By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.1. In our last study, we looked at verses 1-5 of chapter 6.
1.1.1.1. Paul began
to explain more about the unique relationship that a believer has with Christ
which enables him to be able to experience the saving life of Christ as Paul
begins to discuss the believer’s identification with Christ.
1.1.1.2. Paul first answered the mistaken notion that
some had in saying that if we believe that we are justified through Christ and
have eternal life that we can now go and live our life however we want in our
sin.
1.1.1.3. Next, Paul
began to discuss the mysterious identification with Christ that a believer has
both in Christ’s death to sin upon the cross as well as in Christ’s having
risen up from the dead. We saw that when
Christ died upon the cross, every true believer in Christ likewise died to his
sinful nature, and when Christ was raised up from the dead to walk a
resurrected life likewise each true believer in Christ was raised up to walk in
the newness of life as a new creature with a new motivating force and new
principles of life in operation.
1.1.2. In our study
today, we are going to look at verses 6-13 of chapter 6.
1.1.2.1. Having laid
a foundation in the fact of the identification of every believer with the Lord,
both in His death and His resurrection saying that we were buried with Him in
baptism unto death and that we were raised up to walk in the newness of life
with Him, Paul now begins to develop an application of these truths that we are
supposed to make in our lives.
1.1.2.2. Paul will
teach us as Christians that we are supposed to not only accept these
identification truths about ourselves as true but we are also supposed to act
accordingly upon them, or reckon them to be true in our lives.
1.1.2.3. Not only are
we as Christians identified with Christ in His death and resurrection, but we
also no longer need to be slaves to sin because of these truths. Having been positionally
set free from sin and given new resurrection life through Christ, we are to
experientially enjoying and living in the reality of these truths.
2. VS 6:6 -7 - “6 knowing
this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done
away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.” - Paul tells us that we
Christians should understand that our old self was crucified with Christ so
that we no longer have to be slaves to sin
2.1.
In verse 6, Paul talks about the things that he “knows”
are true. The Greek word that he uses
for ‘knowing’ isn’t the one used in verse 3, this is “gnosko,” which is a knowing with intimate concern
and detail, a knowing gained from experience. Paul could have used a different word that
simply refers to knowledge gained, however it is significant that he uses this
word for emphasis. This knowledge that
he had was certain and no one could take it away from him. Paul knew beyond a shadow of doubt that the
Christian’s ‘old self was crucified with Him.’
2.2.
The knowledge Paul refers to gave him tremendous
consolation because as a result of it he knew that his old self (called ‘our
body of sin’ here by him) had been destroyed in its power to control and
enslave him. Paul knew that he did not
have to sin any longer, for he had been set free from sin.
2.3.
I have already mentioned in this chapter that when a
Christian becomes saved, that what he becomes saved from is his sin. A person’s sin had enslaved and abused him,
and would ultimately have sent him to hell.
Salvation through Christ loosens the chains of sin from a believer’s
life and makes him free from its power and dominion over his life.
2.4.
The aorist past tense is used here of this phrase ‘was
crucified’ which again indicates that this is action that occurred at a
moment in time past. Paul is not talking
about something that ought to occur in the believers life, nor something that
is in the process of occurring, nor something that the believer ought to be
working on. Rather Paul again is talking
about something that is an undisputed fact in the life of every Christian’s
life: at the moment of salvation the old
self ‘was crucified’ and rendered powerless over the believer’s life.
2.5.
In The Way Of Victory James R. McConkey wrote about the fact that our death to self and
being raised up to walk in newness of life is already a fact in our lives if we
are truly saved: "Because He died 'death hath no more dominion over
Him,' and because of our union with Him 'sin shall not have dominion over you,'
even though it is present in you. Our 'reckoning' ourselves dead to sin in
Jesus Christ does not make it a fact -- it is already a fact through our union
with Him. Our reckoning it to be true only makes us begin to realize the fact
in experience."
2.6.
