Have You Forgotten How to Count?

One of the joys being around little ones is listening to them learn to count.  It is as cute as it can be hearing them count “1, 2, 3….8,9,10” leaving out “4,5,6,7.”  In their little minds, they got to 10, and we should be proud of them.  What if they miss several numbers along the way…it’s not that big of a deal!  Like these precious little ones many of us as Christ-followers have forgotten how to count. 

Romans 6:5-7 gives us some great news,“⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”

• “we have been united with him in a death like his”
• “our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin”
• “because anyone who has died has been set free from sin”

In the spiritual realm, Christ on the cross did away with our problem…our body ruled by sin (our sin nature).  When He died, we died with Him; therefore, if we died with Him, we have been set free from sin.

Romans 6:8-10 tells us even better news, “⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.”

• “Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him”
• “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead”
• “Death no longer has mastery over him”
• “The death he died, he died to sin once for all…the life he lives, he lives to God.”

He died and we died with Him, “dead to sin once for all.”  And, when Christ was raised from the dead, “the life he lives, he lives to God.”  Guess what?  Likewise, in Him, we have the same resurrected life and power.  Dead with Christ and alive with HIS LIFE! 

As Christ-followers, we have all of the above in our spiritual DNA.  There is one big problem.  Only a few us are C-O-U-N-T-I-N-G this true in our life. Romans 10:11 explains this, “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  Our identity is Christ.  What happened to Him has happened to us.  If we don’t in faith C-O-U-N-T ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, we will live in the flesh looking like and behaving like others in our world. 

Have you forgotten how to count?