Romans
6:12-14 (NASB)
12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that
you obey its lusts, 13and do not go on presenting the members of
your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to
God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness to God. 14For sin shall not be master over you, for
you are not under law but under grace.
The Power Principle
As we have
observed throughout our study of this important chapter, the focus of our life
is not to be on the individual sins that we are struggling with. Those are like status updates on what nature
we are abiding in. Just as a person with
a cold may cough, but the cough isn’t what is wrong with them, the cough is a
symptom of what is wrong. Treating the
cough with a spray or some other medicine may feel good and provide some
satisfaction; however, these things don’t treat the real problem. This theme and idea persists and repeats
itself throughout this passage and throughout the Bible. The pertinent question remains: “Where are
you looking, at yourself or at the Lord Jesus Christ?”
Romans 6:12
12Therefore do not
let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
Therefore
What is the “therefore” pointing back to? Clearly it is pointing back to the issues
addressed in Romans 6:1-11 which we notice is still answering that all
important question, “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound?” Paul immediately recoiled at the very idea,
but there is more to this story. Paul
explains that it isn’t just “because Paul says so.” There is a perfectly good
reason why believers should not continue in sin…that reason? It doesn’t make any sense for the believer to
continue in sin! It is like a duck driving
a car, it isn’t safe and it just doesn’t make any sense!
Don’t let it be your ruler!
This is in the
imperative. It is a command. Paul is not mincing words. This word is related to the word for king and
kingdom in the Greek. The idea is “do
not let the Sin nature be your ruler!”
Just as a king demands absolute submission, the sin nature gets our
absolute submission when we walk in the flesh.
The symptoms of individual sins are the outcome of letting the Sin
nature rule our outlook, our thoughts, our words and our actions. The place of this occurrence is in our mortal
flesh. Domain that our sin nature
controls is this body and all that it does.
The eyes, ears, hands, feet, nose and mouth. When we are abiding in the sin nature the sin
nature controls all of these things, and even if they “look good” on the
outside, before God they are only sin.
Forward or backward
There is a note to
be made about the order here. It is not
“don’t obey the lusts in your mortal body and you will not be reigned by the
Sin nature” it is the opposite. Once
again, attempting to control our sin nature by the symptoms is never going to
get further than skin deep. Sure we may
do more good things, and fewer bad things, by our estimation. But God is after the good that He wants to
create in us.
Obey what you want…
So our sins don’t
matter? Far from it! It is not a question of what our sins
mean. Anytime we find ourselves walking
in sin we must confess (agree with God that our actions are sinful) as 1 John
1:9 tells us and receive his forgiveness, which occurred at the cross. However, the question is what are you going
to do. If a person is coughing wildly
and puts a new band-aid on every time they cough will that ever help them get
better? Clearly not! Trying to treat a sin, or sin pattern, by the
attempt to use discipline or “grit” always ends up with loss and despair. Realizing that you have a sin nature, which
is never going to truly change, will bring us to a better place. Confessing that we have been walking in the
sin nature and fixing our eyes on Jesus is what will help.
Romans 6:13
and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin
as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Presently Actively
Here we see the command not to present your members is in
the present tense. The idea is that this
is a day by day moment by moment possibility.
The reality is that until a person puts their faith in Jesus they could
only every present their members to the sin nature. They could only produce what is, in God’s
eyes, unrighteousness. Even if what they
are doing is most admirable. The very
fact that is connected to the motivation and source of the sin nature makes it
unacceptable to God to be called righteous and must therefore be
“unrighteous”. So this command to stop
presenting our bodies to the control of the sin nature is a new prerogative of
the Christian. This is a choice that we
could never make before we became a believer in Jesus Christ. This is something to keep in mind when we see
non-believers going deeper and deeper into sin (whether that sin is
self-righteous legalism, or lascivious activity), or when they are not willing
to put their faith in Jesus Christ. You
must be fully clear on the reality that the idea of another operating system
outside of the sin nature is too foreign to imagine for them. Almost like a deep water fish could perhaps
conceive of the concept of what it means to be “dry” but only as a distant
exercise of imagination.
The Precious
“Presenting”
Here we have the idea of offering something, our resources,
in service to something else. When a
soldier gets into a new town he reports to his commanding officer and says
something to the effect of “Private John Doe, reporting for duty” and the
commanding officer then gives him his orders, and the soldier obeys. This is exactly what we do on a moment by
moment basis. We looked last week at the
process of abiding in Christ as Romans 6 presents:
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So the first step is knowing what occurred when we put our
faith in Jesus Christ. How we were
identified with Him fully in His death burial and resurrection (ascension and
seating also, though those are not mentioned here). The second step is to put it down as
truth. To rely on that fact as a
trustworthy statement of reality and realize we are no longer under any
relational obligation to the sin nature.
