LET NOT SIN REIGN

Romans 6:11–14 (ESV) — 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Romans 6:11–14 ESV

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

“This verse exemplifies a well-known pattern in Paul: the indicative precedes the imperative. In grammar an indicative verb describes the way things are. An imperative expresses a command. Paul typically lays an indicative foundation before making an imperative declaration. What Christ has done gives the basis for believers’ identity and therefore their behavior. Their union with Christ enables them.”[1]

I. IMPERATIVE #1

Romans 6:11 (ESV) — 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:11 ESV

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

On the basis of what God reckons to be true about believers through their faith in Christ, Paul calls on readers to “consider” or regard themselves from a particular vantage point. This vantage point has been established in 6:1–10: Christ died to sin and has risen to unending life in God. On this basis, since they are united with Christ through faith believers can—and now are commanded to— “consider” themselves “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”[2]

II. IMPERATIVE #2

Romans 6:12 (ESV) — 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

Romans 6:12 ESV

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

The adage “become what you are” has commonly been employed to set forth the relationship between the indicative and the imperative. …A better maxim is “become what you are becoming” (so Käsemann 1980: 173; Deidun 1981: 239–43; Dunn 1988a: 337; Moo 1991: 338).[3]

1 Timothy 6:12 (ESV) — 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

1 Timothy 6:12 ESV

12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Hebrews 11:24–25 (ESV) — 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Hebrews 11:24–25 ESV

24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

III. IMPERATIVE #3 & 4

Romans 6:13–14 (ESV) — 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Romans 6:13–14 ESV

13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

“…since you are not under law but under grace.”

Under the law alone, man is burdened with standards he cannot meet. Under Christ and grace there is liberation to live in the freedom of full acceptance by God because of Christ’s righteousness. Paul’s confidence, then, lies not in human willpower. It is also not that he thinks God’s law is wrong or no longer in effect. He quotes the OT dozens of times in Romans and states that by faith “we uphold the law” (3:31). Again, as throughout the previous verses, the issue is lordship. “Under grace” signals Christ in command. When he is at the helm, sin is not steering the ship.[4]

Without the gracious work of God as a priority, any attempt to carry out the imperative is doomed to abysmal failure or misguided self-worship.[5]

[1] Yarbrough, R. W. (2020). Romans. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Romans–Galatians: Vol. X (p. 100). Crossway. [2] Yarbrough, R. W. (2020). Romans. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Romans–Galatians: Vol. X (p. 99). Crossway. [3] Schreiner, T. R. (1998). Romans (Vol. 6, p. 321). Baker Books. [4] Yarbrough, R. W. (2020). Romans. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Romans–Galatians: Vol. X (p. 101). Crossway. [5] Schreiner, T. R. (1998). Romans (Vol. 6, p. 321). Baker Books.

Related Media

Related Sermons