Paul uses the imagery of master and slave to drive home the
point that we need to yield to the Lord. It’s a call for us Christians to
respond rightly now that we are identified with Christ in His death and
resurrection. So he clearly said, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your
mortal body so that you obey its lusts.”
Then he proceeds to give us two ways to accomplish this. Firstly,
by not “presenting the members of our body to sin as instruments of
unrighteousness….’ It means we are not to avail our hands, feet, tongues as
instruments or tools of unrighteousness. Secondly, by offering ourselves to God
“…as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness.” He was calling for a
once-and-for-all action. We must come to a point where we present all that we are
to God for righteousness. There must be a total surrender of everything to Him.
We not only don’t give our body to the service of sin but will also yield all
that we are entirely to the Lord.
Paul’s point so far is this: we are solidly one with Christ because
we have shared in His death and resurrection. We must, therefore, intentionally
consider our body dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. That would lead us to
the final step. That is to yield our entire body to Him to be His instrument
for the work of righteousness.
When this process takes place in our lives, we will no
longer insist that we must sin so that grace may abound. Verse 14 left no doubt
that sin shall not be in control over believers. Why? It’s because grace has delivered
us from the system of the Law. We are no longer under law but under grace. Law
brings condemnation, grace frees us to serve God’s purpose and desires.
It’s so good to know that we are serving Christ. We are
reminded by John that He is full of grace and truth. Hence we refuse to allow sin
to dominate our lives. We allow grace to enable us to freely serve Him.
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