It is a deposed dictator and no longer needs any loss. Finally, we stop presenting ourselves to the
old dictator for service.
The members of our body (our limbs, our mouths, our minds,
our eyes, etc.) are no longer to be in the service of the sin nature. You see, Paul gives the reason for the
believer to sin no longer and it is not a law based on fear of punishment but
because it is illogical for us. It is
silly, crazy, and insane for the believer to live in sin. How many insane believers are there out there
today simply because they don’t understand the message of Romans 6-8?
Not this but that
As Paul’s pattern has been thus far,
he tells them how not to live, and then offers the correction. So we are not to be pawns for the sin nature
to the end of unrighteousness, but rather, day by day, moment by moment, be
presenting ourselves to the God of the universe. This is an every moment attitude or
choice. It is a function of the will by
which the believer is now able to be in constant contact and fellowship with
the God of the universe. And then we get
some exciting news!
Righteousness,
REAL Righteousness!
The believer is now able to do
something that he or she was never able to do before. When the believer, understanding his
co-crucifixion with Christ, and consequent death to the sin nature, believes in
His new life in Christ, and presents himself to God He is able to produce real
righteousness. The believer is at last
able to perform good works that God rewards.
This is what Paul was talking about when He penned Ephesians 2:8-10:
8For by grace you have been saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not
as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Once we understand what has been done, entirely by God’s
grace, and appropriate it through faith we are able to live out the life of
Christ within us. These “good works
which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them” are not like bowling
pins set up throughout our day, but is rather the life and character of Christ
lived out in us, every single moment of every single day. The believer is, of course, still able to
produce works which to the world seem “good” but are totally motivated by the
flesh, and those works God cannot reward.
He can only reward, and accept the good works that occur as we rest in
Him, that come from Him as the source.
Romans 6:14
For sin
shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Sin
shall not be your master
This is in the future tense. Going forward sin is not to be your master
anymore. This word “to master” is
related to the word that is often translate “Lord” in the New Testament. This word was used for a slave master. The sin nature is no longer to be the abiding
principle, or the controlling force, by which we live our lives. Then Paul says something that much of the
Christian world rejects outright.
Back
to basics
Paul started chapter 6 anticipating
the exasperated legalists question, “If people aren’t ruled by law they will do
whatever they want and sin all the time!”
However, we see why sin shall not be our master is because we are no
longer under the law. The law of Moses
was a whole life system. It dictated
what a person was to do in nearly every situation. How much they were to give, and what times
they were supposed to celebrate, what situations that they needed to offer
sacrifices, and how to “atone” for those sins through the sacrificial
system. We are no longer under this system
of law as a principle. Something new has
come:
You
Are Under Grace
The system that believers in Christ
are to live under is the system of Grace.
Where the Law said, “Do this and you shall live!” Under grace God says,
“I have given you life, now how will you choose to live?” The person under law lives under the constant
fear of punishment and denial of blessing.
The person under Grace is permanently, infinitely blessed in the
Heavenly Places in Christ, in whom we are seated (Ephesians 1:3). Under Law a person is continually focused
upon themselves, hoping that they are within the boundaries. Under Grace a person is continually focused
upon Christ our Savior and looking to him every single moment.
Conclusion
In the section that follows Paul spells
out again how incredibly important the distinction between Law and Grace
is. Paul points out repeatedly how this
new life and relationship with God through Jesus Christ is so radically
different than any superficial changes that can be made under law. The entire next chapter (Romans 7) describes
the frustration of the grace saved believer if he attempts to continue to live
under law, rather than abide in Christ by faith through Grace. But the repeated point is the same: God has
taken away the hindrances of our sins (acts of unrighteousness) by paying for
them at the cross. He took care of our
sin nature, by identifying us with Christ at the cross, thereby separating us
from the demands of the sin nature. He
took care of the Law as a medium of relationship to God and replaced it with
the very life of Christ lived out in us.
Changing what we do, by changing what we are. And that makes all the difference!
GROW!
Romans 6:15-18
Romans
6:15-18 (NASB)
15What then? Shall we sin
because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16Do
you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for
obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in
death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17But thanks be
to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart
to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18and having
been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
I’m
a slave…
Paul now continues with the
illustration of slavery which he started working with in verse 12 (“do not let
sin reign [as a slave master] in your
mortal body”). However, some comments
need to be made about the Roman institution of Slavery. When Americans read about slavery we
immediately think of the kind of slavery that existed in America. While there were certain similarities, there
are far more differences. The modern view
of slavery and human trafficking isn’t the same as the ancient view. First of all, slavery in the Roman world was
not tied to any race or class. Any
person could become a slave. There were
slaves of many kinds and having different skills and abilities. In Hebrew, Greek and Roman cultures there
were allowances made for someone who wanted to be a slave permanently in a
given household to do so.
