We’re continuing our study in Romans 6 and our last lesson emphasized the importance of knowing our identity in Christ. Life reveals that we can know a truth, but not put it into practice. For example, we may know that certain foods are deleterious to our health, but we eat them anyway. Therefore, the Apostle Paul enjoins us to appropriate the knowledge that we have:

So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11)

The Greek word for consider may also be translated to count or reckon. It’s significant that Paul used an accounting term in this passage. Our faith is not based upon the vicissitudes of our feelings, but on the finished work of Jesus. We must appropriate the truth that Paul had previously set forth:

knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; (Romans 6:6)

The Greek word for consider (count or reckon based upon the translation) in verse 11 was a term used to refer to non-emotional thinking. You may not feel that you’re alive to God, but Paul is admonishing us not to be dominated by our feelings. A believer is positionally alive to God and the devil will seek to prevent God’s people from appropriating that truth.

We must rely upon the truth rather than our changing and perhaps, mercurial feelings. Imagine a lake in the midst of winter that is frozen over and I tell you to walk on the ice. You may respond with fear and trepidation because you’re unsure of the thickness of the ice. If you knew that the ice was several feet thick, then you would consider that it is strong enough to support your weight. Faith is not dependent upon our feelings, but upon its object – in this case the ice. Conversely, we may have a thin layer of ice on the lake, but we may feel that it will support our weight. Our feelings are not the determining factor, but it’s the thickness of the ice. Likewise, in the spiritual realm, our feelings are not the basis of our faith, but it’s the veracity of God’s word. The result of appropriating our identity in Christ leads to freedom:

for the one who has died is freed from sin. (Romans 6:7)

Have you considered the implications of this verse for your life and have you reckoned them to be true? It’s not enough to simply know the truth, we must act upon it.

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves. (James 1:22)