Randy is a Christian. A rock musician, he trusted Christ for salvation because of the witness of a friend. For a while the enthusiasm generated by his new found faith seemed to revolutionize his life. He was instantly liberated from his drug and alcohol habits and from a lifestyle devoted to illicit sex. He developed a love for God and His Word and a delight in telling others about the excitement of knowing the Savior.

But then it happened. A girl that he had once lived with walked back into his life. He hadn’t gone looking for her. She just showed up one morning at his workplace. A couple of days later they had lunch. It was all quite innocent. He even told her what had happened to him and explained the plan of salvation to her. She was obviously impressed by the dramatic change in his life, especially by his uncharacteristic happiness. His mood changes and chronic depression were gone and his selfishness was replaced by a genuine interest in others. They began to have lunch regularly and occasionally dinner and a movie at night. Karen appeared interested in spiritual things and they were friends...something they hadn’t been before.

Now disaster struck. He was dropping her off after a movie. She invited him in, and what had been a wholesome evening for two friends turned into a sexual escapade. They continued to see each other, seeming now to be hopelessly involved in sexual intimacy. He wanted to stop. After each meeting he would be overcome by guilt and remorse. He promised God over and over that he would not do it again only to find himself the helpless victim of his thought life and his biological urges. Just when he thought that everything was hopeless, Karen left him for another old boy friend. A few days later she quit her job and Randy saw her no more. But his appetite for the old life had been reactivated. Drugs and alcohol were still not a problem but his compulsion for sexual activity was even stronger than it was before he was saved.

How could this be? An earnest Christian the victim of his own sex drive! He prayed...he even agonized in prayer. He looked for answers in the Word, but seemed only to find verses that condemned his activities. He bought pornographic magazines, rented X-rated videos, and finally began to visit prostitutes. Going to church and seeing other Christians only reminded him of his double life, increasing his feelings of guilt. In time he gave up church, Bible reading, prayer, and the fellowship of other believers.

Randy’s story is not unique. There are millions of defeated believers in this world right now. Not all of them have fallen victim to illicit sex, though many have. Others have fallen under the power of other temptations. They are people who wànted to live the Christian life and failed. Failed so many times that they finally gave up.

God does not want us to fail. He has made a perfect provision for us to succeed. When God’s way is followed, defeat is turned to victory. He has one plan for all of us and it will work for each of us. But if "knowledge is power," then knowledge of the Christian life must be acquired. There are some things that you and I must grasp clearly before we can be successful, fruitful, growing Christians.

We must know who we are and what we are in Christ. Our Adam-life ended when we came to the Lord. It ended not in our experience, but in our position. That is, as far as God is concerned, the person we were in sin and under condemnation no longer exists, having died with Christ. This is the great teaching of Romans, chapter six, and Romans six is the one chapter in the Bible that deals with the mechanics of the believer’s life. Your flesh, and mine, is very much alive to the world and just as certainly dead to God. Our spirit, our new nature, is alive to God but dead to the world. This is the great secret of victory for us. We have two natures. The old nature, received from Adam, did not disappear when we were born again, receiving a new nature from God. Touching first base is realizing that God is not dealing with us on the basis of a nature that He considers dead...because it is dead, God having executed it at Calvary. Most Christians today are unable to find victory in life because they are trying to make Christians out of their old Adamic natures and that is not God’s plan for Christian victory. God’s plan starts with our acknowledging that the person we were outside of Christ no longer exists.

Having acknowledged what God says about the death of our ‘old man,’ we are then to take our stand on this great truth. Before we realized the great fact of our co-death with Christ -- which ended our Adam-life -- we had no foundation for life and ministry except legalism, and legalism cannot produce fruit. No matter how earnestly we wanted to serve Christ, we kept living as though we were still in the flesh, trying to make our Adam-life acceptable to God. God can never accept our life in the flesh. That’s why Christ died to our Adam-life for us.

Once we realize (reckon) that our "former person" is actually dead as far as God is concerned, and have trusted totally that truth, we are in a position to do the first thing that God gives us to do as believers. God’s first (and only) command to us when we were still unsaved was, "Believe on (trust in) the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." God’s very first command to us once we have become believers is, "...present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members (constituent parts) as instruments (weapons, literally) of righteousness to God." Some of our English versions say, "yield," but "present" is the accurate translation. "Yielding" to God is an Islamic concept, not a scriptural one. Yielding connotes reluctance, while presenting conveys voluntariness. We may yield to someone stronger in violation of our will; as in losing a wrestling match, or complying with an eviction notice, or surrendering in battle. Presenting ourselves to someone is an entirely different matter. This can only be done eagerly, joyously. And this is the first step in the believer’s life, once the believer has learned and accepted the truth of co- crucifixion. We are not only to present ourselves to God, but to present ourselves as new creatures in a new sphere of existence...as alive from the dead. No longer as dead in Adam, but now as alive in Christ! This could not possibly be reluctant surrender, the last thing we would want to do; but eager submission, the thing that, as new creatures, we want to do most.

Now after Know, Reckon, and Present comes Obey. Only the new nature can truly obey the revealed will of God in Scripture, and this is why obey comes last and not first.

Randy could not obey the command to "flee immorality" because he had no foundation for his obedience except the will of the flesh under law. The Law can command the flesh, but gives it no power to obey.

"Do this and live, the Law commands,
But gives me neither feet nor hands.
A better word the gospel brings;
It bids me fly, and gives me wings."

Thank heaven, a friend of Randy’s showed him that not only had Christ died for Randy, but that Randy had died with Christ and risen with Him. Christ living in Randy proved to be the power of a new life. Christ living in and through the believer is totally different from the believer’s vain struggle to conquer sin.

Sex, like fire, is a wonderful servant but a terrible master! Fire can warm your food or burn you in your bed. God meant for the marriage act, that most intimate relationship, to draw a man and a woman closer together than they would otherwise be. When the marriage act is a way of saying mutually, "I love you," it becomes part of a much greater bond. When the act is indulged selfishly, it can put two people farther and farther apart. When it is taken outside of the marriage relationship, it becomes a very destructive force to both of the partners. Water can slake your thirst or drown you. It, too, is a marvelous servant and a horrible master.

The fruit of the Spirit is self control. This includes control of that powerful urge for sexual gratification. The believer who believes in, and practices resurrection life - Christ living through us - can end the slavery of illicit sexual desire.

Promiscuous single people can become chaste just as violent people become peaceful and greedy people become generous...by presenting themselves to God as alive from the dead. Marriage partners can end their sexual selfishness too, and in the same way...by saying ‘no’ to their own wills and ‘yes’ to the will of God. God designed our sexual capacity to be a wonderful thing. When it obeys the believer’s summons it serves wonderfully and well. When it summons the believer and commands the believer’s thoughts and actions, it becomes a cruel and merciless taskmaster. We can trust Christ for sanctification as we did for justification.