Romans 6:11

Romans 6:11

In Romans 6:11 Paul continues to explain how believers are associated with the death of Jesus Christ. Once we believe on Jesus, God identifies us with the death of Jesus. Our sinful nature and our old man (our human life) is counted by God as having died with Jesus on the cross. That is a wonderful truth and has many good implications for us, not the least of which is the fact that another reason that we will never be condemned by God is because He accounts us as having already died. No one takes a dead man to court and tries him and judges him and condemns him, because a dead man is dead.

The fact that we are accounted as having died with Christ can also have a very practical impact and influence on the way that we live, and the way that we view life. Romans 6:11 says, "Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." The word "reckon"; means to take account of, to consider, or to meditate on. God considers our old sinful person to have died when Jesus died on the cross. We should think about that, and we should account it to be true just as God does.

If you are in Christ, then you are dead. One thing that is common with all dead people is the lack of activity. When you visit a cemetery, you will find it a peaceful place because dead people do not do much. And one of the things that they are not doing: is sinning. If dead people do not sin, then we should not sin either because we died with Christ. The next time that you are tempted to desire something that you should not desire, remember that a dead person would not do that, and you died with Christ. A dead person does not commit adultery and a dead person does not steal or lie. Romans 6:12-13 says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. 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."

When it comes to committing sins, notice the individual choice that we have in the matter. Verse 12 says, "let not sin reign". You can let sin rule and reign over you, or you can forbit it to rule and reign over you. The choice is yours. And then verse 13 says; "neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin". Again the emphasis here in this scripture is on the fact that the choice is yours. You can yield your members to unrighteousness or you can yield your members to goodness. Do not ever underestimate the power of your own will. One of the most powerful and strongest forces on the earth is the power of the will of just one human. God has made us that way. He has given us a free will. Do not ever underestimate the importance of making the right choices. Your destiny will be changed by the choices that you make. Your future will be decided in many ways by the choices that you make, and some of the most critical choices are in the area of right and wrong.

A wise person will make a habit out of saying; “yes” to what is good and what is right, and saying “no” to what is evil or what is wrong. Your destiny will be determined to a large degree by what you have said “yes” to, and what you have said “no” to. You should never blame anyone else for your own failures. You are responsible for your own actions no matter what anyone else has said or done. The choice is yours.

Every bad habit starts by saying “yes” just once to one sin. Sow a thought, and you reap a deed; sow a deed and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a destiny. It is easy to get bad habits, but hard to get rid of them. But if you are going to avoid being a servant to sin, you must make a habit out of saying “no” to certain actions or activities. You must train your thought processes to say “no” to certain things and “yes” to others.

Two important things are mentioned here by Paul in relation to avoiding sin: the mind and the will. To have a chance at doing right, you must have the proper mental preparation. Part of that mental preparation for the Christian is to "reckon" yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is the preparation of the mind, and there is also the preparation of the will. Everyone serves something or someone. The rich man may serve his money or his conceit, and the poor man may serve his hate or his envy; and both may serve their strong desires, but those who are rightly related to God through Christ, whether rich or poor, serve Jesus their Lord.

Romans 6:14 says, "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace." Sin dominates some people. All nonbelievers are slaves to sin in some way. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." The word "dominion" comes from the same Greek word as the word "Lord". A good translation for verse 14 would be, "For sin shall not lord it over you: for you are not under law, but under grace." If Jesus is not your Lord, then sin will be your lord.

Sin will not dominate believers. Sin will not control us, because we are not under law but under grace. Where the law is, there is sin and the breaking of the law. And where the breaking of the law is, there is death and condemnation. But when the grace of God is found, there is deliverance from sin. If through the grace of Christ, we are free from the devastating destruction and condemnation that sin can bring spiritually, then we should also be free from enslavement to sin in a practical way.

People tend to shrink Christianity into a set of rules and regulations, and their own obligation to keep those rules. But that is the law, and we are not under law, but under grace. Grace is a wonderful word. We love the grace of God, and we depend upon the grace of God. Without the grace of God we would all be eternally lost, because justification is entirely by grace without the deeds of the law. Grace means that God gives to us freely and abundantly through Christ without us doing anything to merit it or deserve it. But grace does not mean that we have a freedom to sin. And so Romans 6:15 says, "What then? shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid."

Slavery existed during the days of the Roman Empire. Human beings were one of the commodities that were sold in the marketplace. Such slaves were often servants in the households of their rich masters. The Bible does not condone the slavery, but it does use it as an example of what happens to us when we come to God. Christ paid the price for us with His blood. When we come to God, we are no longer our own. We have been paid for with a price. Even though we do not have slavery today, one of the principles of human interaction requires that everyone serve someone. The wise person will find out whom they are supposed to serve and will serve them faithfully. Even the highest of our government officials will eventually be held accountable for how well they have served the people. Any servant and any slave will always have the capacity to rebel against their master or to resist authority, if they are willing to suffer the consequences.

