Death has no Dominion. Romans 6:8-11 Our bodies are the vehicles in which we live in this world. It is not that our body is sin but it is inclined to sin when we allow that to happen. The fact is that those who have died re free from sin because we are a new creation in Christ Jesus. The challenge to us is that we must believe what we cannot see. I have died with Christ, been buried with Him, and am now alive in Him. This is true because this is how God sees me and what He sees is the ultimate reality
To live out this truth daily requires faith on my part because this life is not based on feelings but on faith and facts. We have the Holy Spirit to guide us through testing times whether they be trials or temptations. The book “Pilgrim’s Progress” is interesting and helpful as it puts both trials and temptations into story form that we can relate to. Believers share in the resurrection life of Christ now. When the Lord comes again at the rapture of the church, our bodies will share then the resurrection life our souls and spirits have now. Our union with Christ makes all of this possible.
V.8. Christ's death and resurrection have changed everything for those who have died with Him. The old person has been crucified with Christ and now lives with Him in fellowship and can participate with Him in all the activities of this new life. This is in contrast to our death with Him, not to our eternal future, although that is a fact as well. This life we live has begun but is not completed. This new life affects all of our activities. Our home life, our family life, our business, and our worship; everything about this new life, we are able to live with enthusiasm and vigor. Death and that old life no longer have mastery over us.
V.9. The wages that sin held over us have ended. This resurrected life in Christ is forever. On our sins, death had its time of dominion but it is over now. The death Christ experienced was for our sins. He had no sins of His own. His death, once and for all, was the completed work to pay the price needed to satisfy God and redeem us. Death held the Lord for three days and nights. But all that has passed and is finished for us too. Our bodies may be temporarily in the earth until the Lord's coming, but death has no dominion over us. This resurrection life will never end.
V.10.Christ died unto sin once. This is not His death for our sin but has to do with our relationship to sin, not the payment of sin. We have now been made the righteousness of God in Him. We have been released from the old dominion of death because of Adam's sin. Now we are given righteousness and holiness of our own through the new Head. We have started a new life in Christ Jesus. This life has a new occupation and goal. We now live unto God.
V.11. Believers are now reckoned dead, buried, and raised again with Christ. We walk in newness of life because we are becoming what we should become in actuality before God. Our part in this is to “count” ourselves dead to sins and alive to God and not let sin reign or take control of our lives. I should never offer anything of myself to sin but completely to God. Justification is by faith and sanctification is by faith as well, because faith is necessary to live as God intends in spite of the struggles of living for God in this evil age.
The effect produced by dying to sin is that an act has been accomplished and is finished. We have died unto sin in our Great Substitute and Federal Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are now connected to God because we are in Christ Jesus. He was raised from among the dead ones. That is over, it has passed, so we are dead unto sin and present ourselves as those who are alive also from among the dead ones. It may be difficult to reckon this to be true because of our bodily attraction to the things of the earth. We wouldn't have to "reckon" this if sin was gone from our bodies.
This reckoning is something we do by faith. Faith doesn't follow the path of human consciousness in our bodies but recognizes the facts because God says they are facts. God says we are dead to sin, so it is a fact that we are dead to sin - even if we do not "feel" like it. Our history now is one we share with Christ. It becomes real to us as we walk according to God's Word by faith. Faith knows that God has dealt with all that separated us from God. Now, we can deal with the problems that arise to tempt us by the promises that God has given us - you are dead to sin, and you are alive to God through Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:11. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”