Romans 6:12-19

1:06This might be a legend, but I heard that it was Albert Einstein who said, if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Have you heard that before? If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. That's the kind of explanation I want, right? If I don't understand something, I want somebody to bring it down to my level. It clearly. Well, in our text today, that's what Paul does for us. He has provided so much doctrinal instruction, and now he's going to bring it to our level, give us commands, help us practically understand the implications of that doctrine. He takes the truths that he's been teaching and tells us how to obey the Lord if those truths are true. He even says in verse 19, Romans 6, verse 19, he even says, I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.

2:08Thank you, Paul. I think. I think, thank you. Something to apply, something easy for us to understand. He's using illustrations so that we can live this out. So far in this letter, Paul has spoken about the universal condemnation of all of mankind. Every single person who's ever lived is in sin except for Christ. But he's also spoken about the true righteousness, the righteousness of God that can be acquired by faith, that we can be forgiven. If we believe in God, if we trust in his promise, if we ask for forgiveness, if we repent of our sins, then we can be given the free gift of righteousness. The righteousness of God. And this righteousness leads to justification, forgiveness, and life, grace abounding all the more. And so at the beginning of chapter six, Paul starts with a question. He says, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

3:27If the more we sin, then the more grace God shows us, and the more glory He gets because of his grace, well, then why don't we just keep on sinning? If it's for his glory, anyways, if he's going to just have grace, anyways. Well, he says, by no means. And his reason is not what you might expect. He says, How can we who died to sin still live in it? How can we who died to sin still live in it? And he goes on to explain that when we became a believer, when we repented and believed in Christ, we actually died and were raised again in newness of life.

4:12And it's in this chapter, after explaining these things, that Paul makes the transition from doctrinal instruction to practical instruction. It's not saying that everything before wasn't practical, and that's not saying that everything after isn't doctrinal. But he makes a clear transition here to starting to use commands. That are based off of these truths. Beyond just answering his opponents who would ask questions like this, Paul moves on to address the Christian and give commands. How do you obey these truths? How do you confront this lie in your own heart that says, why not sin all the more?

4:51What should you do? How should you think? And so we have our first real command in verse 11. He says, So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Consider is the first command there. Consider these things to be true. If you know that it's true, that when you became a believer, you died and rose again to walk in newness of life, well, then your first command is to consider this to be true. Let it sink in. Consider this a reality about your soul if you're a believer. Meditate on this. Understand this. Know this.

5:30You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. And then we get to our passage today, verses 12 through 19. Verses 12 through 19. This passage is framed by another command, and the command is to present yourselves to God. Present yourselves, present your members. Look at verse 13. He says, Do not present your members to sin. As instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God. Then look down in verse 19. So now present your members as slaves to righteousness. This is the controlling command of this section: present yourselves. And so, how should a believer think about sin in their life?

6:24After you've believed, how should you think about sin? Well, you need to understand the reality that's true about you, that you died and rose again in Christ. You need to consider this to be true. You need to let this sink in and really understand this. And then you take your body, you take yourself, and you present it to God to serve him and not sin. So, Paul, in our passage, is going to paint a couple pictures for us. He'll paint a picture of that sin is no longer our monarch, it's no longer our king, reigning over us, and sin is no longer our master, lording it over us.

7:09And so, how should we respond? How should we think? How should we act? Paul is going to give us two instructions: transfer your allegiance and transfer your obedience. That's our outline for this morning. Two practical instructions about how to deal with your sin. Transfer your allegiance. In verses 12 through 14, and transfer your obedience in verses 15 through 19. Follow along as I read Romans 6, verses 12 through 19. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. 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. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

8:12What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means. 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. 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, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

8:51I'm 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. Pray with me once more before we begin. Father, as we approach this passage, as we draw near to your word, we pray that you would make our hearts soft, like good, soft soil. It's ready for the seed of your word to be implanted in us.

