WANTED: Dead AND Alive! (Part 1)

For years, I’ve read the scripture in Romans 12:1 that informs believers to be a “living sacrifice.”  Almost seems like an oxymoron!  Usually sacrifices are killed, so how can a sacrifice be living?  The two seem incongruous, yet that’s what we are called to be.  We are called to be both “dead and alive.”  God doesn’t want us to be a “dead offering.”  He wast us to be a “living offering.”  Yet there are some things that we are to be dead to, but one of them certainly isn’t to be dead to Christ or to the life that he gives.  Now we are to consider ourselves “dead with Christ” but not “dead to Christ” and there is a difference.  If we consider ourselves dead with Christ we believe we will also live with him.  However the scriptures identify several things that Christians are to be dead to.  I want to share five of them with you here in this post.

CHRISTIANS ARE DEAD TO:

1.  The World (Galatians 6:14)

Paul says “As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.” (Galatians 6:14 NLT).  Are you too involved in the world’s interests?  Being “dead” to the world simply means you have no interest in the affairs of this world system especially when those systems are opposed to God.  The world is full of concerns that are neither good nor evil, but as a believer you don’t need to concern yourself with them because they detract from your real life in Christ.  It’s time to quit entangling yourself with the things of the world.  As a believer you don’t have the spirit of the world in you, but rather the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:12).  Remember, you are dead to the world’s spirit.

2.  Sin (Romans 6:2)

As a believer, you have spiritually died to sin.  “How shall we who are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:2)  The believer has died to sin because of their identification with the “death” of Christ.  You can’t continue to live in something you have died to.  Because you are dead to sin, it no longer has any power over your life (Romans 6:6).  It’s time  you quit giving life to something that is dead.

3.  The Old Man-The Old Sinful Self (Romans 6:6)

When you accepted Christ’s sacrifice and His atoning work on the cross, your old self and the old man was crucified with him.  Jesus died on that cross.  He quit breathing.  He ceased being alive.  That atoning work for your sin cause you to also be crucified with Christ.  When Jesus died, your old man died.  When Jesus quit breathing the old sinful nature quit breathing.  When Jesus ceased to be alive, your old man and old sinful nature ceased to live.  And when sin died, it lost all its power in your life!  Quit giving life to something that is dead!

4.  The Flesh (Galatians 5:24)

You are dead to the flesh, because you have crucified the flesh.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  They are dead!  Stop trying to bring dead flesh back to life.

5.  The Law (Galatians 2:19)

In Galatians 2:19 Paul is saying “when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me.  So I died to the law — I stopped trying to meet all its requirements — so that I might life for God.  Paul realized he couldn’t live good enough and follow the law close enough to be acceptable to God. He had to die to the “letter of the law” so that he could live for God.  God has enabled us to ministers of his new covenant.  This is a covenant not of written laws but of the Spirit.  The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.  Believers have spiritually died to the Law as a means of life and are now alive to the Spirit for their life. (Galatians 2:19; Colossians 2:20-23).

God declares you are dead to the world, sin, the old man, the flesh, and the law.  Stop trying to give dead things life!

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— Keith