Romans 6:11

Romans 6:11. Thus, or, ‘so.' This is an inference and the application to the readers.

Reckon. The word may be either imperative, or indicative; the former suits the context best.

Also; like Christ (Romans 6:10).

Dead indeed unto sin. The notion of reckoning that they died for sin, in and with Christ, seems contrary to the whole argument of the passage.

But alive onto God in Christ Jesus. Only in fellowship with Christ Jesus can we reckon ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God. The negative and positive sides of the new moral life are based upon fellowship with the Personal Redeemer who died and rose again. The exhortation is to an apprehension (‘reckon') of this as a motive for holy living. Hence the utter impossibility of our continuing in sin that grace may abound (Romans 6:1). The obvious inference is that dying to sin and living to God is the evidence (and the only valid evidence) of our fellowship with Christ. On the other hand, the way is thus prepared for enforcing the thought, so essential in Paul's argument (and equally so in Christian experience), that fellowship with Christ, and not the pressure of law, is the fundamental fact in a life of holiness. Christian morality cannot exist without Christ.