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“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11).
First of all, if we are going to lead a victorious life, and not allow our old sinful nature to rule our lives, we must recognize that the power is not in ourselves. As we saw a couple of days ago, the old nature is too strong for us. Just as the power to wash our sins away does not come from ourselves, so the power to keep the old sinful nature from ruling our lives does not come from ourselves. It comes from the Lord.
Since the Lord Jesus died and rose again, we are entitled to “reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin.” That means that when wrong thoughts come into our minds, we can say, “But I am dead to that kind of thing. That old sinful nature does not have any rights over me. I am free simply to turn my mind away from it, and to think about Christ.” Now that I have a new life in Christ, that is the life that I want to rule my thoughts, and that is the life that I want to display in my behavior.
I do not allow that sinful thought to go around and around in my mind, and enjoy it, but neither do I get all upset and fight with that thought. I simply turn away from it, because I can consider myself to be dead to it.
I can now consider myself to be dead to sin, and a dead man is not tempted by anything he enjoyed when he was alive. So also you and I can look to the Lord, and it is His power that enables us to reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God.
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