There are three dominant verbs in that great chapter—Romans 6—which should be well known by every young Christian, if he is to live a fruitful Christian life. Every one of us should come to the deliberate resolve in the presence of God that the Christian life is the only life worth living. We cannot carve our life out into sections—religious, social, business, etc.—Christianity ought to control the whole life. The true motto for our lives is found in 2 Corinthians 5:15. We read,
“They which live should not henceforth live to themselves, but UNTO HIM which died for them, and rose again.”
“UNTO HIM” then should be the young Christian’s motto. Will YOU not adopt it?
The three dominant verbs in Romans 6 are
KNOW, RECKON, YIELD.
The young believer begins with positive knowledge. No wonder is it that we witness the enemy’s feverish and persistent attacks on the Word of the living God. Men do not flog a dead horse, nor fight a man of straw. We do not find the Koran on the one hand translated into 500 languages as the Bible is, nor do we find a constant stream of books and pamphlets and tracts trying to destroy its influence, as is the case with the Bible.
Thank God, when we are assured of the verity of the Word of God, we can say, WE KNOW.
In this chapter knowledge is connected with the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. That death was an undisputed bit of history, but how much more than that is it to the believer. It is the revelation of the heart of God, it has shown up the utter depravity of man in its true colours, it has made atonement for sin, it is the ground of the believer’s peace with God, it is that which has condemned the evil nature of man—sin—and set aside for ever man in the flesh, as before God.
It is to that death the believer is baptized. This surely should not be an empty ordinance, a mere piece of ritual. It is, indeed, a solemn committal of the believer to all that the death of Christ means. It means our renunciation of all that our Lord died to. It means our turning our backs on the world that rejected Him.
The word, “buried,” is used in Romans 6 in connection with baptism. A buried man has surely died to the scene in which he once lived. Now if a man voluntarily and of his own volition goes to his own funeral—and this is exactly what happens to the believer—he surely believes he is going to gain by so doing. What a loss the believer incurs when he does not take into his practical life the inward meaning of the rite of his baptism! The believer is called upon to “walk in newness of life.” What bliss and happiness there is in this! How happy indeed it is to take up in power the first of our three dominant verbs—WE KNOW.
Next we come to the verb, RECKON. “Likewise RECKON ye also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (v. 11). It is often asked, Are we to reckon what is not true to fact? The believer often retorts, “I feel anything but ‘dead indeed to sin.’” The answer to the question is surely very certain. God, the God of truth, would never ask us to believe in an illusion. What He asks us to believe in must surely be a reality. The meaning of the passage is made clear when we lay emphasis on the closing words of the verse, “Through [or, in] Jesus Christ our Lord.”
An illustration may help. Suppose you had committed murder, and some substitute were accepted on your behalf, and were hanged instead of you. The person who took your place would certainly be dead indeed to sin. And would you not be clearly entitled to take the same position? It is thus with the believer. Christ has died on our behalf. The efficacy of His death is all for us. Our connection with it is of the most vital character. It is in Him we can reckon ourselves “dead indeed to sin.”
The practical result of this that the believer does not let sin reign in his mortal body (v. 12). But not only so but the believer is to RECKON himself “alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This involves walking in newness of life. To this end God has given the believer divine life, a life that loves God and His holy will; and also given the indwelling Holy Spirit, the power of that life.
Finally we come to the third of our three dominant verbs. We are exhorted to YIELD our members as “instruments of righteousness to God” (v. 13). This is what TO KNOW and TO RECKON leads to: viz., to YIELD. The members of our bodies, our tongues, our hands, our feet, our minds, are all to be yielded to God. No longer is the body to be the vehicle of our own wills, our own desires, whether they take the form of the refined and intellectual or of what is too common alas! and where least expected—the coarse and the sensual.
May I earnestly ask each young Christian to get into God’s presence about these three dominant verbs of Romans 6? Let them be DOMINANT in your life. Get upon your knees, and do not rest till you have YIELDED to the will of God, and keep it up day by day till life’s little day is over.
Then will your life be really useful and for God’s glory. Otherwise you will miss the mark. You will be in the place of tremendous danger where Satan will assuredly get the advantage.
The Lord bless the reading of this article to your soul, and may it influence you EVERY day of your life.