9:36Pray that you would cause us to be humble, that you cause us to be eager to pay attention to what your word says. We pray that you would help us understand, be convicted, and act upon it and change. Live according to your word, be doers of your word. Help us this morning as we study and learn and obey. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, our first instruction is to transfer your allegiance. Transfer your allegiance. And this comes from verse 12. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. So, since you are considering yourself dead to sin. Well, then, don't let sin reign over you. The word for reign there is exactly what it sounds like: a king that's exercising his dominion, exercising his authority over his kingdom. It could be a little kingdom or a big kingdom, but a king is in charge, reigning over his subjects.

10:51But Paul is saying that this king, sin, is no longer your king. You have been freed from his dominion. You have a new king, so don't let the old king reign in your life. This is going to be an issue for us as long as we're in these mortal bodies. That's what he says in verse 12: let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. So, yes, we have been saved. Yes, we have been freed from the penalty of our sins, and yes, we have been freed from the power of sin. It doesn't have this chokehold over us that it used to have.

11:35But while we're still in these bodies, while we're waiting to be glorified, when we'll never sin again, while we're still in these bodies, we have a choice as believers. And the choice is that we can use this body to serve sin, our old king, or we can serve the Lord. We can succumb to sin and its design. We can obey its passions. That's the words he uses. But Paul says, do the opposite. Verse 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.

12:28As I mentioned earlier, the controlling command in this whole passage is that word present, present yourselves. In a broad sense, it just means to make yourself available for service. Present yourself as available. And so here, we could see it being used towards a king, you know, making yourself available for a king and his service to be commanded by him. In just a few verses, we'll see that it could be used of a slave and a master, that the slave can make himself available, present himself to his master for service. In chapter 12, you might remember he'll use the same word that we should present ourselves as a living sacrifice, ready to offer ourselves to God, make yourself available. And it's rare that, in the original language, it's rare that a compound word translates so well. Well, into one of our idioms, but this one does. And so I wanted to share it with you: that the word is actually when you combine standing and by, like standing by, just like the phrase we use: standing by, ready for duty, at your service, that kind of thing. Make yourself available, present yourself to the Lord.

13:50Paul is saying, stop doing that for sin. Stop making yourself available for your old king. Verse 13, do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. Do not present your members. That word members is just the word for body parts, your limbs, your body parts, your mortal bodies. So Paul is saying, while you're still living in these mortal bodies, do not make yourself available. Don't make your body available to your old king, sin. Don't report for duty. Don't serve that old monarch.

14:38Instead, present yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. So, in accordance with this reality that's true about you, that you have been brought from death to life as a believer, then present yourself to God and present your body as. Instruments for righteousness. Instruments can be a generic term like that. Instruments are tools, but the most common way it's used is of weapons, which to me makes sense with the king picture, right? Presenting yourself as tools or weapons for that king.

15:17Paul's saying, don't let yourself be used by that wicked king. Instead, be used by God, be a weapon or a tool for righteousness. Make yourself available to your new king. Transfer your allegiance to him day by day. 4, verse 14: sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. The authority of sin over your life, this dominion, again, another kingly term, this dominion over your life, it's been broken. Sin has no kingly dominion over you anymore.

16:11It has no rulership over you. There's been a coup. It's been deposed. It's no longer your king. Why? How did sin lose its power? He says, since you are not under law, but under grace. So, if you needed to keep the law to please God, if you needed to earn your salvation, well, then you would still be under this curse. Sin would still have this firm grip on you. Before you're born again, before you become a believer, you are stuck in sin. It's only when grace came and you found forgiveness that there's no longer a penalty for sin, and sin no longer has power over you. John Stott writes: To be under law is to accept the obligation to keep it, and so to come under its curse or condemnation. To be under grace is to acknowledge our dependence on the work of Christ for salvation, and so to be justified rather than condemned and thus set free. So, you have this freedom as a believer. You are under grace. Sin has been deposed, it's no longer your monarch.

