Romans 6:13a

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness... Romans 6:13 ESV

Our first thought when we read this line should be that we have been given a command directly from Almighty God...what do we know about commands from God?
1. They serve to reveal Him. 
2. They serve to glorify Him. 
3. They are a blessing to us when we keep them! 

This is obviously very serious, and as is true with all of God's Word, this should never be taken lightly...the things of God are never minor. 

So - the command here has to do with what we are doing with our body as God's children. Keep in mind the context here...Paul started this chapter by asking how any child of God could possibly think it's alright to live in a life of sinfulness. The command we read here also stems from a command giving right before it, in verse 12: 

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

What is Paul doing by stacking up these commands? (and there is one more to come at the end of verse 13) - Not only is Paul driving home the importance of repentance, the turning away from sin, but Paul is also using verse 13 as instructions on how to obey the command in verse 12! We have no excuse now...look at it: 

  

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

Paul...how do we make sure we are defeating sin in our lives, not allowing it control?

vs 13a: Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness

(and Paul goes even further in this verse, which we will cover later) 

vs 13b: present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 

Paul will expound on this idea of how we are to present our members a little later in chapter 6. We will look more in depth at how this plays out in our lives at that time. For now, we will look at the first part of verse 13 and how it relates to verse 12, as well as how it ties in to what Paul laid out for us in the first part of chapter 6 as a whole. 

We know, from verse 7, that we have been set free from sin, set free meaning justified. As a result, we are no longer controlled by sin, because sinfulness is no longer aligned with the desires of our heart and mind. Sin can no longer condemn us, because we have been declared righteous through the blood of Christ our Savior! 

This does not mean, however, that we are not vulnerable to sin, that we don't battle the flesh. Though we can no longer find long term satisfaction in the sinfulness that once defined us, our flesh still longs for it...and Satan is always lurking, hoping to convince us that what the flesh wants will provide satisfaction...IT WILL NOT. 

Because we still battle the flesh, we have a decision to make...as God's children are we going to be nonchalant about sin in our lives, trying to turn a blind eye to it, refusing to deal with it? If this is the case, we are in direct opposition to the command in verse 12...if we refuse to take on the sin in our life with the desire to purge it completely, we are giving sin a foothold...remember the analogy of the steep slope? We are putting a foot over the edge, and we are foolish to think we have control. The evil, demonic forces we are dealing with are much more powerful than us as mere humans - they will do with us what they want, and God will allow them some room - especially as discipline...

Paul is telling us in verse 13 that we need to take a look at what we are doing in our day to day life. I posted about this idea of the micro and the macro earlier this year, not realizing how perfectly it fits here. If we look at the macro (purge sin from your life) we can become completely overwhelmed...especially if how we see our self before God has even a small bit of accuracy.

We need to look at the micro, and allow that to shape macro. The micro here is what we are doing with our bodies on a day to day basis. Remember the song O Be Careful Little Eyes? 

O be careful little eyes what you see...
O be careful little ears what you hear...
O be careful little hands what you do...
O be careful little feet where you go...
O be careful little mouth what you say...
There's a Father up above
And He's looking down in love
So, be careful little mouth what you say

This is how we need to approach the command in verse 12 to keep sin from gaining a foothold in our lives! Take each verse, look at the part of the body, and ask yourself if you are protecting that member from sin...through the power of Christ these things ought to be under control, we are in God's hand. Jesus had stern words if we are allowing the members of our body to hinder us:

And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.  Mathew 18:8,9

This doesn't literally mean that we are to be mutilating our body, but that there is no room for a casual attitude towards sin. As God's children, we MUST exhibit control over the members of our body, and we can (Paul will explain as we study the rest of vs 13).

As we pray for God to give us a passion and power to be in control of the members of our body, to purge sin from our lives, refusing to give any control or power to the demonic forces around us, we cannot forget why we are doing this. It is NOT an attempt to earn God's love, and it is NOT an attempt to obtain salvation. Paul is very clear about this.

In the first seven verses Paul explained what has happened to us as God's children - in response to why we shouldn't live in sin. AFTER explaining this, Paul gave us the command to repent and continually be consumed with purging sin completely from our lives in verses 12 and 13 - using the very important word THEREFORE in verse 12.

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

Using the word therefore reveals that we are commanded to do these things not in order to obtain a relationship with God, or eternal life, rather we are commanded to do these things because we have already been adopted into a relationship with God, which is eternal life! 

