So also *ye*, reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Paul has just said that Christ died to sin once and now lives to God. Now he turns that fact on the believer with one command — so what does it ask of me, and how can I count myself dead to sin while sin still stirs inside me?
The ESV says "consider"; the writers quoted here use the older wording, "reckon." The command rests on facts already settled:
Once we know this, the reckoning commanded in verse 11 becomes perfectly plain to us. Our case is governed by Christ's, for we are identified with Him. Did He die to sin? Then we are dead to sin, and so we reckon it. Does He now live to God? Then we now live to God, and so we reckon it. Our reckoning is not make-believe. We are dead to sin and alive to God by His own acts, accomplished in the death and resurrection of Christ.
The word "likewise" sets the believer's death to sin on the same footing as Christ's:
Now notice what follows. Everyone believes verse 10 is true of the blessed Lord. Nobody believes that He died to the love or the practice of sin, but to sin itself. But what does verse 11 say? "Likewise reckon" — that is, account. "Likewise" means "in the same way." It plainly means that the believer is to reckon himself dead to sin and alive to God in the same sense that Christ is.
It is an accounting word, not a report on my inner state:
I would not have to reckon if I were really dead, and the context makes that clear. "Reckon" is the estimate I form by faith of my condition and standing. It is the estimate of my faith, not a statement about the state I am in. The same is true of "alive": the statement here is not that I have life, but that I account myself so.
Turning this into a matter of experience leads to one of two bad ends:
We reckon this so, we do not feel it to be so. It is an entire mistake to imagine that this being dead to sin is a feeling or an experience. That mistake carries serious consequences. We cannot feel Christ's death on the cross, and it was there He died to sin, and we because He died. If it were experience, it would have to be a perfect one — never an evil thought, feeling, or desire in the heart. And that would be true of all Christians always, not just the more advanced. This is contrary to everyone's experience. Trying to produce such a condition in oneself ends in the misery of utter failure, or, worse still, in self-satisfaction.
The verse has a negative side and a positive one, and neither stands alone:
In the same way we are responsible to reckon for ourselves. As to sin — dead TO IT; as to God — alive IN CHRIST JESUS. It is not that sin is dead; it is that we reckon that in Christ's death we have died to it. It is not that we already have our resurrection bodies; it is that we reckon that in Christ Jesus we are alive to God.
Where does the right to reckon come from? One writer answers with a picture:
An illustration may help. Suppose you had committed murder. Someone else was accepted as your substitute and hanged instead of you. The person who took your place would certainly be dead indeed to sin. And would you not clearly be entitled to take the same position? So it is with the believer. Christ has died on our behalf. The value of His death is all for us. Our connection with it is of the most vital kind. It is in Him that we can reckon ourselves "dead indeed to sin."
Reckoning is not the same as realising, and the command itself shows that sin has not left the believer:
Note carefully the force of the apostle's word, "reckon." How very different it is from our word "realise"! We can realise natural or physical facts. But with a spiritual truth, it is not a question of realising but of reckoning. How can I realise that I am dead to sin? All my experience, my feelings and my inner sense of myself seem to contradict the truth flatly. I cannot realise that I am dead; but God tells me I am... If I were sinless, if I had no sin in me, I would never be told to reckon myself dead to sin. I would never need to hear the words, "Let not sin reign in your mortal body."
- Ground. Christ died to sin once and now lives to God. Your reckoning agrees with what God has already done in that death and resurrection.
- Gauge. "Reckon" is an accounting word — the estimate faith forms of my standing, not a report on how I feel.
- Guard. Treating this as experience ends in either the misery of failure or self-satisfaction.
- Grip. Hold both halves — dead to sin and alive to God — and hold them only "in Christ Jesus," where His death counts as mine.
- Goal. Sin still lives in the believer. That is exactly why God commands the reckoning — so sin does not reign.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to obey its lusts.
Romans 6 has argued that the believer has died with Christ. Verse 12 turns that truth into a command. It raises a sharp question. If sin still needs forbidding, what has Christ's death changed?
The word that opens the verse ties it back to verse 11. Faith counts first; obedience follows.
Our responsibility is bound up with what Christ has already accomplished... It is to "reckon" ourselves dead to sin. We must meet every evil suggestion, craving and impulse that rises within us by remembering that we have died with Christ. This act of faith is the secret of strength to overcome. Only in this way can believers obey the apostle's command: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body."
The command itself is evidence about the Christian's condition. You do not warn someone off a power that has already vanished.
The flesh exists in the believer and will be there to the end... In Romans 6 we read, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body." Such an instruction would be pointless if the flesh were not in the believer... There is a great difference between dwelling and reigning. It dwells in a believer, but it reigns in an unbeliever.
The precise wording carries the weight. Paul chose one verb and not another.
Not, let it not be, but Let it not reign: a very small result if we were actually and experimentally dead to it.
The command has three parts, and each needs defining.
