Reckoned Sinners, or Dead to Sin?

"8Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6: 8-11)

Every born-again believer has not just been cleared of all sin, but has been given a new life, a new heart, a new identity in Christ:

"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Romans 6: 4)

and

"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." (Ezekiel 36: 26, confirmed in Hebrews 8: 10-12)

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." (1 John 3: 1)

and

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)

For a long time, I walked around with a sense of fear, an evil foreboding in my life.

I was often worried what other people thought of me, or what they would do to me.

I sometimes steeled myself to talk back, or to bite back if someone seemed as if they were going to give me trouble.

This fear was based on a sense of shame.

This shame stemmed from the feelings of upset and reproach that I felt when I was mocked, when I lost something, or when someone hurt me. The hurt then turned into fear, because I was afraid to feel that hurt a second time. People who had hurt my feelings, for whatever reason, became fearful people, whom I would avoid or worse I would ready myself to talk back, or fight.

I never realized that "dead to sin", as mentioned in Romans 6, has nothing to do with sinful behavior, but rather the sin of Adam, the legacy of shame and separation which every human being has adopted since we are born into this world in the likeness of Adam.

Yet Christ died on the Cross to redeem us from the curse of law and the sin of Adam:

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5: 21)

He became sin, that we would receive His righteousness. Every believer is as righteousness as Jesus Christ, for we are "in Christ."

While the Gospel informs us that we are new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 17), AA teaches people to identify with their sin, with their defect, specifically, alcoholism.

Yet drunkeness, and any other vice, is just a manifestation of our flesh, our "old man":

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Galatians 5: 19-21)

Then Paul writes:

"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." (Galatians 5: 24)

So, in Christ we are to reckon ourselves, to account ourselves dead to sin, i.e. to the condemnation or the imputation of sin. We need never fear that God is going to punish us for our wrongdoing, now that we are in Christ.

This same gift of "no condemnation" gives us the power to sin no more (John 8: 10-12) and to reign in life (Romans 5: 17)

How do you reckon yourself: a sinner (alcoholics) or dead to sin?

If you have been saved by the Blood of the Lamb, then you are to reckon yourself dead to sin, alive to God in Christ, and no longer under condemnation of any kind:

"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8: 1, NASB)