17:30So, your practical instruction, Paul making it easy for us, your practical instruction, your command is to present yourselves to God. When you're tempted to sin, refuse to present yourself to sin, to be used by sin. Instead, make your body parts available to God for his use. Make yourself available to your new king and transfer your. From the old king you used to serve. Second, transfer your obedience. Transfer your allegiance and transfer your obedience. Having just mentioned that we're not under the law, but under grace, Paul returns to that same idea he had in verse 1. He asks another question. Remember, back in verse 1, he said, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. And now in verse 15, he says, What then? Are we to sin because we're not under law, but under grace? By no means. So he's continuing with the same discussion. He's going to answer the kind of people who would ask these kind of questions, answer his opponents, and then again, follow the same direction he followed last time: of answering those opponents, but then shifting to the Christian and saying, You don't believe this law, this lie either. Instead, you follow these commands.

19:04Only this time, the word picture is different. The one that we just dealt with is of a king serving a king, making yourself available to his use. Now the word picture has changed of a slave and a master. A slave and a master. A master with obedient slaves who are presenting themselves as slaves, who are obedient from the. Heart. The first picture, no, we don't have kings in this country, but I think it's easier for us to picture a king over a kingdom. The second picture might be a little more foreign to us, this idea of slavery, this idea of choosing who you'll serve and who you'll be a slave for. In Paul's day, it wasn't an uncommon thing. There were slaves everywhere. Maybe they were captured in military exploits, or maybe they were people who got a second chance to pay off their debts by serving a good master. It didn't always have to be something negative. They could have viewed it as serving their country. And even sometimes there were wages involved, as we'll see later in the chapter.

20:21But that's the picture he gives us now. He's transitioned from that king and a kingdom picture to a slave and a master. So, verse 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. That's his answer to the question. That's his answer. Why it's so preposterous to even ask such a question. Should we sin because we're under grace? Should we sin because grace will just abound to us? It's a ridiculous question. Don't you know?

21:01That when you present yourself as an obedient slave to a master, then that makes you their slave. You used to be the slave of sin. You were captured in that. You couldn't escape it. But now you're not. When you became a believer, you were freed from that. You were freed from slavery. So why would you go back and act like a slave of sin again? You already know, he's saying, you already know that serving sin only earned you death.

21:39It leads to death. You already know that obedience leads to righteousness. Why would you want to serve again the thing that leads to death? Didn't you repent from your sin because you wanted to be free from sin? Didn't you believe in God because you wanted to be made righteous? Well, now, as a believer, you're presented with an option of following sin or following God. Don't you want to choose the thing that will lead to righteousness? The reason why you believed to begin with? You know, I don't think that Paul is saying here that as a believer, we can choose to follow this old master so much that it's going to lead to our death. You know, I don't think he's saying you can lose your salvation or anything like that.

22:27I think what he's saying is you know that. Sin has its fruits, and they're not good fruits. They're bad fruits. But obedience has good fruit. He'll return to this theme later in the chapter. Following sin leads to death, it has wrong fruit. But following obedience leads to righteousness and sanctification. So obey God and not sin. And he says, you already know this because this is the decision you made when you became a believer. Look at verse 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.

23:20And having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. So if you've been stepping through Romans chapter 6 already, then a lot of this is review what he's just said, that this transition has happened in your life when you became a believer, that you did step out of the darkness and the death and slavery to sin and became free from all of that. What's new in this is he's saying you've become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. The word standard there is the same word that we hear sometimes translated as type or imprint. Or example, this mold of teaching. You have become conformed to this when you became a believer. You heard the gospel, you heard the truth taught to you or preached to you.

24:15You believed that it was true and you became conformed to it, committed to this truth, having become obedient from the heart to these doctrines. And therefore, you were set free from sin and made a slave of righteousness. Paul pauses to say in verse 19, I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. So he could be saying something like, we are natural beings, and so it helps us to understand spiritual things if we can give it a natural illustration.

