{"id":1582,"date":"2010-03-14T19:56:54","date_gmt":"2010-03-15T01:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1582"},"modified":"2010-03-14T19:56:54","modified_gmt":"2010-03-15T01:56:54","slug":"romans-611-whats-your-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-611-whats-your-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 6:11 – What’s Your Choice?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 6:11<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have to live in sin. We can choose to live to God.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cLikewise<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word hout\u014ds<\/span><\/em> which is from the pronoun houtos<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cthis thing.\u201d Hout\u014ds<\/span><\/em> connects what follows with \u201cthis thing\u201d which has just been talked about. It is most often translated as \u201clikewise\u201d or \u201cin this manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReckon<\/span>\u201d is a word that Paul has used repeatedly. It is from logidzomai<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto put together with one\u2019s mind.\u201d It is usually translated as \u201cto consider, to reckon, or to impute.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201calive<\/span>\u201d is za\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto live.\u201d It is expressed here as a participle so it should be translated as \u201cliving.\u201d So this verse should say \u201c\u2026 reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but living to God \u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Just as Jesus is now dead to sin, Paul says we ought to also consider ourselves dead to sin. Because of His death we are no longer under the bondage of sin; we have been freed from that master. But, we still have our sin nature to battle and it gives us the propensity to sin. We are still inclined to sin because our sin nature tempts us to act on our desires, which then become sins (see James 1:14-15<\/span><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

But Paul says that we should consider ourselves dead to sin and to the uncontrollable desires that produce sin. Since we are no longer under the bondage of that slave master, we now have a choice of whether to sin or not to sin. Before we were saved we didn\u2019t have that choice, but since we now have that choice, Paul says \u201cmake that choice!\u201d Determine not to let your sin nature control your life.<\/p>\n

Have you ever had someone say to you, \u201cDon\u2019t think about an elephant!\u201d? As soon as someone says that, we immediately think about an elephant. That\u2019s the way our minds work. We can intentionally think about something but we can\u2019t intentionally \u201cnot think\u201d about something. God knows this, which is why whenever He tells us to quit doing something, He also tells us what to replace it with. He tells us what to think about so that we can avoid thinking about the elephant.<\/p>\n

In this case, Paul tells us that the way to consider ourselves dead to sin is by living to God through Jesus Christ. That is, we should endeavor to emulate Jesus; we should try to follow His example. We should be humble, unassuming, committed to the glory of God, and morally pure. The trouble is, we can\u2019t be just like Him because our sin nature and the devil still exist. But they don\u2019t stop us from trying to live the way we should. And when we stumble, when we do sin, \u201cwe have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one!\u201d (see 1 John 2:1<\/span><\/strong>) He\u2019s ever pleading our case in the court of heaven and he shows our innocence with His blood; therefore, when \u201cwe confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u201d (see 1 John 1:9<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Since we now have the choice, let us commit ourselves daily to be living to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 6:11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Truth to Learn We don\u2019t have to live in sin. We can choose to live to God. Behind the Words \u201cLikewise\u201d is from the Greek word hout\u014ds which is from the pronoun houtos, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[117,118,136,740,741,625,276,742],"class_list":["post-1582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alive","tag-dead","tag-god","tag-houtos","tag-logidzomai","tag-reckon","tag-sin","tag-zao"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-pw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}