The Greek word that is translated as ‘done away
with’ in this verse is translated as “destroyed” in the King James
translation. The idea that the word
renders is that of “having made powerless and ineffective.” The purpose of the believer having died to
sin, the world, the old self, and the devil at the moment of salvation is so
that his old self might be rendered powerless and no longer able to subject
them to slavery to sin. The Greek word
translated ‘done away with’ has the following definition in Strong’s
Greek Dictionary:
1)
to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative
1a) to cause a person or thing to have no further
efficiency
1b) to deprive of force, influence, power
2)
to cause to cease, put an end to, do away with, annul, abolish
2a) to cease, to pass away, be done away
2b) to be severed from, separated from,
discharged from, loosed from any one
2c) to terminate all intercourse with one
2.7.
Knowing that the person who becomes a Christian is no
longer a slave to sin but rather now a slave to God, Paul says of all those who
have become Christians ‘that we should no longer be slaves to sin.’ The Christian has the victory assured to him
if he will simply account as true what God has said concerning his identification
with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, and act upon that
information.
2.8.
We as Christians are either walking in the grip of the
old self (the flesh), or we are walking in the grip of Christ. There is no in between place you can be. At any moment in time, our flesh is either
crucified, or it is in control. Jesus is
either Lord of our life, or we have dethroned Him and taken the throne
ourselves. If we are on the throne, then
the Bible makes it clear that we are “carnal Christians,” walking after
the flesh and its appetites and desires.
There is a “civil war” that is raging inside of every person who is a
Christian, a war between his flesh and the Holy Spirit. If there is no war within a person in this
world, then he is not saved and is on the road headed for hell. Paul talked about this war in Gal. 5:16-24,
“16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of
the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may
not do the things that you please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are
not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are:
immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife,
jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying,
drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as
I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such
things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified
the flesh with its passions and desires.”
2.9.
Likewise, we Christians must realize that if we give
over to the flesh, that sin is a hard task master. If we let the flesh win the war, it will
never be satisfied. We will have to
constantly try to go farther into our sinful habits and perversions than we
have gone before in order to get some satisfaction. However, that satisfaction will only be
short-lived at best. Then, the flesh
will just begin to crave more and more.
Once we yield to the flesh, its power can become so strong and
inoculating, that we just go headstrong into sin and never look back to think
about where we have gone astray from following our Lord. No one can tell us anything, the Bible is
irrelevant to us, we become hardened, and our conscience becomes calloused,
seared as with a hot iron.
2.10.
We Christians must once and for all submit our lives
to the Lordship of Christ as Paul writes in Romans 12:1-2, “12:1 I urge you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and
holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and
acceptable and perfect.” Then, we can begin to ‘reckon’
the old self as dead to sin, yet that we have been raised up to walk in newness
of life in Christ.
2.11.
In order to illustrate how that death with Christ
enables a person to walk in the newness of life in Christ Jesus and thus have
victory over sin in their life, Paul adds something in this verse. He tells them that if a person were to die
physically, he would no longer be under sin’s control and dominion in their
life. For instance, if a man who is an
alcoholic were to die physically. He
would no longer be tempted to take a drink of alcohol. He would not be able to see it, smell it,
think about, obtain it, or even place it into his mouth to take a drink, for he
is a dead man. In the same way, we
Christians have been made dead to sin, and now through Christ and His power and
subsequent victory over sin in our life, we do not have to sin. We can be victors through Him in every
situation or struggle we face if we apply these truths in our life!
2.12.
A way that you can tell whether or not someone is dead
or not is to kick him. If he reacts then
he must not be dead. Isn’t it the truth
that when we receive some sort of personal affront or attack that this reveals
the true state of our hearts? The flesh
tries to fight or attack back when it is in control of our life.
3. VS 6:8-9 - “8 Now if
we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again;
death no longer is master over Him.” - Paul tells us Christians that if believe that
our old sinful nature is dead with Christ that we also believe that we will
live with Christ
3.1.
In verse 8, Paul teaches that since a believer in
Christ has ‘died with’ Him, that that mere fact infers that the believer
must also ‘live with Him.’ Thus,
there can be no identification with Christ in His death, without there also
being a corresponding identification with Him in His resurrection life. Visa versa, there can be no identification
for a believer with the life of Christ resurrected, without a corresponding
identification with Him in death, death to sin for the believer.
