When writing of the believer’s freedom from the Law of Moses, Paul the apostle gives three keys to self-control. Not that we should try to control the impulse to sin by our own power, but rather by applying the truth of what Jesus did for us in his death, burial and resurrection. The three keys are the three words “know”, “reckon” and “yield”. Let’s read them in context.
Romans 6:6. “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
In NT Greek the word “knowing” is “ginosko”, which refers to a process of coming to know progressively – as we might say of new neighbours: “We are getting to know them.” The “old man” is the old self – you as you once were, before coming to Christ. Many try to get rid of the old self by defeating it themselves, and wonder why that doesn’t work. The old self is traitor to the new self and betrays it at every opportunity. We must “put off” the old self and “put on” the new self. We do this by being baptized in water by immersion. (Exchanging dirty clothing for clean without being washed in between doesn’t work).
The truth is that Jesus crucified the old self with him on the Cross. Why fight a battle that was won 2000 years ago? As new Christians we have scant knowledge of this truth but the more we grow the more we come to know, because this kind of knowledge is progressive. The first key to self-control is through the growing knowledge that in the death of Jesus the old self – the person we were — is ancient history.
The second key to self-control is “reckoning” or “counting” a thing to be so. When taking the communion bread we reckon it to be the body of Christ and by faith it becomes so. The same applies with the wine, which we reckon to be the blood of Christ. What else should we reckon? We should reckon ourselves “dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord.” The old self is dead only as we reckon it to be so. If we do not it reappears, like some horrible creature thought dead, to pollute us ethically or morally, and disappears only when we repent and ask for and receive God’s grace of forgiveness. If you don’t want the person you once were back in your life, then reckon it dead and buried, because when you do so it will be!
Think of these three keys as opening three successive doors. The key of knowledge opens the first door, and the key of reckoning the second. The third key is “yield”, an old-fashioned word often replaced by “to present” – as in presenting oneself to royalty. I prefer “yield” because it implies total surrender – in this case the surrender of every “member” of your body to God through Jesus Christ. The acidic tongue that gossips becomes the sweet tongue that blesses. The fist of hurt opens to become the extended hand of help. One by one these yield to become members of Christ’s body.
You will never know freedom until you let go of frustration, and the same applies to every other sinful expression of the old self. Just as words have antonyms, opposite meanings – hate/love, war/peace, and so on – the old self and the new self likewise are opposed to one another. They are polar opposites. But we are not split personalities who live half-holy and half-sinful lives and are torn between the two. Jesus did not die to make us half – he died to make us whole!
Know, reckon, and yield: these are the three keys to self-control available to every Christian. These keys are in your hand, so why not use them?