Romans Chapter 6 Part Two

Romans 6:12

 Yield

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. This is plainly saying that we must get the flesh under the control of the spirit.
Our mortal body is the only remaining repository where sin finds the believer vulnerable. The brain and its thinking processes are part of the body and thus tempt our souls with its sinful lusts.
As I said before, our will, will be controlled by the spirit or the flesh. If the lusts of the flesh control you, then you do not belong to God.

Sin enslaves (Rom_6:6), 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. 

 Romans 6:13

Actually this verse repeats the command of Rom_6:12 in more specific terms. Do not offer (lit., “do not continue to present,” or “stop presenting”) the parts of your body (lit., “your members”; cf. Rom_6:19) to sin, as instruments (hopla, frequently in military context, “weapons” or “armor”; cf. Rom_13:12; 2Co_6:7; 2Co_10:4) of wickedness (adikias, “unrighteousness” in contrasting parallelism with righteousness, later in Rom_6:13). On the contrary, in sharp contrast, Paul commanded, offer (aorist imper., “present once and for all”; also used in Rom_6:19) yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life (lit., “as if being alive out from dead ones”; cf. Joh_5:24) and offer the parts of your body (lit., “and your members”) to Him as instruments (hopla) of righteousness (dikaiosynēs). Yield or present refers to a decision of the will. Before sin can have power over a believer, it must first pass through his will. Our members are the parts of our physical body, the headquarters from which sin operates in the believer.
Notice here, that it is in our power to control this.  There is a war constantly between the flesh and the spirit. We must not yield to temptation. One of the easiest ways to not be tempted is to be reading and studying God's word every day and stay busy.
Ephesians chapter 6 is a good Scripture to study to learn how to battle for the Lord, verse 10 is good place to begin.

Instruments of righteousness are tools for accomplishing that which violates God’s holy will and law. A related passage is Paul’s exhortation, “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices… to God” (Rom_12:1). Because they were once dead in sin (cf. Eph_2:1) but have been given new life (Rom_6:11) believers ought to live for God. Their bodies should be used not for sin (Rom_6:12) or unrighteousness (Rom_6:13) but for promoting righteousness (cf. “bodies” and “body”; Rom_7:5, Rom_7:23; 1Co_6:15).

Romans 6:14

God’s design is that sin shall not be your master (kyrieusei; “shall not rule as lord”; cf. Rom_6:9). The reason this should not happen is that you are not under Law, but under grace. Sin must be able to exercise control in our bodies or Paul’s admonition becomes unnecessary. But sin does not have to reign there; so the apostle expresses his confidence that those who are Christ’s will not allow it to.

Not under law but under grace: This does not mean God has abrogated His moral law. The law is good, holy and righteous, but it cannot be kept, so it curses. Since it cannot assist anyone to keep God’s moral standard, it can only show the standard and thus rebuke and condemn those who fail to keep it.

Grace requires more than the law. The law means following a set of rules, but in grace the desires of the heart can even be sin. The Christian under grace must walk in newness of life. Our walk must be in the Light of Jesus.

John 12:35-36 "Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." "While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them."

Jesus is the Light, read chapter 1 of John about Jesus as the Light.

Paul had already explained that “the Law was added so that the trespass might increase” (Rom_5:20), and elsewhere he declared, “The power of sin is the Law” (1Co_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.

Romans 6:15-16

Serve

The mention that believers are “under grace” (Rom_6:14) raised another aberrant idea that the apostle refuted. The question is, Shall we sin because we are… under grace instead of the Law? The Greek aorist (past) tense here may have the sense of committing an act of sin now and then, in contrast to living a life of sin as stated in Rom_6:1. Paul’s response was the same as before (Rom_6:2): By no means! (mē genoito; cf. comments on Rom_3:4) The believer is no longer under the law as a condition of acceptance with God, an impossible condition to meet and one designed only to show man his sinfulness, but under grace, which enables him to truly fulfill the law’s righteous requirements.

As we said above, grace requires God's laws to be written on the heart. The heart will be judged. Jesus said, if you lust in your heart for a woman, you have committed adultery already. Grace received is not a license to sin.

Again he proceeded to explain why that idea cannot be accepted. He asked, Don’t you know (“perceive intuitively” a self-evident truth; cf. Rom_6:9) that in effect there is no middle ground between being a slave to sin and a slave to obedience to God. As the Lord Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters.… You cannot serve both God and money” (Mat_6:24; Luk_16:13). Paul also pointed out that being a slave to sin leads to death (cf. Rom_6:21, Rom_6:23). This is not physical death only or even spiritual death only, but death in general as the natural consequence and inevitable concomitant of sin (cf. Gen_2:17). On the other hand being a slave to obedience (to God and His gospel obviously) leads to righteousness (again righteousness in the general sense as equivalent to eternal life or glorification). We cannot call Jesus Christ our Lord unless we obey Him.  If he is our Lord, we are under His command. 

I Peter 1:13-16 "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;" "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:" "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; (or conduct)" "Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy."

We choose who to follow. We have a free will and we will to follow Jesus or the lust of the flesh.

Death is the normal consequence of sin (which is disobeying God); righteousness is the normal consequence of obeying God and living for Him.

Romans 6:17-18

This discussion reminded the Apostle Paul of what the grace of God had already accomplished in his readers’ lives and he burst forth in praise. Before they responded to the gospel they had been slaves to sin, but they wholeheartedly (lit., “out from hearts,” thus inwardly and genuinely, not merely externally) obeyed (cf. “obedience” in 1Pe_1:2) the form of teaching to which they were entrusted. Everyone, before they came to Jesus was the servants of sin.

