Let Not Sin Reign – Romans 6
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” — Romans 6:12
One thing all humans are really good at is sinning. Sin is an art form that we have been perfecting for centuries ever since the first sin of Adam in the garden. Not only do human beings know how to sin, but they also know how to justify and rationalise their sin.
Yet, the child of God has been delivered from the penalty of sin and should not allow sin to reign in their bodies any more. Sadly, far too many Christians allow sin to reign and obey the lusts of sin rather than the working of the Spirit.
Romans 6 give us several keys to not continuing in sin:
- Know (v.1-10) – The first step to victory over sin is to know certain truths. We have to realise that in Christ: we are dead to sin; we are alive to God; and sin has no more dominion over us.
- Reckon (v.11-12) – The next step is to take spiritual inventory of all that God says is true and ‘count these things to be true’. This is taking the knowledge of what is true a sept further and realising that these things are all true about us.
- Yield (v.13-14) – Third, we must then begin yielding our lives over to God to do righteous things. We are free now to choose to not give in to sin but to give in to God and His plans for our lives.
- Serve (v.15-23) – Fourth, instead of serving sin and becoming a voluntary slave to sin, we should voluntarily serve and be slaves to righteous living. This is about replacing all the sin with righteous living. The more we meditate on the doctrines of who we are, the more we will want to live out this new identity in Christ.
God has set every believer free from the penalty of sin and wants to set us free from sin’s power. But in order to not continue in sin, we must daily know God’s truth, meditate on God’s truth, and yield our lives over to the Lord to serve Him.
How are you letting sin reign? How are you obeying the lusts of sin? How can you begin to change your thinking with God’s Word and yield your life to serve the Lord?