People became slaves one of a number
of ways. One could become a slave by
being unable to pay a debt. One could be
born into slavery. One could be sold
into slavery by his or her father. Many
became slaves because they were conquered in battle. We have records of slaves of every level, and
slaves were valued based on the skills that they possessed. We even have records of slaves that owned
slaves. In many ways the ancient
institution of slavery bore some similarities to our modern system of
employment.
There were, however, some striking
differences. The will of the slave was
totally sold out to the will of their master.
The law demanded strict obedience and offered very little protection of
the preferences and virtues of the slave.
Slaves could certainly be freed, and as in the case of the slave who
became one due to indebtedness, would often be once they paid their debt. Slavery was a regular part of Roman life, and
there was not the same stigma of shame associated with slavery in that
culture. Some have estimated as much as
1/3 of the Roman empire was comprised of slaves at the time of the New
Testament.
Paul makes clear in verse 19 that he
is borrowing this analogy, though it is imperfect. In Christ we are free, truly free. But we find that the believer can never be
free of an operating principle. The
picture being painted here is the reality that everyone is a slave to who they
chose to obey and freedom is the ability to choose not to follow the tyrannical
dictator of the Sin Nature (“the Sin”
in Romans 6) and choose the New Nature within us, submitting to its desires
that bring life and peace and continued growth in the Lord.
Romans
6:15
What then? Shall we sin because we
are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
Coming
back to the point
Paul spent the last fourteen verses
answering the anticipated question: “If all our sins are and will be forgiven
should we not just sin all we want?”
Paul began by explaining to them that the reason why we would not live
in sin is that it makes no sense for us to do so. Having been totally made anew in Christ it is
shear madness for us to continue to live as if we were still trapped helplessly
in our own sin. Now he anticipates a
different question: “Since we aren’t under law anymore, shall we sin all we
want?”
The
Evil Legalist
Paul told them that their newfound
freedom from the sin nature exists because they are not under law but under
grace (Romans 6:14). Paul knows that
this attachment to a law is deep seated in the heart of man. We want a standard, we want a set of rules,
we want boundaries. We want to be able
to put our quarter in and know exactly how many gumballs to expect. But this is not the nature of our new life in
Christ. Paul is not yet finished
explaining this and will spend the bulk of Chapter 7 specifically dealing with
the believer who continues to try and live by the law, though he is under
grace.
The legalist’s argument, however,
never changes: Always assuming that leaving the law will result in absolute
license and chaos. As Paul will show
this is a ready denial of the power and magnitude of what Christ did at the
cross. And to think that we would
continue to live in Sin only shows a lack of understanding of what happened to
each of us the moment we put our faith in Christ and were identified with Him
in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seating at the right hand of
the Father.
Certainly
Not!
Paul responds with his
charictaristic, “Don’t even let the idea be conceived of!” or “Don’t even think
it!” This is an out and out extreme denial of the very idea. Once again, Paul is taking the argument to an
entirely new level. We must understand
clearly: the Legalist is undervaluing the very power of God and Christ within
us. Paul is not just saying “Nuh-UH!”
the reasons he gives are so much greater, and open up a new world of freedom
and life that the believer could never know apart from Christ. Paul begins another logical argument based on
the power of the Christ-life within us.
Romans
6:16
Do you not know that when you present
yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom
you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in
righteousness?
Do
you not know
Here again we see Paul appealing to
their knowledge. He is suggesting that
this is something that should be plain.
Again this emphasizes the reality that we can and do know what the Lord
is doing in each of us by the Scriptures.
Present
yourselves
Here, again, is this concept of
presenting ourselves. We show up each
day presenting ourselves as a soldier presents himself for duty. We make this presentation each moment of each
day, either presenting ourselves to God for His Spirit to work in and through
us, or presenting ourselves to our Sin Nature (our old master) to continue to
consume us. The idea is plain, and the
logic is embarrassingly clear: Paul is saying “whoever you obey is your
master.” Even if our certificate of freedom says that we are no longer beholding
to the sin nature if we obey it we are, in actuality the slave of the sin
nature. Your freedom means nothing to
you if you continue to live like a slave!
Why do we do this? There are
probably many reasons, but here are some ideas:
1) Not knowing we are free. So
many believers think that their job in this life is to do their best at trying
to stop sinning. They play by the sin
natures rules and obey it even while trying to avoid it. They show up for work every morning and
continue to present themselves because they don’t understand the power of what
Christ did.
2) Preferring the comfort of the rules. This is related to the
last. Because they don’t understand the
primacy of the relationship into which we have been brought by the precious
blood of Christ, they continue to try to operate under a legalistic view of God
who will reward them if they follow the rules, and punish them if they break
them. Whether this takes the expression
of legalism or license the end result is the same: Selfishness.
3) We forget. We often let the world, the flesh and the devil deceive
us into believing that walking in the sin nature, and doing things its way is
the only way to get things done effectively.