3.2.
In verse 9, Paul again speaks of what he “knows”
to be true. He says that of Christ, he
knows that he knows that He has ‘been raised from the dead,’ and also
that Christ is ‘never to die again,’ and further that for Christ ‘death
is no longer master over Him.’
Christ died for the sins of mankind, and conquered all of man’s enemies: sin, hell, death, the grave, and the
devil. There would be no purpose for
Christ to ever have to die again. He
accomplished everything that would ever need to be accomplished for man on the
cross.
3.3.
Through the cross, mankind had their sin atoned for,
access to God assured, victory over sin obtained, and eternal life
secured. Further, since Christ will
never be subject to sin, nor its penalty or consequences, having conquered it,
sin can and will never be ‘master over Him.’
3.4.
The permanence of Christ’s position as being dead to
sin and raised up in resurrection life is then the believer’s assurance that he
has come at the moment of salvation been identified with Christ in His death,
burial, and resurrection, that he will also never be other than what Paul has
declared him to be in Christ: dead to
sin, the old self, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and, alive in the
resurrection life of Christ raised from the dead.
4. VS 6:10 - “10 For the
death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives,
He lives to God.” - Paul tells us that the death that Jesus died
He died to sin once for all but now the life that He lives is one lived to God
4.1.
Paul is stating in this verse in what sense or for
what purpose it was that Christ died.
Paul writes that ‘He died to sin,’ and it is interesting that
Paul used the word ‘to’ in this clause.
He did not write that Christ died ‘for’ sins, or ‘because of’
sins, or ‘on account of’ sins.
No, Paul writes that Christ ‘died to sin.’ This language then infers that Christ died
and thus conquered and won victory over sin.
4.2.
Paul then writes that Christ’s death ‘to’ sin
was ‘once for all.’ Only one
offering of Christ for the sins of the world was necessary, since He died for
all sins past, present and future, and this one sacrifice of Himself produced
the glorious result of conquering sin in its penalty, power, and (one day it
shall be) presence. The author of the
book of Hebrews used very similar language in describing the effect of the one
timely death of Christ for all time:
Heb. 7:26-27 says, “26 For it was fitting that we should have such a
high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted
above the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to
offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the
people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.”
4.3.
By Paul writing, ‘but the life that He lives, He
lives to God,’ he is inferring I suppose that the Christian has been raised
up and made to live the same kind of life that Christ has been raised up to
live, and that it is a live that is lived in dedication, worship, and service
to God, the Father of all creation.
5. VS 6:11 - “11 Even so consider yourselves
to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” - Paul tells us as Christians
that we ought to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus
5.1.
Paul writes in this verse ‘even so’ which is to
say that as a result of the truth of what he has said in this chapter
concerning the believer’s identification with Christ, then it is the believer’s
responsibility to ‘consider’ himself or herself to be what God says is a
truth that he or she is ‘dead to sin’ and ‘alive to God.’ As I have said earlier, this word ‘consider’
is a word used in bookkeeping, and it means ‘to account’ or ‘to count
it so.’ Paul exhorts the Roman
Christians to consider it as a fact that they have died to sin, and thus they
do not have to sin. Likewise, they are
to consider it equally true that they have been raised up by Christ and made ‘alive
to God.’ His resurrection power is
thus keeping them above the corruption of sin in their nature.
5.2.
This word ‘consider’ in the Greek is in the
present tense, which indicates that this is something that the Christian is
constantly, moment by moment, to be doing.
5.3.
As I have said earlier in this chapter, we Christians
are not to try to crucify the flesh, or try to put to death the old sin nature,
nor are we to try simply to do a better job at avoiding sin and serving
God. Further, we should not ask God to
crucify and put to death our flesh (old self).
Rather, we are to walk by faith in what God says is true concerning us,
as dead to sin and alive to God. To do
this requires that we often go against everything that our senses are telling
us is true.
5.4.