I John 1:10: "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

We read in chapter 5 of Romans that all men have sinned.  Thank God we do not have to remain in sin.  We who believe in Christ have taken on the righteousness of Jesus Christ and no longer serve sin.

“Form of doctrine”: In the Greek, the word “form” is a word for a mold such as a craftsman would use to cast molten metal. Paul’s point is that God pours His new children into the mold of divine truth. New believers have an innate and compelling desire to know and obey God’s Word.

Hearing the teaching of God’s Word, they committed themselves to those truths. That commitment was evidenced by their response to the gospel and their being baptized. The result was that they have been set free from sin and have become slaves (past tense in Gr.) to righteousness (cf. Rom_6:22). Because we are in Christ and He died in our place, we are counted dead with Him. This is the fundamental premise of chapter 6 and Paul spends the most of this chapter explaining and supporting it.

We read of this change from sin to righteousness in II Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new."

This is positional and must be manifested in daily experience, but it demonstrates again that there is no middle ground. Christians are not to give in to sin because they are dead to it and no longer slaves of it. It is totally contrary to God’s plan for slaves of righteousness to become enslaved to sin!

Romans 6:19

To talk of being “enslaved” to righteousness and to God is not correct in one sense, Paul wrote, because God does not hold His children in bondage. But the word “slavery” appropriately describes an unregenerate person’s relationship to sin and to Satan. So Paul used “slavery” for contrasting the relationship of the believer as well. Before developing this idea further, the apostle in effect apologized for its use — I put this in human terms (lit., “I am speaking in human fashion”) — because you are weak in your natural selves (lit., “your flesh”). Apparently Paul felt that his readers’ spiritual perception was feeble so he used this terminology from human experience. Then he basically repeated the ideas of Rom_6:16-17. Unsaved Romans had offered their bodies to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness (lit., “lawlessness”; cf. Rom_1:24-27; Rom_6:13). They had voluntarily become enslaved! But Paul exhorted believers now to offer themselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness (perfect holiness, as the end of the process [cf. v. 22]) in contrast with their former impurity. The NKJV begins this scripture thus: “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh”. Paul use of the master/slave analogy was an accommodation to their humanness and their difficulty in grasping divine truth.

“Your members” as was explained in v.13 are the parts of our physical body, the headquarters from which sin operates in the believer.

“Iniquity unto iniquity” or like a vicious animal, sin’s appetite only grows when it is fed.

Romans 6:20-23

Paul once again stated that slavery to sin and to righteousness is mutually exclusive (cf. Rom_6:13, Rom_6:16). But he went on to indicate the superiority of being enslaved to righteousness and God. The benefit (this Gr. word is usually trans. “fruit”) of enslavement to sin was that it produced things that a believer is now ashamed of. Paul is explaining, here, he is making this just as clear as he can so that they will understand.  He is not just speaking in parables or even spiritually, but literally so those in the flesh can understand. Sin occurs through lust of the flesh. 

“Ye were free from righteousness”: Meaning spiritually dead in sins and trespasses.

 But even worse, “the end of those things is death” (lit. trans.). We read in James 1:15 "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." 

We read specifically in Corinthians, some of the fruit of unrighteousness that will keep a person from inheriting the kingdom of God. 

I Corinthians 6:9-10 "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind," "Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor Extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."

 Responding to the gospel by faith and accepting Jesus Christ completely reverses things for an individual. He is now… set free from sin (cf. Rom_6:18) and has been enslaved to God with the result that he has the benefit of holiness (cf. Rom_6:19), the subject of chapters 6-8.

The sinful life gives no benefit (Rom_6:21), but salvation gives the benefit of a holy, clean life (Rom_6:22). Whereas the “end” (telos) or result of sin is death (Rom_6:21), the “end” of salvation is eternal life. A servant obeys his master. Obedience is better than sacrifice. God wants our loyalty and our love.

Ephesians 5:9 "(For the fruit of the Spirit [is] in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)"

All of this is saying to us, that if Jesus is living inside of us, we will walk through this life as if Jesus was taking the steps Himself.  Self will be no more; Christ-in-me shall rule. If we do not give up, we will inherit eternal life.

Galatians 6:9 "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

“Holiness”: The benefit of being slaves to God is sanctification, the outcome of which is eternal life.

Eternal life is a gift that cannot be earned (cf. Eph_2:8-9; Tit_3:5).

Paul then summarized these contrasts. The wages (the Gr. word opsōnia originally meant a soldier’s pay) of sin is death (eternal death here, in contrast with “eternal life” in Rom_6:23). This death is eternal separation from God in hell, in which unbelievers suffer conscious torment forever (Luk_16:24-25). This is the wages they have earned and deserve because of their sin (cf. Rom_5:12; Rom_7:13). By contrast, the gift (charisma, “grace-gift”) of God is eternal life (cf. Joh_3:16, Joh_3:36).

This verse describes two inexorable absolutes:

1.      Spiritual death is the paycheck for every man’s slavery to sin; and

2.      Eternal life is a free gift God gives undeserving sinners who believe in His Son.

Three times in this chapter Paul wrote that sin results in death (Rom_6:16, Rom_6:21, Rom_6:23). But believers have been set free from sin (Rom_6:18, Rom_6:22) and are no longer slaves to it (Rom_6:6, Rom_6:20) but are “slaves to righteousness” (Rom_6:16, Rom_6:18-19; cf. Rom_6:13). Because they are alive to God (Rom_6:11) and have eternal life (Rom_6:23) they should present themselves to Him (Rom_6:13, Rom_6:19) and live accordingly, not letting sin master them (Rom_6:6, Rom_6:11-14, Rom_6:22).