What Scripture says about You and Sin

   As we dig deeper in what Scripture says about sin and you, remember a couple of things. Thing one: upon repentance, you received the remission or forgiveness of sins. This means you have been released from sin, and delivered from its power. Thing two: God’s grace gave you power over sin. Where there is no law, there is no transgression (Romans 4:15). Under the New Covenant, you’re under grace; not under the Law. God’s unmerited favor gave you the ability to do those things of God you could not do on your own. That’s grace.

   Romans 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

   When reading verses one through six, we find that when we were baptized into Jesus, we were baptized into His death. Being baptized means we identified with Him, which includes His death. In essence, His death became our death; hence, we are counted as dead in the eyes of God in relation to our old sinful nature. As verse five puts it: “Knowing this, that our old man (self) is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

   You are no longer a slave to sin! Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11). If you want to struggle with sin, continue to focus on it. The more you try not to sin, the more sin-conscious you become. Moreover, you may find yourself doing more of the things you’re trying to avoid. To focus on sin is to focus on death. However, as verse 11 says, consider yourself alive to God in Christ Jesus. When centering on the things of God, the things of sin have little to no influence. Grace gave you the ability to choose life.

   Romans 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

   “Let not” is as permissive statement. The balls in your court as to whether you disallow sin to rule over you. You decide! Even though we’re under grace, and received remission of sins, we still can decide to sin and tell God to take a hike. We did not become robots; however, our new nature draws us closer to God. As a matter of fact, those who are born of God, do not practice sin (see 1 John 3:1-9).

How do You Disallow Sin?

   Romans 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God (KJV).

   The NASB puts it this way: 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.

   To yield or present means to stand aside or near; to present for acceptance, or place before someone. Another way to look at this verse is found in Romans 12:1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

   The idea is to righteously present yourself before God in order to acceptably serve Him. By yielding to righteousness, you disallow sin, because you’re serving God. When you focus on the things of righteousness, you will not consider sin. You are no longer sin-conscious.

   Okay, let’s make this even more simple: by loving God and others, your concern will be to bless. The thought of hurting them never crosses your mind. In essence, the Law says “thou shalt not”; but love says “thou shalt.” When you focus on doing the right things, you never have to worry about avoiding the wrong things. By concentrating on excellence, you will not be worried about messing things up.

   Romans 13:8-10 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

   Romans 6:22-23 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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