Romans 6:11 “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.”

Our culture is obsessed with proclaiming what is wrong with everyone else except themselves. Columbia University students claim the moral high ground to support Hamas and denigrate Israel, prosecutors fixate on punishing Donald Trump, and corporations hold seminars to educate employees on their racial bias.

The Bible calls this the “old man” – the sin nature in all of us that points our finger at others but will not deal with our own condition. But God has provided victory over our old man in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

In chapter 4 of Watchman Nee’s book “The Normal Christian Life,” Nee gives 14 incredible Truths from God’s Word on overcoming the old man and living a life of impact in this twisted culture by RECKONING myself dead to the old man and alive to God because I choose to believe the facts God gives me.

Truth #1 = Romans 6:11 is the order of events: “Knowing that my old man was crucified (Romans 6:6)… RECKON ye yourselves to be dead.” That is the order. When I KNOW that my old man has been crucified with Christ, then the next step is to RECKON IT SO.

Truth #2 = God’s Word is clear that “knowing” precedes “reckoning”. My reckoning is based on knowledge of divinely revealed fact, or else faith has no foundation. When I know, then I reckon. If I do not know that I am dead with Christ, the more I reckon, the more intense will be the struggle, and the result will be defeat.

Truth #3 = Romans 6:11 “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.” How is this possible? “IN CHRIST JESUS”. Never forget that it is always and only true in Christ.

Truth #4 = The secret of reckoning is REVELATION from God. He never told me to reckon what was not a fact. Why does God say I am to reckon myself dead? I see now what God has done with me in Christ.

Truth #5 = Faith is my acceptance of God’s facts. It has its foundations in the past. This is why the word is “reckon.” It is a word only for the past – to what I look back to as settled, and not forward to yet to be.

Truth #6 = We are dealing not with promises but with facts. God’s promises are revealed to me by His Spirit that I may lay hold of them. But facts are facts, and they remain facts whether I believe them or not.

Truth #7 = Whether I believe the facts of the Cross doesn’t change their truth, but they will have no value to me. It is my faith in those facts that makes them real and valuable and alive in my experience.

Truth #8 = There are 4 Rules of Reckoning. Rule #1: God has removed me, not my sin (my sin is still present, but I am dead). Rule #2: It is a question of choice of which facts I will reckon on and live by. Rule #3: I do not need faith to make God’s facts real. Rule #4: My faith makes God’s facts real in my experience.

Truth #9 = I am not told that sin as a principle in me is removed. Sin is very much there, and given the opportunity, will overpower me and cause me to commit sins again, whether consciously or unconsciously. That is why I always must know the operation of the Precious Blood of Christ for my forgiveness.

Truth #10 = God does not remove the sin but the sinner. My old man was crucified with Him, and because of this the body, which before had been a vehicle of sin, is now unemployed (Romans 6:6).

Truth #11 = Sin, the old master, is still about, but the slave who served him – the “old man” – has been put to death and his thoughts and actions are unemployed. These thoughts and actions are now available to be used instead “as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Romans 6:13).

Truth #12 = “Deliverance from Sin” is more biblical than “Victory over Sin.” “Freed from sin” (Rom. 6:7) and “dead to sin” (Rom. 6:11) imply deliverance from a power that is still present and real – not from something that no longer exists. Sin is still there, but I increasingly know deliverance from its power day by day.

Truth #13 = 1John 3:9 “Whosoever is begotten of God does not sin… he cannot sin” – John is saying that the life of Christ has been planted in me by new birth – the “new man” – and its nature is not to commit sin.

Truth #14 = What is “in Christ” cannot sin; what is “in Adam” can sin and will do so whenever Satan is given a chance to exert his power. It is a question of my choice of which facts I will count upon and live by – the tangible facts of daily experience or God’s MIGHTIER FACT that I am now a “new man” who is “in Christ.”
“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance” _ Article #602