Alive to God Through Union

“Dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” — Romans 6:11

Romans 6:11 does not summon effort. It announces reality.

“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul is not telling believers to become something through striving. He is calling them to stand on what God has already accomplished through union with His Son.

This is the settled ground of the Christian life: “We have been united with Him in a death like His, and we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” The old life was not repaired or restrained; it was brought to an end. And the new life is not an ideal to reach; it is a shared life already given.

Because of this, sin no longer has authority. It may still speak, still entice, still accuse, but it no longer reigns. “For sin will have no dominion over you.” Its claim was broken at the cross, and its power was eclipsed by resurrection.

The life that now unfolds is not self-improvement under better conditions. It is participation. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” The believer’s role is not to manufacture holiness, but to rely upon the Life already present, already active, already faithful.

This is why Paul speaks in the language of reckoning, not achieving. We do not create this truth by believing it; we acknowledge what God has made true. And from that acknowledgment, obedience emerges naturally, not as pressure, but as fruit.

A Prayer of Confidence

Father, I thank You that in Christ I am no longer bound to sin, but alive to You. I belong to You entirely. I rest in what You have done and trust Your Spirit to make the life of Jesus visible through me today.

A Closing Word

When temptation or heaviness appears, Scripture does not call us inward to analyze ourselves. It calls us upward to remember Christ. “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” From that hiding place, we live.