Dead in Sins - Dead With Christ

From: Collected Writings By: Frederick George Patterson

• 1 min. read • grade level: 7

Q. “Q.” What is the difference between being “dead in sins” (Col. 2:13¹³And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; (Colossians 2:13)) and being “dead with Christ” (Col. 2:20²⁰Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Colossians 2:20))?

A. The state of a sinner as “dead in sins” is that there is no spring in the soul to God-ward, but all the whole being going out in the will of the flesh in sin. In the Epistle to the Romans (chaps. 1-3) the sinner is described as what we might term “alive in sins,” that is, every movement of his heart active in the energies of sin. “Dead in sins” would be the aspect of the soul to God-ward, because there is no movement of the heart towards Him.

Christ goes in divine grace into the sinner’s place, bearing our sins... He dies, having borne them, and rises again, we are quickened together with Him and forgiven all trespasses. God thus having cleared us, counts to us in His grace all that His Son passed through. If He dies, we are “dead with Christ,” if He is buried, we are buried with Him (as in the first initiatory ordinance of baptism), if He is quickened out of death (as Man), we are quickened together with Him; if He is risen, so are we; if seated in heavenly places, we are seated there in Him (Eph. 2:6⁶And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:6)); if He appears in glory, so do we (Col. 3:4⁴When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)). Thus there is complete identity.

“Dead in sins” would describe the state of the sinner with regard to God. “Dead with Christ” would describe what God counts the believer in grace, Christ having identified Himself with his state when a sinner only.

Words of Truth 7:220.

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