27. Romans Chapter 6 Verses 12-18 - Messages In Romans – Dead To Self And Alive To Christ; From Bondage To Freedom – But Who Is Master Over You? – Message 27 Series

27. ROMANS CHAPTER 6 VERSES 12-18 - MESSAGES IN ROMANS – DEAD TO SELF AND ALIVE TO CHRIST; FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM – BUT WHO IS MASTER OVER YOU? – MESSAGE 27

In the last message we saw that our old selves have died with Christ, crucified, dead to sin, and as Christ rose from the dead, so we too walk the resurrected life. Sin is not to have mastery over us. Once we were slaves to sin but now we are slaves to righteousness. This new nature, through being born again, gives us control over sin in our lives.

{{Romans 6:12 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,

Romans 6:13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God,

Romans 6:14 for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.”}}

Paul enters a new section within the same area of teaching as he has been explaining. This section begins with a “therefore” and that word takes into account all that has passed before it. As someone has said, “When you have a ‘therefore’, ask what it is there for?” All the previous arguments and explanations might leave a question unanswered so Paul very clearly spells out what all this means for us. We will deal with the verses separately.

[A]. VERSE 12 – THIS YOU MUST NOT DO; THE COMMAND IS CLEAR

{{Romans 6:12 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,”}}

Here we have another “Therefore” because the whole passage here is a continual explanation according to the theme, “Dead to self and Alive to Christ”. We have had the great contrasts of the old nature (the old self; old man) with the new nature earlier in the chapter. We have passed from death to life; from bondage to freedom; from the controlling demands of the old life, to the liberty of the resurrected life in Christ. Baptism by immersion demonstrated the change where the old, sinful life is dead, buried, and the new walk is in a raised life with the Lord.

Not only are we to consider ourselves dead to sin, BUT we also must have control over that. This verse contains the action of our wills. We stand our ground against sin, or we indulge the sinful desires in the flesh. This is where we could use the terms, “a strong or a weak Christian”, according to how we oppose, or give into lusts that are reacting with the old nature.

That old nature is dead and should be gone for we have been raised to newness of life, but the dregs of that old nature are still powerful if entertained. We must not entertain that, or feed that old nature for it will bring its lusts against us so very quickly and catch us off guard.

The big problem we have is right at the start. Maybe we have seen accounts where a dam developed a small crack; a small leak and was left unattended. Very soon the crack widens and undermines the dam wall and it begins to collapse to cause a tragedy. The most important word in that story is “unattended”. An unattended Christian life will have the old nature rising up with its lusts and then we follow those lusts because we have let sin take control. Then it is very hard to win back that control.

We know in Eden Eve succumbed because of lust. John wrote this – {{1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world, and THE WORLD IS PASSING AWAY, and also its lusts, BUT THE ONE WHO DOES THE WILL OF GOD ABIDES FOREVER.”}}

Eve sought the lust of the flesh – she desired the fruit. Eve entertained the lust of the eyes - she saw it was a delight to the eyes. Eve was promised equality with God – the pride of life. Those lusts conquered her, and they conquer us also. Paul is very clear, DO NOT let sin reign – TAKE CONTROL – in your mortal bodies.

John said the world is passing away, and so too, are our mortal bodies. We must give account before the Lord one day if we are His. This is serious. Yes, I know we slip up and slip back into the old nature sometimes, maybe even grievously, but the sensitive Christian responds to the conviction of the Holy Spirit to depart that sin and return to the Lord. However when sin reigns in your mortal body, it has control over you and you are defeated and useless for God.