Know, Reckon, Present

“Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.” — Romans 6:11 (ASV)

Remember Charity Chang? After she became a Christian, the door that Nee had closed opened again, and in 1934 they married. Even that wasn't simple. A relative who opposed the match attacked Nee's reputation in the press, and for a time he stepped back from visible leadership before going on with his ministry. Around these years Witness Lee became an important co-worker.

In 1937 full-scale war broke out between China and Japan, bringing enormous suffering, displacement and chaos. Nee's ministry carried on in a country at war. In 1938 he travelled in Europe and attended the Keswick Convention in Britain. Messages he gave during this period on Romans 5 to 8 were later gathered into the book known in English as The Normal Christian Life. He didn't sit down and write it as one book; it was put together from his talks. It became the most famous thing ever published under his name.

It answers a question many Christians quietly ask: if Christ has forgiven my sins, why do I still keep losing to them?

Nee's answer was that God has dealt with two problems, not one. The blood of Christ deals with our guilt, what we have done. The cross also deals with the old self, what we are. Paul says, “our old man was crucified with him.” God doesn't just forgive the old you and then tell it to try harder. He joins you to Christ.

Nee organised Romans 6 around three words. First, know: this has already happened in Christ, whether or not you feel it today. Second, reckon: count it as true. Nee liked a picture from banking. If money really has been paid into your account, you can count on it being there. Counting on money that was never deposited would be fantasy; refusing to count on money that really is there would be unbelief. Third, present: give yourself, your body, time, words and plans, to God, “as alive from the dead.”

He also loved Paul's cry in Romans 7: “Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” Notice, Nee said, it asks who, not what. The answer isn't a technique. It's a Person. And Paul's promise is plain: “sin shall not have dominion over you.” Sin may still tempt you. It no longer owns you.

He also summed up Paul's letter to the Ephesians in three words, in the little book Sit, Walk, Stand. First sit: rest in what God has done (Paul says God “made us to sit with him in the heavenly places”). Then walk: live it out. Then stand: hold your ground against evil. Get the order wrong and you'll walk to earn a seat you already have.

The biography adds an important warning. Counting yourself dead to sin does not mean pretending pain isn't real. Paul himself once wrote that “we despaired even of life.” You can be secure in Christ and still need counselling, sleep, a doctor or a hard conversation. Grace isn't threatened by help.

If you're stuck in the cycle of promising, failing, feeling guilty and promising again, Nee would say you're starting from the wrong place. You don't fight sin to become God's. You fight it because you already are.

One thing to do this week: write Romans 6:11 on a card or in your phone. The next time you fail, read it before you make any new promises. Then confess it, thank God that you still belong to him, and get up.