Verse 12 has three things in view: the evil principle of sin, or self-will, the mortal body, and the lusts of the body. Sin is the determination to do one's own will by satisfying lust. The body is the instrument for satisfying the lust. We are still in these mortal bodies, and the principle of sin is still in us. But if we reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ, our mortal bodies will in practice be free from the rule of sin.
The description "mortal" is not a throwaway word either.
Paul calls the body our "mortal body," or body of death, because it is in our present body that sin seeks to reign to death (see Rom. 5:21).
Sin acts here like a king pressing for the throne.
The truth is then, not that sin is dead. Christ's death and resurrection entitle us to regard ourselves, in the reckoning of faith, as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus... Sin is spoken of here as a person, as it sometimes is elsewhere, seeking the upper hand in our mortal body so as to subject us to its lusts. But through Christ it has no claim over us... As dead to sin we owe it no allegiance whatever.
Refusing one ruler means serving another.
The truth behind this command is that by nature the evil principle inside us rules us completely. Selfish pursuits and pleasures carry away the whole person. The gospel delivers us from this slavery and brings us under a new Master, even Jesus the Lord.
Much religious effort aims at removing the sinful nature. Verse 12 asks for something else, and that saves the believer from a hopeless task.
I cannot rid myself of the enemy. But God has judged it, and I have only to act on that judgment. I must keep it in the place of death where He has already put it. So we are not told to expel sin, to root it out, to cast it away from us, as moralists, and even clergy who do not know the Scriptures, sometimes urge us to do. We are told not to let it reign. That is, we must keep it under, in the place and under the sentence of death already passed on it... Indwelling sin is strong and active, yet He who tells us to reckon ourselves dead to it has supplied the power to obey. The Spirit of God is our strength in this warfare, the all-sufficient power He gives so that we can keep sin from reigning in our mortal body.
Sin regains the throne by one route only: our consent.
While sin is in our mortal body, it has no more right to reign there. However it will reign, if we yield to the desires of the old nature... Whenever temptation comes, the believer must take refuge in prayer, self-judgment and self-surrender. He must present his members afresh as instruments of righteousness to God... Therefore sin shall not have dominion over a believer because he is under grace. But we must take hold of this promise by faith.
- Reign, not reside. Sin still dwells in the believer; the command is that it must not rule. Dwelling and reigning are two different things.
- Reckon before you resist. The "therefore" points back. Faith counts itself dead with Christ first, and that counting gives the strength to obey.
- Dethroned, not destroyed. Christ's death has cancelled sin's title as master, so we owe it no allegiance.
- Refuse, don't uproot. Scripture never tells us to expel the sinful nature. We keep it in the place of death God has already assigned it.
- Consent is the only door. Sin reigns again only if we yield. Prayer, self-judgment and the Spirit's power keep the new Master on the throne.
Neither yield your members instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God as alive from among [the] dead, and your members instruments of righteousness to God.
Romans 6 has just told believers to count themselves dead to sin and alive to God. Now it turns that into a daily question: who gets the use of your hands, your tongue, your eyes?
This command is not for everyone. The phrase "as those who have been brought from death to life" marks out who it is for:
"Free" has a double sense in English. People say, "that horse is free from vice," meaning he has none at all. But suppose a man had been a slave and he is now free: we are "free from sin" in that sense. He does not say to a person who has never turned to God, "Give yourself to God." He says, "Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life." You have died in Christ. As those alive from the dead, what are you going to do with yourselves? Give yourselves to God, completely... God comes in. Grace cleanses us from guilt, then He says: "Now you are set free, and you have the privilege and title of giving yourselves."
The Greek uses two forms of the same verb, and they are not the same shape. One describes something ongoing, the other something settled once and for all:
The first occurrence of "yield" means, in the form of the word, the habit of yielding; the second, by its form, implies the surrender already made. This is not a gradual improvement of the nature or the will, as people speak of it. It is giving ourselves up to God in one complete act, as those alive from among the dead, and giving our members to God as instruments of righteousness.
That single act has a parallel later in the letter, where the same appeal returns:
In Romans 6:13 the Apostle had indicated that the way of deliverance from the service of sin was to yield ourselves to God, and our members as instruments of righteousness to God. We were to have the thing done, definitely and for ever, as a settled thing... Once each of us held his body as the vehicle in which his own will would be expressed. Once we each said in effect, "I am the captain of my body and it shall serve my pleasures."
The verse names two things to give, and it names them in a deliberate sequence. Conduct is not the starting point:
Notice that in giving ourselves to God, it is not only the details of conduct that are mentioned, and not only our members. The order is first, "present yourselves to God," and afterwards "your members." What rich and profitable teaching this is!... It is one thing to try to make my conduct fit God's desires. It is another to give myself to Him. But once I have given myself fully and held nothing back, let my members become steady "instruments for righteousness."
