ARE CHRISTIANS DEAD OR ALIVE? J. C. O'Hair

 
ARE CHRISTIANS DEAD OR ALIVE?

Pastor J. C. O’Hair

In the sixth chapter of Romans we learn that Christians, or saints, are both dead and alive. “He that is DEAD is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:7). “Yield yourselves unto God, as those who are ALIVE from the dead.” (Romans 6:13).
Do these statements seem contradictory; “DEAD” - “ALIVE from the dead”?
Let us note carefully the words of the Lord Jesus: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the DEAD shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall LIVE.” (John 5:25). “Jesus said unto her. I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were DEAD, yet shall he LIVE: And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25 and 26).
Without faith in Christ, without Christ, every person is dead. When a dead sinner hears God’s Word and receives God’s Son, trusting in His death and resurrection, he is made alive. (John 5:24).
Note how this is stated in Colossians 2:13 and Ephesians 2:5 and 6; “And you, being DEAD in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He made ALIVE together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” (Colossians 2:13). “Even when we were DEAD in sins, hath made us ALIVE together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved); And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:5 and 6).
Christ said that believers pass out of death into life. John 5:24). This is when they pass out of Adam into Christ. (II Corinthians 5:17 - I Corinthians 15:22 - I John 3:14).
We read in II Timothy 1:10 that “Christ hath abolished DEATH and hath brought LIFE to light through the gospel.” Christ had power to yield up His life in death and take it up again in resurrection. (John 10:17 and 18). In this work of death, and resurrection from the dead, the Lord Jesus established the law of the Spirit of life that makes the believer free from the law of sin and death; even alive from the dead. (Romans 8:2 to 4). The Lord Jesus called His death, His “baptism.” (Luke 12:50).
The moment this Divine law (the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus) operates by grace and God-given faith, that moment the believer is baptized into the death of Christ, is “buried with Christ in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised Him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:12). “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? 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 6:3 and 4). At the same time the death and burial of the believer takes place, his resurrection and ascension also take place. “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 hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6). “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1).
Living saints can say with Paul: “I am CRUCIFIED with Christ: nevertheless I LIVE; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20). Living saints “should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.” (II Corinthians 5:15). Living saints, seated in the heavenlies, should seek those things where Christ is at God’s right hand and not set their affections on things on earth, for they are crucified to the flesh and to the world. (Colossians 3:1 and 2 - Galatians 5:24 and 6:14). “For ye are DEAD, and your LIFE is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:3 and 4). Read Romans 6:11: Reckon yourselves to be DEAD AND ALIVE.

 

 

Posted By – Cecil Spivey

Cspivey1953@gmail.com

 

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