25:01He could be saying something like, implying that his audience is a little bit thick-headed, right? Who would ask such a question? Should we keep on sinning? And so he's bringing it down to their level so that they can understand. Or he could be just warning them not to press these illustrations too far. You know, saying, it's not like I'm saying that God is just your slave master or something. You can have a Relationship with God outside. He could be saying something like that. You know, don't press this illustration too far. I'm just trying to give you an example so that you can understand how to think about sin in your life. But either way, Paul is saying that he's giving these illustrations to help us. He's giving these illustrations to help. They're meant to help us grasp these truths so that we can act on it. And so he continues with this same command as earlier. 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.

26:18So by now, this is getting really familiar to us, right? You used to serve lawlessness. You used to willingly, obediently, from the heart, be a slave of impurity. With happiness, you used to serve impurity and uncleanness. We liked to serve lawlessness. We reveled in the fact that we had no moral constraints. We thought that that was freedom. But it wasn't freedom, it was a slavery to sin. But now you've been set free from that. So Paul is telling you: while you're in these mortal bodies, while you can serve something, choose to serve God. Choose to serve righteousness. Be a slave to righteousness. Obey.

27:24And instead of leading to death and more lawlessness, it'll lead to holiness and purity, sanctification. There's good fruit when we serve the Lord. Many of you have heard the truism that all of us are worshipers. Have you heard that before? We're always worshiping something. If we're not worshiping the Lord, the one who's worthy of worship, then we're just making our own idols and worshiping ourselves or worshiping something else. Well, in our text today, Paul is saying that the same principle applies to our service. The same principle applies to our obedience.

28:17We are slaves, whether we think we are or not. We're serving a king, whether we think we are or not. Before we trust in Christ, before we believed the gospel and came to God and asked for forgiveness for our sins and repented of our sins, trusted that Christ paid for our sins on the cross and rose again. Before that, sin was our king. Sin was our master. It ruled over us with an iron grip. But now that we have believed, we're free from that grip. We're free to obey God.

29:08He is our king. He is our master. Sin has no dominion over us any longer. It cannot make us obey its will. But while we're still in these mortal bodies, while we still have body parts, while we still have members, we still have the option of using that body to serve sin. But Paul is saying, serve your new master. Serve your new king. It's very practical, isn't it? Serve your new king. Don't present your body to be used by the old master. Don't be obedient to sin. It doesn't even make sense.

29:57Instead, make yourself available to God. Make yourself available to righteousness. You know, we're only in these bodies for a little while longer. They're about to pass away. We're about to be glorified forever. You won't have the option anymore. So while you still have the option, choose to use your body to serve God rather than sin. In the Civil War, one of the early missteps by the North was an overestimation of one group of people and an underestimation of another group of people. And maybe you can guess who the groups of people were.

30:41The group of people that were overestimated were the slaveholders in the North and the people that were sympathetic to slavery that the leaders in the North thought would still fight to preserve the Union and fight against the South. They thought that that was a force that they couldn't do without. And so the leaders, even Lincoln, was hesitant to do anything to offend this group, like free the slaves. Well, the underestimated group was the escaped slaves. They had made it all the way to the north, but when they got there, some of the branches of the military, some of the soldiers, viewed them as just totally valueless. Of no value to fight or anything. And so they would actually round them up, any of the escaped slaves that they found, and return them to their masters because it was a strategy to try and please this group.

31:45A strategy to say, you see, we're not getting rid of slavery. We're just trying to preserve the Union. But the foolishness in all of this was that this group didn't really exist. There was no group that was eager to fight to preserve the Union and fight against the South. Those that were sympathetic with slavery weren't eager fighters that were ready to come and help the North win. And so they would admit, within about a year, they would admit their mistakes. They would admit that they chased after this group by trying to return these slaves to their old masters and to the Confederacy, the nation of the southern states. We can all see the foolishness in that, and they did too. They would admit that. But I just bring up this illustration because there's something that would have been even more foolish.