Reckoning these things to be true in our lives as
Christians requires that we also quit trying to do the work of sanctification
ourselves via our own will-power and self-effort. It requires that we stop trying to make
ourselves acceptable to God by what we are doing for Him. Such living is legalism and always ends in
defeatism. Rather, we are to by faith
trust that what He says about our identification with Christ is true of us and
walk and make choices based upon that truth.
5.5.
From the Biblical perspective, God’s way for defeating
addictions or bad sinful habits is by this process of reckoning. This is the way Christians are to gain
complete control over all of the evil propensities of the flesh for a
Christian.
5.6.
What the book of Romans does for us as Christians is
to show us how that there is no excuse for our sinning. There is no one whom we can blame
either. We are assured of victory over
all sin in our life if we will simply learn this process of reckoning.
5.7.
We Christians must learn not to base our life upon our
feelings. If we are going to reckon
ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, we will have to do this
regardless of what our feelings are telling us.
This is very difficult to do since our feelings can seem to indicate
almost anything to us and they are often times very strong and convincing. Yet, God’s Word is the authority over all
matters pertaining to ourselves and to life, not our feelings.
5.8.
Also, it is important to remember that Satan does not
want us Christians to believe what God’s Word says concerning our
identification with Christ, and reckoning those things to be so in our
life. Don’t be surprised if the Devil
begins warfare with you when you begin to apply these truths in your life.
5.9.
If you were starving to death and had no money in the
bank and hadn’t had any in months, and then I were to tell you that I had in
fact deposited $10,000 into your account and that all you had to do now was to
go to a day-night withdrawal machine if you wanted to get some cash out, you
would have to decide whether or not you wanted to trust me that what I had told
you was true. If you were to choose not
to believe me and thus not go to the bank and withdraw money so that you could
buy food, and as a result you were to die of starvation, it would not be my
fault that you had chosen not to reckon what I had told you to be true. In the same way, God promises that He has put
to death your old self and raised you up to resurrection life. If you choose to reckon it to be true, you
will reap the wonderful results of what He has promised in your life. If you choose not to do so, you will reap
defeat, misery and sorrow, but it won’t be His fault that these things have
occurred.
5.10.
This “dead reckoning” is really the Biblically
based means by which the believer is to be filled (controlled and empowered)
with the Holy Spirit. This should be the
normal day to day experience of our normal walk with God as Christians. Paul wrote about this in Gal. 5:24-25, “24 Now
those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit,
let us also walk by the Spirit.”
5.11.
I do want to point out that over and above this
filling of the Holy Spirit that occurs from reckoning for ourselves our
positional truths in Christ, the Lord can “baptize” (submerge) us in the
Spirit with an outpouring in our lives, investing us with gifts and
manifestations. We must never be content
to only perform this reckoning, rather we should also press on asking the Lord
for more and greater anointing and gifting in our lives. We need to ask for more fullness, more power,
and more blessing. Revival is what the
church is needing, and this is the overflowing of His outpouring of the Spirit
in the lives of His people in an “unusual” way. We ought to pray for more days of Pentecost
in our life and within the church.
5.12.
Sometimes I hear Christians praying in a wrong way, or
believing wrongly about the crucifixion of their flesh. We Christians are not to ask God to kill or
crucify our flesh, but rather we are to believe that our flesh has already been
crucified since we are in Christ.
6. VS 6:12 - “12
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its
lusts,” -
Paul tells us not to let sin reign in our bodies by obeying the lusts of
the body
6.1.
Having given the admonishment to “reckon”
ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God, Paul now moves further into the area
of application of this truth in Christian’s
life. I have already discussed
how that at the moment of becoming a Christian that a person has become
identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. In that split second of time a person’s sin
nature has died, and therefore he/she does not have to sin anymore. Before we were enslaved to sin, unable not to
sin, and now we do not have to give in to the temptations that the devil places
in our lives. Now we have power over
temptation and sin.
6.2.
