6:12. The attitude of mind that a believer has died to sin must be translated into action in his experience. Paul commanded, Therefore do not let sin reign (pres. imper., “do not let sin continue to reign”) as it did before salvation. The present imperative negative can also be translated, “Stop letting sin reign.” When sin reigns in people’s lives and bodies, they obey its evil desires. Sin enslaves (v. 6), making a person subject to his own desires. Epithymia refers to “longings” or “desires,” which may be either good or evil, depending on how the word is used. Here, in the case of sin, the desires are evil. In your mortal body means that sin manifests itself through one’s physical actions in this body. The Greek here stresses that the body is mortal or dying. Perhaps this suggests the foolishness of giving in to the desires of a body that is transitory and decaying. To give in to a dying master is strange indeed.

6:14. God’s design is that sin shall not be your master (kyrieusei; “shall not rule as lord”; cf. v. 9). The reason this should not happen is that you are not under Law, but under grace. Paul had already explained that “the Law was added so that the trespass might increase” (5:20), and elsewhere he declared, “The power of sin is the Law” (1 Cor. 15:56). If believers were still under the Law, it would be impossible to keep sin from exercising mastery. But since believers are “under grace,” this can be done by following Paul’s instructions

Dead, But Alive

The outworking of our union with Christ in his death and new life is that we must “count [ourselves] dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v 11). Why must we count—reckon, or consider—ourselves to be something that we already are? Because being “dead to sin” (ie: “no longer under the dominion of sin”) is like a privilege or a legal right. Though it may be true or in force, a person may not realize or utilize the right/privilege. For example, you may have a trust fund put into your name, but unless you draw on it, it won’t change your actual financial condition. The trust fund should mean the end of your financial troubles, but it won’t have that effect unless it is used.

So we must “count ourselves” dead to sin because unless we act on this great privilege, it will not automatically be realized in our experience. We have to appropriate it, live it, enjoy it.

Here is a vital illustration from Martyn Lloyd-Jones that depicts our condition. It is worth quoting at some length:

“Take the case of those poor slaves in the United States of America about a hundred years ago. There they were in a condition of slavery. Then the American Civil War came, and as the result of that war, slavery was abolished in the United States. But what had actually happened? All slaves, young and old, were given their freedom, but many of the older ones who had endured long years of servitude found it very difficult to understand their new status. They heard the announcement that slavery was abolished and that they were free: but hundreds, not to say thousands, of times in their after-lives and experiences many of them did not realize it, and when they saw their old master coming near them they began to quake and to tremble, and to wonder whether they were going to be sold …

“You can still be a slave experientially, even when you are no longer a slave legally … Whatever you may feel, whatever your experience may be, God tells us here, through his word, that if we are in Christ we are no longer in Adam, we are no longer under the reign and rule of sin … And if I fall into sin, as I do, it is simply because I do not realize who I am … Realize it! Reckon it!”

(Romans chapter 6, pages 25, 28)

Intolerance and Progress

What are the signs that someone is “dead to sin” (v 11)—that they no longer “live in it” (v 2) because it no longer reigns over them (v 12)? It is easy to assume that the “reign of sin” refers to blatant, violent, obvious sins. But a life of outward morality, an interest in Bible study, and an enjoyment of religious duties may all be present while sin still is reigning! The sign is not outward morality.

On the other hand, some people believe that the reign of sin refers to any sinning at all—the sign is sinlessness. In fact, there is a statement in 1 John 3:9 that reads: “No one who is born of God will continue to sin.” But elsewhere in the same letter, John says that no Christian can ever claim to be without sin (1:8), and we will see that Paul still describes Christians as having sin (Romans 7:18). Sin still has power in us.

So to “live in it,” as opposed to being dead to it, probably means something like “to swim in it” or “to breathe its air” or “to let it be the main tenor of your life.” Thus, to “live in sin” would then mean:

1. To tolerate it. Christians may sin, but the sin grieves and repulses them. This grief and distaste are signs that sin does not have dominion. Sin can only completely dupe you if you can’t see it for what it is, or if you don’t care about what it is. This is what John must mean, too—that no Christian will sin knowingly and uncaringly.

2. To make no progress with it. Paul means that Christians can no longer “practice sin habitually” or “unremittingly” without diminishment. When Christians give in to sin, they cannot remain there permanently. The distaste and disease of sin drives them out again.

