Nothing can resuscitate it no one can breathe life back into it and there is nothing that can stimulate it back into action again, because it’s dead and its life has been permanently terminated. Its life is gone, and it is nothing more than a hull. The word “dead” in Romans 6:11 is the Greek word nekros, which describes a corpse just as real as any corpse in a morgue or a dead body being buried in a cemetery. In Christ, that old person is absolutely dead. Sin and its stimulating power has been slain by the power of the Cross. Thus, the verse carries the idea, “Consider yourself to already be dead to sin - a deed that has already been accomplished, a fact that has already been established, which simply needs your affirmation and recognition.” This is important because it tells us that in the mind of God, whoever you were in the past no longer has any claim to who you are now in Christ. I’ve often thought of that when reading Romans 6:11, which says, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The word “reckon” is the Greek word logidzomai, and in this verse, it means to count a deed already done hence, it simply means that something is reckoned to be so or to be a fact. When goodbyes were spoken at gravesite rites, they were always final farewells, with everyone present being well aware that the person would never be seen alive again. And in all the time I worked there, I can’t recall a single instance when I discovered a corpse that had crawled out of his grave because he was tired of being dead! Once the person was dead, it was permanent. Thus, for my first fully paid job - every day after school, five days a week - I found myself working among the dead. Every weekday after school, I walked down the street and through the huge arched entry to the cemetery, pulled the giant industrial lawnmower out of the shed, and went to work mowing graves or trimming the grass that grew up around the tombstones. After interviewing me, he hired me as a lawn boy to mow the graves, edge the tombstones, oversee the flowerbeds, and removed wilted flowers from the graves. So at my father’s urging, I walked to the cemetery to ask the grounds director - a gruff, old man who had run the cemetery for years - if there was any job available for a 12-year-old boy.

Since I wasn’t old enough to drive, I had to look for someplace to work that was close enough for me to walk there every day, and the only possibility that fit that description was the local cemetery. I had even helped clean the church building on Saturdays for a whopping salary of 25 cents a week! But now that I was 12 years old, it was time for me to get a “real” job. When I received my Social Security card as a young boy, my father said, “Rick, it’s time for you to get a job and learn what it’s like to earn a living.” Like other boys, I had mowed lawns to earn a little money on the side. Likewise, reckon ye also yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I am dead to sin