Romans 6:11-14 - Spiritual Accounting
- Chad Werkhoven
- 5 minutes ago
- 5 min read
You need to take a spiritual accounting of your life.
Romans 6:1–14 (NIV)
This week we'll be working our way through this entire chapter. We read vss. 1-4 Monday and vss. 5-10 yesterday.
6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Canons of Dordt
Point 5 - Perseverance of the Saints
Article 13 - Assurance No Inducement to Carelessness
The renewed confidence of perseverance
does not produce immorality or lack of concern for godliness in those put back on their feet after a fall,
but it produces a much greater concern to observe carefully the ways of the Lord which he prepared in advance.
They observe these ways in order that
by walking in them they may maintain the assurance of their perseverance,
lest, by their abuse of his fatherly goodness,
the face of the gracious God
(for the godly, looking upon his face is sweeter than life,
but its withdrawal is more bitter than death)
turn away from them again,
with the result that they fall into greater anguish of spirit.
Summary
We've spent the last two days reading through Romans 6, which tells us a shocking truth: Christians are dead! You were baptized into Christ's death (v3), and buried with Him through baptism into death (v4). Paul even moves on past the metaphorical, indicating that a part of you - your old self - was actually crucified with Jesus.
It's so easy to quickly move past this reality of our inclusion in Christ's death in order to get to the rich benefit it brings: since you were united with Him in a death like His, you will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His (v5). And that's definitely worth celebrating! It makes sense that so many of the songs we sing together praise God for this new and eternal life that He's given us in Christ!
But Paul slows you down in today's opening verse. Don't lose sight of your new life, but you also need to continually remind yourself that you're dead. Paul uses an accounting term in telling you to count yourself dead to sin. A good businessman emotionally detaches himself from his business in order to make sound decisions that will benefit his company. He may really like a particular product, service, or employee, but be willing to cut it if the accountant says it's detrimental to his bottom line.
This is what you're commanded to do here: to often take a step back, dispassionately take an accounting of your life and cut out the parts that pull you away from Christ and towards sin, even if you really like those parts of your life. Counting yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus changes the way you think about and evaluate everything you do.
Dig Deeper
Your English teacher likely taught you not to mix your metaphors. That's good advice, but Paul doesn't follow it. He only sticks with the accounting metaphor for one sentence before moving on to another: the relationship between a king and his subjects. Don't let sin reign in your mortal body; don't be an instrument (literally: weapon) of wickedness; sin shall no longer be your master (literally: have dominion or be your lord / ruler).
The enemy's most successful temptation is to offer you freedom. That's what he successfully tempted Adam with in the garden and what he continues to tempt you with: don't let anyone else tell you what to do... just do whatever feels right to you. This is an insidious lie. The reality is that you will always be subject to something, either to God or wickedness (literally: unrighteousness - notice this word is negative, in that it can't be fully defined; anything that's not righteous is wicked).
Every one of the imperatives in today's passage is in the active tense. What this means is that you must take these actions, because if you remain passive, sin will reign, you will obey its evil desires, and you will be used as a weapon of wickedness. Do not let this happen.
Instead, actively offer yourself to God as one who has been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father who has brought us from death to life;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for the insight and clarity to often take an accounting of your life, and that you'll count yourself dead to sin and alive to Christ;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Revelation 13
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