November 12

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. - Romans 6:11.

HERE the Apostle not only reminds us that Christians are “dead indeed unto sin,” and “alive unto God,” but that it is “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And these results will be found to be through him in four ways.

First, Through him as their Example. In his principles, in his temper, in his practice, in his life, believers see all this fully embodied. “In him was no sin; in him there were no irregular appetites, no improper passions. He never once in his life preferred his own gratification to the glory of God; he denied himself the refreshment of sleep to engage in the duties of devotion; and he denied himself the pleasures of solitude and retirement, in order that he might attend to the claims of those who often very unreasonably addressed him. “He pleased not himself.” He always did the things that pleased the Father. He was our religion incarnate.

Secondly, Through him as their Teacher. He has set before us those arguments and motives which have the greatest tendency to turn us away from sin, and to turn us towards the blessed God; so that we may be dead unto the one and alive unto the other. What threatenings, what promises, has he given! What addresses to our hopes and fears, to every passion in our bosom, and every principle in our nature! He has drawn back the veil that concealed the future, and has showed us a world inflames-a descending Judge-the judgment fixed-the wicked going away “into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal.”

Thirdly, Through him as their dying Friend. We know that he “loved us, and gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour;” and can I refuse to live according to his pleasure, who has laid me under such infinite obligation? “who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Is it possible for me to love, is it possible for me to live in, that which crucified the Lord of Glory?

“No, my Redeemer, they shall die,

My heart has so decreed;

Nor will I spare the guilty things

That made my Saviour bleed.”

Thus do we see in his cross the evil of sin; and thus, as the Apostle says, we become “dead” and thus “alive;” our “old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

Fourthly, Through him as their Mediator. That is, that he not only died to atone for our sins, but he at the same time obtained for us that grace which we require in every time of need, for the purpose of trial, of duty, and of conflict. The whole dispensation of the supplies of grace which we need is lodged in his possession; and that the administration of it to the end of the world is annexed to his office. Therefore it is so often called the “Spirit of Christ;” not only the Spirit he possessed, but the Spirit he procured for us, and which he communicates to us. It is thus we live; it is thus we walk; and it is thus we mortify the deeds of the body; as, says the Apostle, “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” We therefore see the importance of the Lord Jesus; that he is the “daysman” between God and us, laying his hand upon both; that “he gave his life a ransom for us;” that “he was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification;” that he vanquished sin, death, and hell; that he is the “resurrection and the life;” and that he is made unto us wisdom, sanctification, and redemption: as it is written, “He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord,” and thus may we “reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”