The human will is such a powerful force that we need to remind ourselves daily to surrender our will to God through Jesus our Lord. Jesus told us to pray and to say to God, "Thy will be done"; and then by His own example when He faced the agony of the death on the cross, He said to the Father, "Not my will, but thine be done." In Romans Chapter 6 Paul reminds us that we will either serve God, or we will serve our own selfish desires. Be careful that you do not resist God, and be fearful of going your own way. Do not say “no” to Him. Do not go your own way. Romans 6:16 says, "Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?"

The concept of yielding to God is critical in two distinct ways. In order to be saved; a person must yield themselves to God and come to Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And then after being saved a person must yield themselves to God every day, in order to walk with Him and serve Him. Your own will, which can be so selfish and stubborn: may be your own worst enemy. Dwight Moody understood the importance of yielding to God and surrendering to God, and he knew that believers often had a problem with it. Moody said that the world has yet to see what God can do through the person who is totally surrendered to God’s will.

Paul was thankful that the people to whom he was writing had yielded themselves to Christ, and therefore their lives had been changed. He said in Romans 6:17, "But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you." They obeyed from the heart. Anyone who is truly saved has obeyed from the heart. The Greek word “kardia”, is the word from which we get our English word “cardiac”. The physical heart, being at the center of the body and being critical for physical life is symbolic of the spiritual heart: the innermost thoughts, motives, and feelings. You have a physical heart, which is an organ that is critical to physical life, and you have a spiritual heart, which is your innermost thoughts, motives, and feelings. If you are to believe on Christ for salvation, you must believe with your heart. Anything less, and you are not saved.

Romans 10:10 says, "With the heart, man believes unto righteousness...". Here it says that they "obeyed" from the heart. This is not a contradiction. Belief and obedience are intimately intertwined. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot believe without also wanting to obey, and without also yielding to His will. First comes faith and tied closely to faith is obedience, and what will certainly follow is doing what is right.

Romans 6:17 says that they "obeyed from the heart". The word that is here translated "obey", means in the Greek “to listen” or “to hear”. It means to obey in the sense that one responds positively to what one hears. It i’s associated with the idea of being one of the "called" of God. God calls someone. Only when that person responds in a positive way to His calling and listens with a ready and willing attitude, does that person truly serve Him. Some people flee from the Word of God, but some desire it and seek it out. Listening and obeying are very closely related. One of the reasons that some people do not want to hear the Word of God is because they do not want to obey it. They are stubborn, and they resist God’s call.

In Romans 6:18 Paul said, "Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness." When we become a follower of God through Christ, we are put in a win-win situation. We become set free from what is bad: sin, and we become attached to what is good: righteousness. The Lord takes away that which is bad, and fills up the void with that which is good.

In Romans 6:19 the Bible says, "I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh..." We must never forget the infirmity of our flesh. That is what causes us to sin. You are often your own worst enemy. It is not a sin to be tempted, but it is a sin to yield to the temptation, to say “yes” to it. It is not a sin when birds fly over your head, but it is a sin when you allow them to build a nest there. Be careful, sin may be at the door. It may be one step or one thought away. Most of the sins that we commit are things that of themselves are not sin, but when we go across the limit or the bound that God has set for them, they become sin. We are drawn to cross the line by the infirmity of our flesh. The "flesh" refers to our selfish nature. We need to remember how great is the infirmity of our flesh. God knows how weak we are. That is one of the reasons that He is so quick to forgive us.

Paul goes on to say in the rest of Romans 6:19 and in Romans 6:20, "For as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness." Sometimes in the English language, we use the word “servant” almost synonymous with the word “worker”. We might call a maid or a cook, a servant. But the word that is translated servant here is the word that means slave. Those who are now believers in Jesus were once the servants of sin. They were once slaves to sin. And those who have not yet come to Jesus are still the servants of sin, and they are still the slaves of sin.

Those of us who come to Christ desire righteousness. We desire that everything be done according to the will of God, but we must never forget that sinners will sin. They will sin because they are the servants of sin. They are not going to conform to our life styles. There is no hope for them unless they come to Christ. Some Christians spend too much time complaining about the sins of sinners, as if it could be any different. They will only change if and when they come to Jesus. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things are passed away: all things are become new."

One of the things that will wake people up, and help them to desire to come to Christ, is the realization that they will have to give an account for their sins one day. Someone may be able to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, but the ultimate result of sin for them will be death, spiritual death. In Romans 6:21 Paul reminds the believers of the ultimate consequences of the sins that they had once so easily committed. He said, "What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death."

Physical death is a horrible thing without the promise of the resurrection and without the promise of life after death. But much worse than physical death is spiritual death. Spiritual death is so much worse than physical death because spiritual death will last forever. Spiritual death is so horrible because it is eternal separation from God and from all that is good. Jesus warned people of eternal spiritual death many times, and when He spoke of it He said, "There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." The book of Revelation speaks of the end times when those who never come to Christ go out into eternity still under the guilt of their sins, and it says in Rev. 20:15, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

Such a destiny of eternal spiritual death and the just punishment for sins can be avoided through the grace of God that is in Christ. Instead of eternal death, all believers in Jesus are promised eternal life.

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