Step 7: Offer Our Bodies to God
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness Romans 6:12,13
God has decisively changed the believer’s position in relationship to sin. Paul portrays sin as a power or master that exercises control over people and he uses the same imagery to declare our freedom – no longer ‘slaves to sin’ (6:6) but ‘slaves’ to God and righteousness (6:17-22). Sin is no longer our ‘master’ (6:14).
He is explaining our new position in eight steps and we now come to the second last step
Step 1: we died to sin (6:2)
Step 2: how we died to sin was through our being united with Christ in
His death as portrayed in our baptism (6:3)
Step 3: having shared in Christ’s death, we now also share in His
resurrection (6:4,5)
Step 4: our former self was crucified with Christ so that we might be
freed from sin’s slavery (6:6,7)
Step 5: both the death and resurrection of Christ were decisive events:
He died to sin once for all and lives continually before God (6:8-10)
Step 6: we are now what Christ is: ‘dead to sin but alive to God’ (6:11)
Step 7: being alive from death we must now offer our bodies to God as
instruments of righteousness (6:12,13)
Step 8: sin shall not be our master because our position has radically
changed from being ‘under law’ to being ‘under grace.’ Grace
does not encourage sin; it outlaws it (6:14)
Step 7: being alive from death we must now offer our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness (6:12,13)
‘Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness’ (6:12,13). Paul’s ‘therefore’ means he is stating a conclusion. Because Christ died to sin and lives to God, and because through our union with Christ we are ‘dead to sin but alive to God’ (6:11) and must consider ourselves so, our whole attitude to sin and to God must change. Do not offer yourself to ‘sin’ (because you have died to it) but offer yourself to God (because you have risen to live for His glory).
First the negative, ‘Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires’ (6:12). Not all of our physical body’s desires are wrong but sin can use our body to govern us. So Paul calls us to rise in rebellion against our sin. A second negative exhortation follows, ‘Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness’ (6:13). The victory over sin that God has won for us in Christ is a victory that must be appropriated. Putting away sin that would otherwise plague us won’t happen without our co-operation. Turning principle into actuality will take a determination, a refusal, to let sin go unchecked in us. Our bodies will no longer be ‘instruments of wickedness’ (6:13).
Instead of giving in to sin and letting it rule over our bodies, Paul exhorts, ‘offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness’ (6:13). In contrast to the command not to offer ourselves to sin which was present tense, (meaning we must not go on doing it), the command to offer ourselves to God is aorist, suggesting a deliberate and decisive commitment. ‘Every part’ of us is to be given to God as ‘an instrument [weapon] of righteousness.’
The basis on which Paul makes these exhortations is that we ‘have been brought from death to life’ (6:13). Because we have died to sin, it is inconceivable that we should let sin reign in us or offer ourselves to it. Because we are alive to God, the only right thing to do is to offer ourselves and all our faculties to Him. Christ died and rose. We have died and risen with Him. We therefore see ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God; and as those alive from death, we must offer ourselves for His service.