So, with this positional knowledge, Paul tells us in
this verse to put this truth to practice by denying our flesh the desires that
it lusts for. In writing this verse, it
suddenly becomes obvious first of all that a person’s sin nature is still
operative within his life. Paul would
not write to us telling us to not obey the lusts of their flesh if the flesh
did not desire that which was wrong, and if we did not have temptations that we
have to fight in the flesh. It is
likewise obvious that if Paul is telling us not to let sin ‘reign’ in
our mortal body, that sin has the potential to ‘reign’ in a Christian’s
body. For sin to ‘reign’ in a
Christian’s body means for him to again fall under its control and dominion, as
a slave to it.
6.3.
When Paul says ‘do not let,’ it is obvious that
a Christian has the power to not let himself be controlled by the old self, for
he has power over it through Christ. The
power is Christ within him, yet the Christian himself is given the responsibility
to appropriate that power within his life.
6.4.
As was mentioned, within a Christian there is going on
a civil war, a war between two distinct and diametrically opposed natures. There is the new nature which is created in
the likeness of God Himself, and then there is the remnant of the old
self. These two natures are at war, and
thus a Christian has to make careful decisions regarding his life. Paul talked about this battle between the two
natures in many places, however none so clearly as in Galatians chapter 5,
verses 16-17, “16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out
the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another,
so that you may not do the things that you please.”
6.5.
We Christians need to realize that God will not allow
a temptation into our life from which we will not have the power to
resist. Paul promised this truth to
Christians in 1 Cor. 10:13, “13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as
is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted
beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of
escape also, that you may be able to endure it.”
6.5.1. In saying
that God will provide ‘the way of escape’ from every temptation we face,
we Christians must realize that the best way to have victory over the
temptations to sin is to flee it, get away from that place where you are being
tempted. If we think that we have the
will power to go into a situation that places us vulnerable to the weaknesses
we already have in our flesh and stay there, plus have victory over that
temptation to sin, we are being very foolish.
The lusts of the flesh can be so deceiving and powerful, and once we
start giving into them we can begin a quick downward spiral that we will not be
able to get out (at least not for awhile).
6.5.2. We
Christians need not overly fear temptation, but we should be wise and
discerning so as to know when to flee from its presence.
6.6.
God has left it up to us as Christians as to whether
or not we shall be dominated by sin and the flesh, or by the Holy Spirit in our
life. We have been given a tremendous
amount of freedom, and we have been given a tremendous amount of responsibility
in God giving us that option in our life.
We must be vigilant in our determination not to let sin take control of
us.
6.7.
Not only will God not allow us to be tempted beyond
what we are able, but also we Christians need to realize that now we have been
placed in such a relationship with God and His power to give us victory in
every situation that if we resist Satan, then he must flee from us, just as
James wrote in Ja. 4:7-8, “7 Submit therefore to
God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will
draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you
double-minded.”
6.7.1. James does
not say that the Devil will kick and scratch fighting against you as he leaves
your life, nor that the devil will crawl away from you, rather he will “flee”
away from you if you will just resist him.
In these situations the Lord fights our battles for us when we submit
ourselves to the Lord and the Devil knows that he is not going to win a battle
against the Lord so he out of our life in a hurry.
6.8.
Paul writes in Col. 3:5-11 about how that we
Christians are now to consider our old self as dead to all of the sinful deeds
that we once performed in the flesh, “5 Therefore consider the members of
your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and
greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is on account of these things that
the wrath of God will come, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were
living in them. 8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice,
slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since
you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new
self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One
who created him 11 —a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek
and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman,
but Christ is all, and in all.”
6.8.1. Like taking
off an old garment and putting a new one on to wear, Paul exhorts us as
Christians in the above passage from Colossians to lay “aside the old self”
and “put on the new self.”
6.8.2. There can be
no putting on of the new self until there is a taking off of the old self. Jesus said no man could serve two masters,
and thus we cannot serve our flesh and at the same time serve God.
6.9.
In Numbers 33: as Joshua was preparing the people to
cross over the Jordan River and go into the land of Canaan to possess the land,
he gave the people a word of wisdom from the Lord about the foolishness of not
appropriating all of the victory that the Lord has granted that you should have
in this life, “55 ‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land
from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of
them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they
shall trouble you in the land in which you live. 56 ‘And it shall come about
that as I plan to do to them, so I will do to you.’”
