Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

YOU'RE DEAD!

This entry was posted on 08-14-2008 and is filed under uncategorized.

"For, as far as this world is concerned, you are already dead..." (Col. 3:3a, The N.T. in Modern English, Phillips).

According to our text, I am a dead man writing to dead people today. At one time all of us were dead in our transgressions and sins (Eph. 2:1). But this is not the kind of death Paul is talking about here. Because Christ died for our sins and because we died to our sins, we are now dead - as far as this world is concerned. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). But not only were we "crucified with Christ" the world was crucified to us. Paul also wrote, "May I never boast except in the cross of of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14).

Why are we dead? Because we have been crucified with Christ, the world has been crucified to us, and we have been crucified to the world. Sin has no attraction to someone who is dead. We are "dead to sin" (Rom. 6:2). We "died with Christ" (Col. 2:20). But since Christ is risen, so are we. Remember how this chapter began? "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on thing above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God" (3:1 NIV).

Hymn: "Buried with Christ and dead unto sin; dying but living, Jesus within; Ruling and reigning day after day, guiding and keeping all of the way" (T. Ryder).