This possession is also a glorious prospect, for it is permanent with the eternity of His Life. It not only is, but shall be. [Sidenote: Ver. 8.] =Now if we died with Christ, we believe,= we rest upon His word and work for it, =that we shall also live with Him,[88]= that we shall share not only now but for all the future the powers of His risen life. For HE lives for ever--and we are in Him! [Sidenote: Ver. 9.] =Knowing that Christ, risen from the dead, no longer dies,= no death is in His future now; =death over Him has no more dominion,= its _claim_ on Him is for ever gone. [Sidenote: Ver. 10.] =For as to His dying (ὃ ἀπέθανε), it was as to our (τῇ) sin He died;= it was to deal with our sin's claim; and He has dealt with it indeed, so that His death is "_once_," ἐφάπαξ, once for ever; =but as to His living (ὃ ζῇ), it is as to God He lives;= it is in relation to His Father's acceptance, it is as welcomed to His Father's throne for us, as the Slain One Risen. [Sidenote: Ver. 11.] =Even so must you too reckon yourselves,= with the sure "_calculation_" that His work for you, His life for you, is infinitely valid, =to be dead indeed to your (τῇ) sin,= dead in His atoning death, dead to the guilt exhausted by that death, =but living to your (τῷ) God, in Christ Jesus;[89]= welcomed by your eternal Father, in your union with His Son, and in that union filled with a new and blessed life from your Head, to be spent in the Father's smile, on the Father's service. Let us too, like the Apostle and the Roman Christians, "_reckon_" this wonderful reckoning; counting upon these bright mysteries as upon imperishable facts. All is bound up not with the tides or waves of our emotions, but with the living rock of our union with our Lord. "_In Christ Jesus_":--that great phrase, here first explicitly used in the connexion, includes all else in its embrace. Union with the slain and risen Christ, in faith, by the Spirit--here is our inexhaustible secret, for peace with God, for life to God, now and in the eternal day.