It's very important that we recognize this order, because we cannot begin to obey these commands of our own power. The only way this purging of sin and control of our members will take place is if we are in a relationship with an Almighty God, who can work His power in us as we pursue Him and submit to Him! When we seek God with a humble, sincere heart, in humility, and He will bless us with power over sin that we never knew existed.

 

Romans 6:12

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

In verse 11, Paul explained that, as a response to the regeneration that God has worked in us, we ought to consider, or see ourselves, as dead to sin and alive to God.  Here, in verse 12, Paul explains further how this 'being dead to sin' ought to play out in our lives.

Keep in mind that these commands are very serious...they are about God getting glory for the powerful miracle that He has performed in the life of every single one of His children. We don't obey these commands as a way to earn or purchase something from God, but to reveal God, in all of His power and glory, to those around us.

When we refuse to pursue God, and instead embrace the sin that used to condemn us, we are in a terrible place. Two tragic results of our embracing sin:

ONE: When we embrace sin, we rob God of the glory He deserves, by hiding His presence in us from the world. Robbing God of His glory is not something He takes lightly. In Acts 12:22-23, King Herod was struck down and killed by an angel of the Lord...why? For one specific reason: "because he did not give God the glory" That is a pretty powerful warning!

We all fail to give God the glory like we should, and the fact that He doesn't strike us down immediately like He did Herod proves He is full of grace and mercy. As God's children, we dare not embrace sin - NO! Instead, we need to be aware that we are guilty of robbing God of His glory through our sinfulness, and repent! This repentance includes pursuing a life that displays 'death to sin'.

TWO: When we embrace sin, we give sin power. This is what Paul talks about in Romans 6:12: 

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

Paul, leading off this command with the words 'let not', indicates that we have a choice to make...will we or won't we let sin reign? Paul says, since we have died to sin, do not let it reign.

What does Paul mean by not letting sin reign? - I think this is an important question since we are commanded not to do it. To reign means to rule over, like a king. We know that, since we have died with Christ, sin can no longer control us or condemn us - therefore any power that sin has in our lives is allowed by us. Paul is telling us, commanding us, not to give sin any power in our lives.

Giving sin any power in our lives is very, very dangerous. Satan would have us think that a little sin, sin that doesn't seem to have any lasting affects, is not a huge deal. Satan will deceive by convincing us that, by only giving in a little to sin, we are still in control...we can stop the flesh before the sin gets out of hand. This is not absolutely true...Paul says in Ephesians 6:12:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

When we embrace even a little sin in our lives, we give power to these forces that are far more powerful than we are as humans...and as humans, we have no power whatsoever to stop them. This analogy came to mind as I thought about this:

Picture yourself in the Rocky Mountains. When one visits the mountains, there is always an element of awareness while there because of the ever present steep, dangerous slopes. Of themselves, these slopes have no power to harm us. The only way they can influence what happens to us is if we allow them to by getting too close...and by getting too close, we not only allow the slopes power to harm us, but we lose any control of stopping them.

That analogy is 'speaking in human terms' as Paul says, but paints a clear picture:

When we give Satan's powerful, evil forces a foothold in our life (which would be the embracing of any sin), we are allowing them power...power beyond our control to stop them. These evil forces have the power to cloud our minds, causing us to justify actions that hinder our relationship with God (who initially freed us from these forces), and robbing Him of His glory.

Paul says here in verse 12 that if we embrace sin rather than die to it, it will reign in our lives - making us obey its passions. We do not have the power to overcome this evil...only God does...and He did, making that powerfully evident through the death and resurrection of His Son!

It's painfully obvious that we all struggle with sin, especially the longer we walk with our Lord, and He reveals who we really are in light of who He really is. BUT we don't have to embrace this sin...we don't have to let it reign, we don't have to allow it any power in our lives. Since we are now living to God in Jesus Christ, we have the power to continually move away from sin, destroying its power and influence in our lives, glorifying God as His power, grace, and mercy is revealed through us!

God has set us free from the bondage that was our sinful, lost state - completely controlled by Satan's evil forces. Spiritually, as His children, we have entered into eternal life - that cannot be taken away. If this is true, as the Bible promises it is, why would we ever think its ok to give our mortal bodies over to sinful bondage again? Why would we let sin reign in our mortal bodies, making us obey its passions?

Father, cause us to fix our eyes on YOU...for YOUR glory! Every day, remind us of Your command...to die to sin and live to You - so that our relationship with You would not be hindered, that You will be glorified through us!!!