Romans 6:12-23 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Romans 6:12-23. Let’s go!
Romans 6:12-13 (ESV)
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.
On verses 12-13: In Romans 6:1-11 Paul was saying that we don’t want to use God’s grace as an excuse to go back to sinning because our very reason for believing in Jesus was that we could experience a new life in Jesus. With that in mind, Paul says in verse 12, “don’t let sin therefore reign in your body” (v12), for we are under new management, Jesus Christ. Jesus has dethroned sin as the master of our lives. So instead of offering ourselves to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, we want to offer ourselves to God as instruments for righteousness. In other words, we’re not living for sin anymore, but we’re living for God.
Romans 6:14 (ESV)
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
On verse 14: What does the first half of this verse have to do with the second half? What does “sin having no dominion over you” have to do with you and me not being “under law but under grace”? When you’re living under law, i.e. when you put your hope in your own ability to keep God’s commands, that’s when sin can really start to have dominion over you. That’s because sin and living under law have one thing in common: they are both at their root self-centered. But when you live under grace (that is, when you live remember that it is only because of Jesus Christ and His undeserved kindness that we are saved) the focus is not on yourself but on God, and thus you give God, rather than sin, room to reign in your life.
Romans 6:15-16 (ESV)
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
On verses 15-16: Here Paul gives another reason why we don’t want to use God’s grace as an excuse to keep on sinning (the first reason we summarized with verses 12-13): by continuing to sin, we are effectively offering ourselves as slaves to sin, when in fact we belong to God.
Let me put it this way. Remember that slavery in Paul’s time was a form of employment. If I am working for a certain boss, it would be wrong for me to secretly go and work for my boss’ competitor even while my own boss is paying me to work. In the same way, as a Christian, your boss is God, God’s competitor is Satan and both God and Satan are in the business of gaining souls. God and Satan are competitors, enemies in fact. How wrong would it be for me as a Christian (whose boss is God) to simultaneously work for my boss’ competitor, Satan. But that’s exactly what I do when I go on sinning deliberately. That’s another reason why we should not go on sinning intentionally even if we know that God is forgiving: If you go on sinning intentionally, you’re betraying your boss.
Also, by the words “which leads to death” in verse 16, Paul is alluding to a third reason why we should not treat God’s grace as an excuse to sin more. We’ll cover that third reason when we look at verses 19-23 below.
Romans 6:17-18 (ESV)
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
On verses 17-18: Verse 17 tells us that when we trust in Jesus we undergo a change of heart such that deep down we really do want to please God. We have, in the words of verse 17, “become obedient from the heart”. In addition to a change of heart, we also undergo a change of employment where we are no longer legally under sin’s control; rather we serve a new boss, who is Jesus, our righteousness, and thus we are now “slaves of righteousness” (v18).
Romans 6:19-23 (ESV)
19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
On verses 19-23: Here Paul gives us a third reason why we don’t want to treat God’s grace as an excuse to keep on sinning: it’s because of what persistent sinning turns us into. When we treat God’s grace as an excuse to sin, we become controlled by lawlessness (that is, a calloused heart where we live as if there is no law) (v19), shame (v21) and death (“for the wages of sin is death” – v23). But when we offer ourselves to God as His servants, the fruit we bear is the opposite: we experience “sanctification” (v22) (i.e. we become more like Christ in our values, our perspective, our character and our conduct) and “eternal life” (v23). The fact is that continuing to sin versus offering ourselves to God will lead to two very different destinies and destinations.
Father, thank You that I am under new management now. I’m done serving my old employer, sin. I’m retained full-time to work for Jesus, my righteousness. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