In summary, Paul is not saying that Christians cannot commit individual acts of sin, nor even that they cannot struggle with habitual sins. He is saying that they cannot go on abiding in the realm of sin. They cannot continue in it deliberately, without distaste or diminishment. They do not live in sin any more; instead, they are “alive to God” (6:11).

Free to Resist

Before you were united with Christ, sin reigned supreme. Now, the Christian is free from its control; but he or she can still cede some measure of power to it. We are free to fight sin, and free to win—in fact, we have been freed to fight and win (see Titus 2:14); but we must still fight.

Paul’s teaching is that, since we can now obey sin or obey God, we must obey God. He urges us not to do two things. First, “do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (Romans 6:12). Second, “do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness” (v 13). Sin cannot rule us, but it is waging war within us; we are not to let the guerilla force of sin, that has been pushed out of our hearts but still fights hard in our bodies, seize control in any way by obeying the desires it plants in us. And sin is still waging war around us; so we are not to offer any part of our body (this likely includes our strengths and abilities as well as physical parts of our body) as its instrument or weapon.

But it would be a mistake to think that the main way we live our new life is simply through looking at sin and its desires and saying to ourselves: Don’t. Our new life in Christ is about living positively and proactively—about Do. So Paul encourages believers to do two things, the converse of those things we are not to do any longer. First, “offer yourselves to God,” to live with and for and like him. Second, “offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (v 13). God’s kingdom reigns within us and expresses itself through us as we obey him.

Not Under Law

In verse 14, Paul switches his language. He repeats that sin “shall not be your master”—is not, and must not, be our ruler—and then we might expect him to say: because you are not under its power. Instead, he continues: “because you are not under law.” Instead, “you are … under grace.” Paul is saying that knowing we are “not under law” helps us break the power of sin in our lives.

This is something we will deal with more in the next chapter, because Paul will go into more detail about his meaning in the second half of Romans 6, but verse 14 shows us that to be “under sin” is the same as being “under law” (compare 5:20–21 with 6:14). It tells us that our freedom from the law as a salvation system is what makes us free from sin’s mastery over us. Why? It is only as we break away from works-righteousness that the power of sin is really broken.

We are righteous in God’s sight. If we remember this, the motives for our sin will be undermined. Individual sinful acts have sinful motivations. When we ask why we are moved to particular sins, we discover that our sins come because we still seek to find our “justification” (our identity, our sense of worthiness) in other things besides God. Thus, to remember that we are completely loved and righteous in Christ undermines and saps our motives and desires for sin.

Need to Know

Through these verses, Paul has repeatedly said we “know” or “believe” (v 3, 6, 8, 9). This shows that any Christian who continues to sin or falls back into sin has failed to “know” or think out the implications of what has happened to him or her in Christ. How can we use this approach on our sin?

We need to realize that we are not to be stoics when it comes to sin: Just say NO! Paul is showing us here that sinning comes not so much from a lack of willpower, as from a lack of understanding our position and a lack of reflection and rejoicing.

So the key is to know, to remember, and to think like this:

■ I am bought with Christ’s blood. If we remember that, we will not act as if we belong to ourselves. We owe Jesus Christ our lives and salvation, and we cannot live in disregard to his will.

■ I have been delivered out of the “dominion” of sin. This means that the Spirit of God is within us, and though sin may seem too powerful to resist, that is not the case. We are children of God, and we can exercise our authority over our sinful desires.

■ I was saved by Christ specifically so I would not sin. Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:14). All the suffering and torture of Jesus was for that purpose; any Christian who gives in to sin is forgetting that. We should ask: Will I defile the heart Christ died to wash; trample on the very purpose of his pain; thwart the very goal of his suffering?

Paul seems to be saying that if you can see and think about these things and still sin, it shows that you don’t understand the gospel, that your “old self” was never crucified, that you are still thinking and looking at life the old way!

So we see that the gospel gives us a new and different incentive for godly living than we had when we were under the law as a system for salvation. When we were using the law to save ourselves, our motives for being obedient were fear and self-confidence. Now, however, we know that Jesus died for us so that we wouldn’t sin. When we realize the purpose of Christ’s death and as we think of it in gratitude, we find a new incentive to be holy! We long to, and we love to, be those who “offer yourselves to God,” because we know we are “those who have been brought from death to life” (Romans 6:13).

Questions for reflection

1. Are there sins you have grown tolerant toward?

Think of a way you struggle not to sin. What would it look like positively to offer that part of your body/character to righteousness?

How will you “know” more clearly and more regularly that you died with Christ?