Romans 6:10 – 11, for the death that he died, he died to sin once and for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. (The life that he is now living)
even so, consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Living now to God in Christ Jesus.)
The idea that Jesus is living his life through some Christians and not through others who haven’t quite graduated or had a breakthrough in that realm yet, is bad theology. According to those verses in Romans 6, in light of the fact that I am already in Christ, I’ve been in union with the life that Jesus is living for God from the . The degree to which we recognize that, and rest in that fact, is the degree to which we do not hinder that dynamic and therefore give manifestation to it. That word “consider” in Romans 6:11 is an accounting term which carries the idea of simply knowing what is in your account and counting on that fact. Considering yourselves dead to sin, and considering yourself in union with the life that Jesus is living the God now, because you are in Christ, does not make it a fact. You consider it to be true because it is a fact. Jesus is living the life that he lives for God in me right now because I am in Christ, and there’s nothing I need to do to make that happen. I simply need to stay out of the way and in every situation rest in the fact that Jesus is living his life through me. I don’t need to try, I just need to consider it a fact. Again, we can’t make it happen, but we can suppress his life being lived out in and through me by taking matters into my own hand in trying to handle things in my own strength; even godly things. Faith is that disposition of dependence and confidence in the activity of another, and step-by-step we are called to be restfully confident in the life that Jesus is living in and through me, but anything that I might do, even something that seems religiously spiritual, apart from faith, is sin, and suppresses the freedom of the life of Christ living in me to be manifested through me. I can stand up and preach to 10,000 people a sincere sermon, but if I do not do that with the disposition that is looking to Jesus, considering him faithful to manifest his life through me in the sermon, that I have missed the mark, and according to God’s reckoning, I’ve done nothing of value. John 15 says that apart from him we can do nothing Romans 14:23 says, “that which is not of faith is sin,” and Hebrews 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Faith doesn’t get Jesus, or prompt Jesus to live through me, but faith is an attitude of confidence that he already is, and that is big enough for the job.