Romans 6: 12-23 Know, Reckon, Then Yield

Paul had said he was giving us three instructions.  In the first half of the chapter, they were:  Know that you have been crucified with Christ and are dead to sin; and reckon this fact to be true in your own life.  Now he finishes with, "Yield your body to the Lord to be used for His glory."

"He asks all of us to live for Him, sacrificing our bodies in holy living ... How are we to yield?  As an act of the will based on the knowledge we have of what Christ has done for us.  It's an intelligent act, not an impulsive decision of the moment."  My commentary said to carefully notice the tenses of the verbs:  "Do not constantly allow sin to reign in your mortal body so that you are constantly obeying its lusts.  Neither constantly yield your members of your body as weapons or tools of unrighteousness to sin; but once and for all yield yourselves to God.  There must be in the believer's life that final and complete surrender of the BODY to Jesus Christ.  This does not mean there will be no further steps of surrender, because there will be .... To be sure, we daily surrender afresh to Him, but even that is based on a final and complete surrender.  

"Why does God want your body?  To begin with, the believer's body is God's temple, and He wants to use it for His glory.  But Paul wrote that the body is also God's tool and God's weapon in verse 13.  God wants to use the members of the body as tools for building His kingdom and weapons for fighting His enemies."

"Why are we to yield?  Favor, freedom, and fruit.  Favor because of God's grace, which gives us a reason to obey.  Freedom?  Whatever you yield to becomes your master.  Before you were saved, so were the slave of sin.  Now that you belong to Christ, you are freed from that old slavery and made a servant of Christ.  Fruit?  In the old life we produced fruit that made us ashamed.  In the new life in Christ, we produce fruit that glorifies God and brings joy to our lives."

"Now that you know these truths, reckon them to be true in your life, and then yield yourself to God."

Father, I needed this refresher.  Thank You for stating it so clearly for me.

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford