Reckon Yourselves Dead.

As long as I are alive I require food and clothing, but when I am dead I shall be wrapped in a shroud and put out of sight. I was alive in the flesh a few years since: this was my judicial standing before God as a member of the family of the first Adam, Then I fed and clothed the flesh, listened to its desires, and pandered to its lusts; but I have died out of that standing— “I am crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)); and no longer live I, but Christ liveth in me.” Now my standing is changed, Christ liveth in me, and I live in Him. I am introduced, through death and resurrection, into the family of “the last Adam, the Lord from heaven.” The first Adam brought himself and his family under the curse of God; the last Adam removed the curse, and brought His family into eternal life and blessing. But have I nothing left, then, belonging to the first Adam? I do not see any visible change in my body; and, moreover, I still feel the strivings of an evil nature within. How is this? If I turn to Romans 6, 11TH verse, I read, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This little word “reckon” tells me that my death and resurrection are at present judicial only and not actual, else I should not be told to “reckon” myself dead. God looks at me as standing no longer in the flesh, or the first Adam, but “in Christ,” the last Adam; and by faith I see my position as God sees it. But what about these strivings of the flesh which so harass the believer and mar his testimony for Christ? I am to “reckon myself dead;” to keep self with its affections and lusts wrapped tightly in its shroud, not to heed its voice or pander to its desires; to treat it, in fact, as I would a corpse, give it nothing to feed upon, but bury it out of my sight and come away from it. Scripture tells me I am not in the flesh but in the Spirit” (Rom. 8:99But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Romans 8:9)), though the flesh is not yet actually dead, and as long as I remain here in the wilderness, it will “lust against the Spirit” (Gal. 5:1717For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (Galatians 5:17)). Bat thanks be to God we who believe have this Spirit within us to strive against the flesh, and “greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:44Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4)); “Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Gal. 5:1616This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)). I must seek daily for spiritual food then that I may walk in the Spirit and “mortify the deeds of the body.” The conflict is only for a little while. The bright resurrection morn will soon be here, then He who has brought us into this wonderful new standing and acceptance before God “shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God” (1 Thess. 4:1616For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (1 Thessalonians 4:16)), and in the twinkling of an eye He will “change these vile bodies, and fashion them like unto His own glorious body” (Phil. 3:2121Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:21)). The flesh with its affections and lusts will be cast aside Forever, and there shall be no more death, neither crying, nor sorrow, nor pain (Rev. 21:44And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Revelation 21:4)).