32:39What if it wasn't these soldiers that were returning the slaves? What if it was the slaves themselves returning themselves to slavery? What if they just risked their lives to escape from their slave master? And they risked their lives to escape from their country and travel across the Confederate States and cross. The Mason-Dixon line. And having escaped from their master and having escaped from that country, they made it to the north and stayed long enough to celebrate, you know, throw a party that they had won their freedom, that they had made it to the north, and then turned around and walked straight back to their master to serve again. How foolish, right? How absurd would that be?

33:22That would be crazy. But this is exactly what we do, isn't it, as Christians? We celebrate our freedom. We celebrate that we're free from being weapons for that old monarch, sin. We celebrate that we're free from being slaves of that old master. And then we use our bodies to serve that old master again. Why would we want to use our bodies to serve that old master? Instead, daily, consciously, make the decision that your body, that yourself, that you are going to be used for your new king.

34:25While you're still on this earth and you're still in these mortal bodies, don't present. Yourself to your old Lord. Present yourself to your new Lord. Moment by moment. Make the choice to serve righteousness and not unrighteousness. Practically fix this mindset in your head. You know, today I wake up. I'm going to make myself available, present myself to my King, to be used by him. I'm going to be His slave and Him alone. Moment by moment, you can remind yourself of this. You know, maybe it's in parenting. And in that moment, I'm not going to pretend I'm under Sin's dominion. I don't have to lash out at this child.

35:20Instead, even in this interaction with my child, I'm going to be used by the Lord, present myself for His use. I'm going to serve God at work. Sin is not my king, God is my king. So I'm going to serve God at work. I'm going to make myself available to be used by God on campus. Submit my body to the Lord to be used by Him, to be used by God in the community, with my family, with my friends.

35:59He breaks. The power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood availed for me. We have been set free. But remember, this is a truth that cuts both ways. It's a little bit of a good news, bad news thing for you as a believer. The good news is glorious, wonderful good news: that you are free forever from the penalty and the power of sin. The power of sin has been canceled. That is wonderful and glorious good news. But in a sense, it's a little bit of bad news, and that you don't have an excuse anymore for living in habitual sin.

36:51You can't ever claim that you're under sin's dominion. You can't ever claim that sin is ruling over you. You can't say things anymore like, I just can't help it. That sin is too powerful. I can't avoid it. I can't stop. Paul is saying, you can stop. There is a way of escape. Not because of your own strength, but because you've trusted in the Lord. And that way of escape starts by accepting this reality that you're. Dead to sin and alive to God.

37:33And rather than presenting yourself and your body to sin, you present yourself and your body to God to be used by Him moment by moment. If we connect this to what we've been learning in 1 John, well, what is this going to look like? I think at the very least, we'd have to say it looks like loving each other. It's the command we've seen over and over in 1 John. Making ourselves available, standing by for God's use, using our freedom from sin to love each other.

38:08It's the same thing that Paul said in our reading this morning, Galatians 5:13. For you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Paul has made this very practical for us, right? He's made it easy for us to understand. Instead of pretending that you can't not sin, instead of pretending sin has dominion over you, and instead of submitting yourself to be used by sin, instead, transfer your allegiance from that old king, and transfer your obedience from that old slave master, and present yourselves to God. Pray with me, Father. We pray that you would help us do this.

39:05Yes, these pictures are easy for us to understand, but that doesn't mean that it's easy for us to do. So, Father, we pray that you would help us with this. I pray that if people were convicted of their need for a Savior, if they were convicted of their sin, if they realize that they are under sin's dominion and in sin's bondage, I pray that you would let that conviction sit inside of them and drive them to obey the truth, be conformed to the standard of teaching and trust in your word, that you forgive even the vilest of sinners because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

40:02And I pray for those of us who are already believers, if any of us were convicted of our sins, convicted that we have been presenting our bodies to sin, presenting ourselves to our old king and our old master. I pray that you would help us act on that. Pray that you would forgive us and cause us. Day by day to present ourselves to you to be used by you in Jesus' name. Amen.