Entrance into the new sphere involves a decisive, clean-cut reversal of every relationship obtained in the old sphere. What the sinner was alive to the saint becomes dead to, and what the sinner was dead to the believer becomes alive to. The radical change wrought in the believer’s position demands a complete reversal in every relationship if a corresponding change is to be wrought in his condition. Sanctification is one act with a double significance: negatively, it means separation; positively, it means holiness. Christ, our sanctification, separates us from all that is opposed to the will of God, and He separates us unto all that is consistent with that will.

Let us consider first the things to which the believer becomes dead.

The Believer Becomes Dead to Sin
The apostle Paul uses three phases of three words each to throw marvelous light on this reversal in the believer’s relationship to sin. Please note that it is a study of prepositions.

Ephesians 2:5

“Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.”

Romans 6:8

“Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.”

Romans 6:2

“God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”

“Dead in sins”—such is the sinner’s relationship to sin in the old sphere. He is so permeated and saturated with sin that God can only describe his relationship to sin as one of immersion in it. Sin is his environment.

“Dead with Christ”—such is the sinner’s identification with the Sin-bearer. Salvation had to put both the Savior and the sinner on the cross to reverse the relationship to sin.

“Dead to sin”—such is the believer’s relationship to sin in the new sphere. He is so insulated and enveloped by Christ that God can only describe his relationship to sin as one of death to it. Christ is his environment. (See Diagram 11.)

Death defeats death and annuls its power over the sinner. The believer is so united with Christ in His death that he enters into precisely the same relationship to sin that Christ enjoys—Christ Jesus was never “dead in sins,” the Lamb of God was “without spot and blemish” for there was no sin in him. But as the last Adam, the representative Man, the sinner’s Substitute, He was in a very real sense “made sin for us.” The sin of the whole world of sinners was upon Him so that on the cross of Calvary, in a very real and awful sense, He was so separated unto sin for our sakes that He was separated from God. But, praise God, His death once and for all changed not only His relationship to sin but that of the believing sinner in Him.

Romans 6:10

“For the death that he died, he died unto sin once [Gr., once and for all]: but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God.”

Romans 6:11

“Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.”

Let us not, through unbelief or fear of the consequences, minimize the force of the words in Romans 6:11. To make this truth stand out before us in all its daring ruggedness, let this verse fall into its constituent parts before our eyes.

Dead unto sin Alive unto God ]-	The believer’s changed relationships.
In Christ Jesus Reckon Even so	—The divine Medium. —The Human Means —The defined Measure.

Simpler words could not have conveyed to the mind and heart one of the most profound truths in the Bible. Language could not tell us more plainly the severing power of the cross of Christ or make more clear the meaning of sanctification in God’s thought. The believer “dead with Christ” is dynamited out of the old relationship “dead in sins” into the new relationship “dead to sin.”

But what does the expression “dead to sin” mean? Does it mean that sin is dead or that it is eradicated? Does it mean that the believer is beyond the reach of temptation or the possibility or ability to sin? No, it means nothing of the kind. God’s Word teaches that the believer on earth has the penalty of sin removed and the power of sin broken, but nowhere does it say that he is freed from the presence of sin. As we shall see in a later study, that blessed state is the believer’s future inheritance. Nor is he freed from temptation. In fact, temptations are even more severe and constant as one maintains in faith the attitude of “dead to sin.” But “dead to sin” does mean that in Christ, the believer has been brought positionally into such a relationship to it that he is beyond the reach of sin’s dominion, that Christ Jesus environs him in such a measure as to share to the full, His victory over sin. It also means that through the new birth, he has been given a nature that hates sin and loves holiness. Where formerly there was a response to sin and apathy toward God, now the attitude is completely reversed. Sin meets with a cold reception and a quick rebuff while the whole being is aglow with ever-deepening love and devotion to its Lord. “The new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” refuses sin and chooses holiness; says no to sin and yes to God.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Praise the Lord!! What a life we now have in Christ Jesus. Thank You that the power of sin no longer binds us.