At present, we are working with the light of truth presented by Dr. Francis Schaeffer from his book True Spirituality where we are discussing the basic considerations of the Christian life, or true Christianity.

Part 12

Continuing…. Through Death to Resurrection….today…points 5 and 6….

But that is not all. (look back and review points 1-4 🙂)

There is more here, a fifth point. These great truths are to be brought down into the area of present Christian life and true spirituality. The Bible says that in the present life we are, in practice, to live by faith as though we are dead now.  

For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:10-11)  

As Jesus died in history, and once for all was dead to sin, so now we are called in faith to count ourselves dead, in practice, at this present moment of history; not in some far-off world of religious ideas, but in reality, at this moment on the clock. By faith we are to live now as though we have already died.   

But even that is not all. If it were, it would include only the two words “rejected” and “slain.” But the words are rejected, slain, and raised: raised, not just as an idea of future physical resurrection, though that will be real and future to every Christian, but as a present thing. So the sixth point is that we are to live by faith now, in the present history, as though we had been raised already from death. That is the message of the Christian life. That is the basic consideration we are discussing.  

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)  

Paul is not speaking here of the future millennium or eternity; that is a different thing altogether. It is now: We “should [may] walk in newness of life. . . . We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin (Romans 6:6). How? By faith: So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.  (Romans 6:11).  

When? Right now! This is the basic consideration of the Christian life. First, Christ died in history. Second, Christ rose in history. Third, we died with Christ in history, when we accepted him as our Savior. Fourth, we will be raised in history, when he comes again. Fifth, we are to live by faith now as though we were now dead, already have died. And sixth, we are to live now by faith as though we have now already been raised from the dead. 

Thoughts developed or used directly from the work of Schaeffer, Francis. True Spirituality . Tyndale House Publishers, Inc