Dead and Yet So Alive 

To reckon is to count, to enumerate, or to consider. 

Reckon is an accounting word. Paul tells us to account or to reckon the old man as forever dead because of our identification with Jesus’ death on the cross. When we accept Christ as Saviour, we put to death the old man. We are dead to sin. And that is just one side of the equation. 

We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive in Christ. The old man is gone, but the new man lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. When we crucify the old man with Christ, sin does not reign in our mortal bodies anymore. Instead, we are set free, made alive in Christ. 

To be alive in Christ is to join a multitude of believers, who were dead in our sins, but God, rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ. As His creation, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2).

We are not to let sin reign in our lives. There is new life, free from sin, in Christ Jesus. Yet unbelief, self-reliance, or ignorance cause many Christians not to experience this freedom Jesus paid for on the cross. 

Is yours a life that is alive in Christ? What are areas in your life where sin is still holding sway? Are there areas of unbelief or self-reliance hindering you from experiencing the freedom that is yours in Christ? 

Lord thank you for saving me and making me alive in Christ.