"Members" means the actual parts of your body. Each one has already served a master:
This yielding is a very practical thing, as verse 13 makes plain. It affects all the members of our bodies. In the past, sin enlisted every member in its service, so each one became an instrument of unrighteousness. Is it not a wonderful thing that every member may now serve God? Our feet may run His errands. Our hands may do His work. Our tongues may speak His praise.
Elsewhere Scripture tells believers to put their "members" to death, which sounds like the opposite of this verse. Commentators resolve it by noting that the word covers two different things:
The Christian is called to put these members of the flesh to death... The members of which the Apostle speaks in that passage can hardly refer to the members of the body. Far from putting the parts of our bodies to death, Romans 6 tells us to give our members to God as instruments. The members here seem to be all the sinful things through which the flesh expresses itself, just as the actual parts of the body are the instruments it uses for its own service.
The next line — "you are not under law but under grace" — is given as the reason the command can be kept, not as a loophole:
But note this well. The source of practical power — and that is the real question — is grace: "sin will have no dominion over you, SINCE you are not under law but under grace." If God and sin are in question, God is without doubt the strongest!
- Freed — the command speaks to people already set free through Christ's death. Only a freed slave can give himself away.
- Given — one decisive act of surrender, not a slow improvement of the old will. And never hand your body back to sin.
- Order — yourself first, your members after. Tidying up conduct without giving the person reverses the verse.
- Reach — feet, hands, tongue: every part that once served sin can now serve God. Put the flesh's sinful ways to death; hand the body's members over.
- Power — grace, not law, is the reason sin will not rule you.
For sin shall not have dominion over *you*, for ye are not under law but under grace.
Paul has just called believers to give themselves to God as people brought from death to life. Now he gives the reason such a life is possible, and it raises an old question: does taking a believer out from under law make him safer from sin, or more dangerous?
Dominion means rule. One writer connects the promise to the meaning of the name Jesus:
The very first page of the New Testament tells us there is something more than the forgiveness of our sins. It says, "You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." He saves not only from the penalty of our sins, but from our sins themselves. "Sin shall not have dominion over you." Literally this is, "Sin shall not lord it over you."
The promise is not that sin disappears from the believer. One writer draws the line between now and later:
We speak of the power of sin, not of its presence. Let the reader carefully note this. On the question of sin, there is a real difference between a Christian now and a Christian in the life to come. Now he is set free only from the power of sin. Later he will be free from its presence. In his present condition sin lives in him, but it is not to reign. One day it will not even live in him. The reign of sin is over and gone. The reign of grace has begun.
That leaves room for real struggle. It also ties our freedom to how well we know grace:
There may be sudden temptation — yes, failure — but sin shall not have dominion — it shall not reign. But why shall sin not reign? "For you are not under law but under grace." … The more the free favour of God in Christ Jesus is known and enjoyed, the greater our deliverance from the slavery of sin, and the more we can live a holy life.
The reason the verse gives is surprising: law itself leaves a person under sin's mastery. One commentator lists what law fails to supply:
Being under law leaves me under the dominion of sin. What we want is a free life, free from bondage to sin; for he who commits sin, says the Lord, is the slave of sin. Law gives no life, no freedom, no strength, and not even an object to turn our hearts elsewhere. It rightly forbids sins, as it must, but it gives no life and no power. But under grace we have power. Life is given, strength is given, and an object is given; none of which, as we have seen, law gives. So, under grace, sin has no dominion over me. Under law it does.
These two phrases mark two positions, each with its own history:
"Under law" simply means a position where law has authority. Israel was in that position from Mount Sinai until the cross of Christ. "Under grace" means a position where grace rules. The contrast is drawn clearly and completely. The two things cannot be mixed. "Under grace" is our position, and it comes from the blessed cross of Christ. "Under law" was a position that supposed no cross and no salvation from bondage.
Some fear that grace makes people careless about sin:
Sin, then, is not to have dominion over us, for the very reason that we are not under law but under grace. Some say that if we tell people they are no longer under the rule of law, they are sure to plunge into sin. Here is God's answer to them. The fact is that nothing so subdues the heart and promotes holiness as the grace of God.
Elsewhere the same writer shows how grace does this:
In Christianity grace not only saves but teaches, and what an effective teacher it is! It does not fill our heads with cold rules and regulations. Instead it brings our hearts under the subduing influence of the love of God. We learn what pleases Him, as shown to us in Jesus. And because we have the Spirit, we begin to live the sober, righteous, and godly life.
- Dominion — sin will not lord it over you. Christ saves not only from sin's penalty but from sins themselves.
- Dwelling, not reigning — now you are free from sin's power, later from its presence. Failure may come, but rule may not.
- Law's poverty — law forbids sin but gives no life, freedom, strength, or object for the heart. So it leaves sin in charge.
- Grace's supply — grace gives life, strength and an object for the heart. That is why sin no longer rules you.
- Grace's schooling — grace is not permission but a teacher. Nothing subdues the heart and promotes holiness like the grace of God.