The simple pattern in
Romans 6 is this:
1) KNOW (Ro. 6:3-9)
2) RECKON (Ro. 6:10-12)
3) YIELD. (Ro. 6:13).
First we have to KNOW the facts. We died with Jesus and are as much dead to sin as He was when He died. We must also KNOW we resurrected with Jesus. So, first we have to learn those facts.
Then
Romans 6:11 says RECKON. We must now truly apply all these facts to ourselves as individuals. "ME" -- "I" -- died with Jesus and am actually risen with Him with as much victory as He has, since I SHARE IN HIS VICTORY. That is what it means to be JOINT-HEIRS with Jesus!
And the third step is to YIELD. Now that we reckon/consider His experiences to be our own, personally, then we go to God IN THAT FRAME OF MIND. We present ourselves to Him as ALIVE FROM THE DEAD. 6:13. This means we UNDERSTAND we died and are freed from sin (v. 7) and are alive unto God THROUGH CHRIST (through the fact that we shared his death and resurrection ever since we got baptized into that death -- the baptism into His death is where this all started and where we came into union with Him).
And presenting yourself to God with that mindset -- "I am here before you God, alive from the dead" -- you have provided God the faith in your life that HE NEEDS TO EMPOWER YOU. You EXPECT Him to empower you because you removed the expectation for you to sin.
When you expect to sin you will find a way to do it!
So Paul removes the expectation to sin by explaining to us and reasoning with us about how we are risen with Christ.
IOW, as much as we depend on Christ's experience of the death of the cross to KNOW we are saved, we apply that same faith in the cross towards VICTORY OVER SIN. As much as we are saved by the cross -- and we are CONVINCED and CONFIDENT of that -- we are likewise now informed in
Romans 6 that we are dead to sin!
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