to our development in holiness, as the rain and the sunshine are to the growth of the oak. It is possible that through a neglect (Ed: cp note 1Thessalonians 4:8) and grieving of the Spirit (see note Ephesians 4:30) a Christian may be of smaller stature in his age than he was in his spiritual infancy, his progress being a retrogression rather than an advance (Ed: An interesting thought but be a Berean! - see note Acts 17:11). Therefore in saying that sanctification is progressive let us beware of concluding that it is inevitable. (Ed: Although as a good Berean you should compare notes Philippians 1:6, 1Thessalonians 5:24). What Gordon is doing, I believe, is giving a caution or admonition that to grow in spiritual maturity is not as some have said to simply "Let go and let God". The balance is nicely seen Philippians 2:12, Philippians 2:13) Moreover, as candid inquirers, we must ask what of truth and of error there may be in the doctrine of "instantaneous sanctification," which many devout persons teach and profess to have proved. If the conception is that of a state of sinless perfection into which the believer has been suddenly lifted and of deliverance from a sinful nature which has been suddenly eradicated, we must consider this doctrine as dangerously untrue (Ed: Amen!). But we do consider it possible that one may experience a great crisis in his spiritual life, in which there is such a total self-surrender to God and such an in-filling of the Holy Spirit, that he is freed from the bondage of sinful appetites and habits, and enabled to have constant victory over self, instead of suffering constant defeat. In saying this, what more do we affirm than is taught in that scripture:

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