When the Christian Life Finally Begins to Move Forward

The Christian life moves forward when Christ becomes the source.

A pastoral reflection on Romans 6:8–11 and the change of source

There comes a moment in the Christian life when a sentence does more than inform. It reorients.

The sentence may sound simple, even obvious at first, but once it settles, it exposes something structural. It does not add another step. It changes the ground you have been standing on.

For many, that sentence sounds like this:

The Christian life does not move forward by learning how to live better for God. It moves forward when Christ Himself becomes the source of living and expresses His life through us.

That sentence often brings relief and confusion at the same time.

Relief, because it names why years of sincere effort felt so heavy.
Confusion, because it raises an unsettling question.

Was my life as a Christian not really moving forward all those years?

That question deserves a careful and truthful answer, not a rhetorical one.

Romans 6 does not describe improvement. It announces replacement.

Romans 6:8–11 sits at the heart of this conversation.

Paul writes:

“If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him… The death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. So you also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Paul is not asking believers to imagine a new reality into existence. He is announcing where life now is.

The death he has just described is not a metaphor. It is union.
The life he now describes is not future. It is shared.

And this is where many sincere believers quietly mishear Paul.

The phrase “consider yourselves alive to God” is often heard as a task. Something to apply. Something to do with the mind in order to make life work.

But Paul is not assigning a technique. He is naming a source.

To consider something in Paul’s sense is to agree with it because it is already true. It is not mental effort. It is relational alignment.

Paul is saying, in effect, “This is where life now comes from. Stop sourcing it elsewhere.”

The difference between position and source

Here is where clarity begins to settle.

There is a difference between what is true of us positionally, and what we are living from functionally.

Positionally, every believer united with Christ is dead to sin and alive to God. That is settled. That is not in question.

Functionally, however, many believers continue to live from themselves as the source. They look to Christ for forgiveness, guidance, and help, while still assuming that the self must be the one doing the living.

In that arrangement, Christ is believed in and trusted for salvation, but not yet relied upon as Life itself.

This is not rebellion. It is independence learned over a lifetime.

And Scripture is honest about what that produces.

Why so much effort leads to so little rest

When the self remains the functional source, even with Scripture and prayer, the Christian life quietly becomes self-powered Christianity.

Obedience is still managed.
Holiness is still pursued.
Victory is still measured.
Failure is still internalized.

The result is not moral collapse. It is exhaustion.

Long-term fatigue.
Recurring cycles.
The quiet question, “Why is this still so hard?”

Paul does not diagnose this condition as immorality. He diagnoses it as independent living.

That is what Romans 7 gives voice to. Not an unconverted heart, but a sincere believer trying to live for God from the wrong source.

So were those years wasted?

This is where the heart often aches.

When the exchanged life becomes clear, many look back on years of striving and wonder whether anything was gained.

Here the answer must be spoken gently.

Those years were not wasted.

They were necessary.

They brought you to the end of self as source.
They exposed what effort could never produce.
They created readiness for a different way of living.

God does not rush people out of Romans 7. He brings them to the end of it.

Only then does Romans 6 begin to sound like good news rather than pressure.

What “moving forward” actually means

In the exchanged life, progress is not measured by improvement of the self.

It is measured by displacement of the self as the source.

The Christian life begins to move forward when:

Christ lives instead of the self.
Obedience becomes expression rather than effort.
Holiness becomes fruit rather than management.
Peace becomes a byproduct rather than a goal.

This is why Paul never tells believers to try harder to live the new life.

He says, “Christ is your life.”
He says, “Not I, but Christ.”
He says, “It is God who works in you to will and to do.”

Movement happens when Another moves.

Resurrection life is not something you grow into

Romans 6 does not present resurrection life as a destination.

It presents it as a present reality.

Because Christ was raised, and because you are united with Him, your life is now hidden in His. You are not waiting for resurrection life. You are participating in it.

This does not mean everything feels new. It means the source has changed.

Old thoughts may still arise.
Old pressures may still be felt.
Old habits may still surface.

But none of those determine where life comes from anymore.

Life comes from Christ.

Preparing the heart for yielding

This is where many pause and ask, often quietly, “So what is my part?”

That question is not wrong. It simply needs to be heard in the right order.

Before yielding can make sense, source must be settled.

Yielding is not about trying to cooperate better.
It is not about surrendering behaviors.
It is about relinquishing the role of source.

That is where the next part of this journey leads.

But it only leads there once this truth has been allowed to settle.

Christ is your life.
And the Christian life moves forward when He is allowed to be the One who lives.

A word of reassurance as you continue

If this clarity brings relief, let it rest.
If it brings disorientation, let it take time.
If it exposes exhaustion, let that exhaustion speak honestly.

You are not late.
You are not behind.
You are not failing at the Christian life.

You are learning what it means to live from a different source.

And the life now living in you is not fragile.

Christ already lives.
And His life is already yours.