The Psychology Of Faith
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FAITH
ROMANS 6:11-13
How is this teaching to work out in practice? The new life in Christ is real, but must be realized.
Look at each verse in turn.
6:11. “Reckon [ie consider] yourselves…”. Different translations try to render a Greek present imperative, which implies a process, a continuing action, a repeated endeavor and obedience. The whole psychology of victorious living, of vital Christian faith, is here. We must lay hold of our potential, working out our salvation. Christians, conscious of the thrust of evil in the heart, a tug of worldly temptation, the drag and pull of old unregenerate ways of thought, speech and action, must respond by the declaration: “In Christ I am dead to this.” So, too, seeing that the life in Christ is not repression but sublimation, when an urge to good, a movement of God’s indwelling Spirit prompts to righteous action, to Christlikeness, to creative living, we must similarly respond with the declaration: “So be it, Lord. Let me so live, so speak, so think.” The result is growth in grace, the replacement of old ways, responses, reactions, by new and godly things.
6:12. For, in truth, a tyranny is broken. The verse may be rendered: “For never let sin reign as king in this mortal frame, so that you should obey sin in all its urges.” The onetime slave and subject has been liberated. He has a new Lord, and should serve him, not the old, discredited, defeated despot.
6:13. Our bodies, in truth are now God’s temple (2 Corinthians 6:16), not mere tools and weapons (the Greek word means both) of a ruthless overlord, who cares nothing for the victims of his tyranny. We become new people in Christ, real, alive, vital, not the unloved and unregarded instruments of evil.
It is by faith that as Christians we lay hold of our privilege. It is a defect of faith that leaves us still serving a tyranny that has been broken. Christ died that we might be free. He lives to keep us free.
Meditation
“Bringing all my burdens,
Sorrow, sin and care,
At thy feet I lay them
and I leave them there.”