6.9.1. If we
Christians allow sin to be in our life, it will be just like allowing one of
those inhabitants to live in the land, it will be a prick in our eye and a
thorn in our side, and it will trouble us all of our days, and if we continue
in it God shall eventually have to judge us as He judges the wicked.
7. VS 6:13 - “13 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.” - Paul tells
us who are Christians to stop presenting the members of our body as instruments
of unrighteousness but present ourselves to God
7.1.
Paul is teaching the Christians here in this verse
that they are not to continue on their merry way in their sin as they did
before coming to Christ, but rather he tells them to, ‘not go on presenting
the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.’
7.2.
There has been lots of discussion as to what the ‘members’
of a person’s body refers to. Some have
said that Paul is referring to their tongue, their lips, their hands, their
feet, their heart, etc. Regardless of
what constituent parts of a person’s mind, body and soul that Paul is referring
to, he tells them not to present those parts ‘as instruments of
unrighteousness,’ in other words for the purpose of performing sinful acts
of any kind.
7.3.
Jesus warned His disciples in Matt. 18:8-9 about how
that as disciples we must cut off or remove that part of our body that is
offensive to God, “8 “And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble,
cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled
or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire. 9
“And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It
is better for you to enter life with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast
into the fiery hell.”
7.3.1. The point
Jesus was making is that a Christian should stop sinning, and cease whatever
sinful activity he may be doing. The
great incentive in stopping his life of sin is that in so doing he will insure
that he will not be cast into hell when the Lord returns or he goes to be with
the Lord.
7.4.
Paul tells them to ‘present’ themselves to God,
for this is God’s will for the Christian.
The Christian is to present up his body to God to make him the person
that He wants him to be. The Christian’s
life must be a yielded life, one that is surrendered to the control and
Lordship of Jesus, not for one’s own selfish purposes. This is the message of Romans 12:1-2.
7.5.
The way that Christians are to look at this offering
up of themselves unto God is ‘as those alive from the dead.’ You can look at what Paul is getting at in
saying this a few different ways.
7.5.1. First, you
could just simply say that Paul is saying that Christians are to present
themselves unto God because they are in fact now living a resurrection life in
Christ.
7.5.2. Secondly,
you could look at as if Paul is saying that Christians ought to present
themselves unto God out of gratitude to One who has rescued them from a life
among the dead.
7.5.3. Third, you
could look at it as if he is saying that Christians are to present themselves
unto God with a freshness just as newborn baby entering into a new life, and
now with a hunger and excitement to learn everything that there is to learn
about this new world that has been entered into.
7.6.
Finally, to whatever Paul had previously referred to
as a person’s ‘members,’ he says that these are to be offered up to God
to be instruments for the living of righteousness rather than the instruments
of sin that they once were.
7.7.
Since we Christians have experienced the incredible
mercy and love of God in that He has pardoned us so graciously, then we must
also be constrained in our love for Him and desire to serve Him with all of our
being. Paul wrote the following
exhortation in 2 Cor. 5:14-15 concerning the fact that since He died for us
that we now ought to want to live for Him, “14 For the love of Christ
controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;
15 and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for
themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf,”
8. CONCLUSIONS:
8.1.
As we consider this study and how to apply it to our
lives, I would just encourage you that if you haven’t yet done so in your life,
you need to present yourself up to God for His service and purposes.
8.2.
You need to finally and completely surrender yourself
to Him. Only then can you really apply
what Paul writes in this verse about presenting ourselves to righteousness, and
not to sin.
8.3.
Have you been reckoning yourself dead to sin and alive
to God on a daily basis, in spite of your struggles, temptations, failures, and
even your contrary feelings about having been put to death and raised up from
the dead with Christ? I would just
encourage you to commit yourself to doing this on a continual basis.
8.3.1. Accept these
identification truths we have discussed as being true for you.
8.3.2. Begin to act
upon these truths in faith.