4) We lack faith. We know the truth, we understand it, and we just don’t
trust it.
Results
There is an interesting reality that
needs to be made clear. The difference
must be understood between results, or consequences, and punishment. Punishment is the idea of justice as related
to the law. The idea is that God
punishes sin, in order to appease His justice.
Consequences, or results, are quite different. The punishment for sin was paid fully and
completely at the cross forevermore. The
penalty was paid and that was the imperative need for understanding of
Justification (or Phase 1 of Salvation) that we portrayed in Romans 3-5. However, while there is no punishment left
for Sin (Jesus paid it all) there are consequences for choosing to walk in
sin. What is the consequence, for the
believer, of living by the power of the Sin Nature?
Death
As we have seen repeated in Scripture
death always means separation. We have
seen the reality that once we have put our faith in Jesus Christ we are
unchangeably, fully, and completely saved.
We have committed ourselves to Jesus Christ and He cannot fail. Romans 5:1-10 repeatedly emphasized the
reality that once a person enters into salvation God takes the responsibility
to confirm him or her to the end. The
death (separation) being discussed here is a loss of fellowship. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ we are
said to be born again. We are adopted
and placed, irreversibly as adult sons and daughters into the family of
God. That relationship is eternal, just
as no matter what you do you will always be the child of your father and mother
you are now eternally a “child of God.”
(John 1:12) However, just as with
our physical parents, while we can have periods where we do not have fellowship
with them. While walking after the sin
nature does not sever the relationship with God, the fellowship is temporarily
disconnected. Fellowship is restored by
the process of confession (agreeing with God that we were walking in sin) as
illustrated in 1 John 1:9.
Obedience
Resulting in Righteousness
The other option that is available to
the believer is simply unavailable to the non-believer and that is that we can
now abide in the new nature and produce, by His power and His life, real actual
righteousness. The reality is that we
can now live by the power of Christ’s life within us and everything we do will
be reward-able, every action, every word and ever breath will be the work of
Christ within us, and thus be the very thing that He wants to see in us. Far from a “to do list” that we can succeed
or fail at. This is a joyous reality
that should, logically, characterize every moment of the believer’s life.
Romans
6:17-18
17But thanks be to God
that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that
form of teaching to which you were committed, 18and having been
freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Thanks
be to God
Notice that God is the One who
stepped in to correct the situation.
Gratitude is the great motivator of the Christian life. Not hard work, not discipline, not practice,
but gratitude. If we rightfully
understand what God has done we will gladly rest and praise Him. If we are acting out of a secure and firm
knowledge of what it is to be in Christ then we will display His life and
righteousness as naturally as a healthy apple tree grows fruit. The word “thanks” is intimately related in
Greek for the word for “grace” or “free gift.”
Here again we see man bringing his inability and sin to the table, and
God bringing the gift of salvation. And
what is the only proper response to a gift?
Thanksgiving – Gratitude.
You
were
In describing our previous position,
we were helplessly beholding to our sin nature.
We were slaves to sin with no hope of redemption of our own power or
work. Salvation came by way of the gift
of God.
You
became obedient
Our obedience here is outlined first
as being “from the heart” (NIV: “wholeheartedly”). The phrase “the heart” is the most
comprehensive term for the immaterial part of a human. It includes the mind, the will, the soul, the
personality. It is the seat of the
desires and the reasoning center of the human being. This obedience was the response to the gospel
message in accepting Christ’s payment for us, and the agreement that we were
not able to save ourselves. This whole
hearted obedience takes as its object the next phrase.
That
form of teaching to which you were committed
The word “form” here translates the
Greek word tupos which is where we
get the English word “type”. The picture
that it conveys is a sort of stamp that would be set on something and then
struck to make the same impression every time.
This form of teaching to which we were committed is the teaching of
salvation by Grace through faith. As we
have seen already in Romans 6:1-14, that Grace is not just our “get out of Hell
free” card, it is to be our operating principle of existence for all things
thereafter. We began in faith in what
Christ has done in the cross, we continue in faith in what God did in
resurrecting Him from the dead. At the
end of all things we will see that everything that was good or worthwhile in
our lives was what we allowed Him to do in and through us, and anytime we tried
to get in the way we goofed everything up.
A
New Relationship
Having placed our faith in Christ we
were forever freed from the demands of the sin nature and give a new basis of
operating, which is the Holy Spirit within us.
We are now given the option, every moment, to rest and abide in the sin
nature or our rightful master – Jesus Christ.
Each of these choices, as we have seen, has consequences. The consequences of walking with Jesus are
life, peace, joy and the other fruit of the Spirit. The consequences of abiding in our sin nature
is broken fellowship with God, selfishness, hurting those we care about and
lack of growth in Christ. The choice is
ours to make each day. 
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