"Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." [Rom 6:11]
Tell me, FK, are you dead to sin? Are you prepared to declare that you no longer sin? If not, then I say to you that you have not been saved, not yet anyway, because until you are dead to sin (theosis) and sin no more, you cannot be alive in Christ.
And if you are like most of us, you can only hope, by honestly cleaving to God as best as you can all your life, even if you honestly fail, that God will have mercy on us and save us in the end.
Being dead to sin does not require intellect or belief. Mentally retarded, infants and children are all dead to sin, without knowing or professing Jesus Christ as their God.
These are two very different things. I think that we are born dead IN sin, which means that we are compelled towards sin and that we will sin. At the time of regeneration, we become dead TO sin, which means that we are no longer slaves to sin, but rather slaves to righteousness. This is unrelated to whether we will actually sin again, the track record of humans says that we will, but we are not compelled to do so. Where does the Bible say that to be "alive in Christ" one must BE sinless, as opposed to having the goal of being sinless?
So theosis means never sinning again? Is theosis just like the Catholic model of eternal salvation in that it is achieved and lost based on subsequent sin? I always had the impression that theosis was more of a permanent concept.
And if you are like most of us, you can only hope, by honestly cleaving to God as best as you can all your life, even if you honestly fail, that God will have mercy on us and save us in the end.
That sounds a little bit too scary for me, I think I'll just rest in knowing instead. :) The beauty in knowing is that no matter what anyone says, you always have the direct word of God standing right behind you. You have to defend nothing of yourself.
Being dead to sin does not require intellect or belief. Mentally retarded, infants and children are all dead to sin, without knowing or professing Jesus Christ as their God.
I respectfully disagree. Every single time Paul refers to this idea in Romans 6, he is talking about believers ONLY. We all believe in special dispensations by the mercy of God, but Paul never talks about them in the context of being dead to sin. Being dead IN sin requires no intellect or belief. However, being dead TO sin does require a regenerated mind. Consider:
Rom. 6:10-12 : 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
We are to be like Christ, who was dead to sin. He led His life to God. We are to do the same, but infants and the severely mentally handicapped cannot, nor do they have capacity to "let sin reign" one way or the other. Paul is only talking about believers.