How To Win Over Sin

By Kenneth Alan Daughters [1]

An Exposition Of Romans 6

We All Struggle

All believers struggle with sin. In fact, some believers think that they cannot help but sin. [2] However, when one looks at Romans 6, he discovers that sin’s power is not omnipotent and that sin need no longer be his master. None of us will become sinless this side of glorification, but each of us should be sinning less and less often. Romans 6 is our Emancipation Proclamation.

Romans 6:1 says, “Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?” This question arises because in the previous few verses it was demonstrated that the more we sin, the more God shows us His grace. We want God’s grace in abundance, but it is absurd to assume we should obtain it by sinning all the more. [3] Verse 2 responds, “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” And yet there are many believers who have placed their faith in Christ, received forgiveness for their sins, been baptized with the Holy Spirit, are indwelt permanently by the Holy Spirit, have an inheritance in heaven, and who sin like they are brothers of the devil.

When I was ministering to young people, I tried to explain this passage to one of the college students in my youth group. He was more honest than most, and he responded in exasperation, “Sometimes I can’t help but sin. The temptation is too strong. I have to give in.” I tried to point him to the verses that say otherwise, but he argued, “I know what is true in my own life, and for me it just didn’t work.” Many of us feel the same way. Many of us are dominated by the sin which indwells us. [4]

Yes, sin is enticing. The fish that looks at the worm on the end of the fisherman’s hook thinks that the bait is delicious. It may taste good for a moment, but there is a hidden barb. Sin is that way. It catches one off guard and enslaves. It prevents proper fellowship with the Father. But Romans 6 declares that we are free from slavery to sin. [5] A proper understanding of this passage is essential for living in victory over sin.

Free At Last

Romans 6:1–14 can be divided easily into three sections. The first point is that there is something that we ought to know. It is repeated three times in the first 9 verses. Verses 3, 6, and 9 all imply our knowledge is faulty. We may have learned a lot since we were saved, but if we are defeated by sin, then we have forgotten an important truth. We need to be reminded.

The second major point is that there is something we must consider (verse 11). We may have heard certain truths, but they are worthless until we count them to be true and act accordingly. And the third point is that there is something we must present (verse 13). Without this presentation the previous truths will make little difference.

We must know that our old self was crucified with Christ. We must consider ourselves to be dead to sin. And we must present the members of our body as instruments of righteousness to God.

What Do I Know?

The passage begins in verse 1 with the concept that we ought not continue to sin. This theme continues throughout. Verse 2 asks how it is that we could still be living in sin,

since we have died to it. [6] Verse 6 says we should no longer be slaves to sin. Verse 7 says we are free from sin. Verse 9 says death is no longer master over Christ. Verse 12 says not to allow sin to reign in our mortal bodies. And verse 13 says not to go on presenting the members of our body to sin. One cannot read these verses without realizing that sin is still a major problem in the life of many believers. But the point is that our lifestyle should be different now that we are saved. Victory over sin is explained in this passage. We would do well to understand it and live it.

I Died

The first thing to discover is that we have spiritually died to our old way of life. We have died to sin. [7] Our slavery to sin has been broken by death. When I pledged my eternal fidelity to my bride on our wedding day, it was with only one exception: till death do us part. Once one of us dies, the other is free to remarry. It is the same with sin. The only way out is by death. Sin did not die. The enticement of sin is still alive. But we died to sin. We may ask, “When did I die to sin? I don’t remember dying to sin.” At the moment one places his faith in Christ, he was spiritually identified with Christ’s crucifixion and died to sin. [8] Verse 3 says, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?” Christ killed our old way of life. Ezekiel 36 tells us he placed a new heart within us. We are new creatures. We might respond that we do not feel dead to sin. Sin still seems to be very much alive in us. Sin still has an enticement, but its mastery is gone. Its power is gone. One could still give in, but one does not have to any longer. Before we were saved we were obligated to sin. There was nothing that we could do to please God. When an unbeliever performs righteous deeds according to the world’s standards, he cannot please God. Only that which is done for Christ’s sake and for His glory pleases the Father.

No More Sweet Tooth

Sin ought not appeal to us with the same strength that it once did. [9] We should be able to see right through sin and recognize it for what it is: unnecessary rebellion. We should be able to see past the attractive bait to the barb on the end of the hook. We should be able to respond to the pull of our new heart toward God. We should have a propensity and a desire to serve Him, and only Him. Sin still has some enticement, but its sugar coating should be gone. We still could give in to sin, but we no longer are obligated to, and that is the difference.

New Life

The result is that we ought to be walking in newness of life (verse 4). “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Believers should now have a tremendous desire to serve God. We should be hungering and thirsting after righteousness. When we do sin, our guilt should be more intense than ever before. The Holy Spirit indwells each believer personally, guiding us in our sanctification. To be baptized into Christ Jesus is to be baptized into His death. [10] Just as He died to pay for sin, we die to the power of sin. At the moment of salvation we are changed forever. And then, just as Christ was raised from the dead demonstrating His power of life, so we too were raised to walk in newness of life. [11]

Positive Death

Verse 5 declares our unity with Christ in both death and resurrection. [12] We participated spiritually with Christ in His death and resurrection. [13] “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” Since Christ is alive today, we know that He has given us His life. [14] The spiritual infusion of new life not only guarantees our future life with Him in heaven, but it also liberates us from the power of sin here and now.

Verse 6 continues with the thought that we need to be reminded what is true about our spiritual life. “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.” When Christ died, our old self, or old man, died with Him. This is speaking of our old way of life, that is, our propensity to sin. [15] The way we used to live is dead and gone. That lifestyle of sin was crucified with him. [16] Why? It was that our body of sin might be done away with. Why does he speak of our fleshly body? [17] It is because this body is the instrument that we use to sin. We use our mind, and we play it out through our body. Our body of sin has been done away with. [18] The trap of the fleshly nature is broken. At one point we had no choice but to sin. But praise God, according to verse 7, he who has died is free from sin. We should no longer be slaves to sin. [19]

Staying Behind

In the history of our country Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, and the Civil War was fought to secure their right of freedom. But in great irony, when the war was over, some of the freed slaves chose to stay behind on the plantations of their former owners. They were free to go, but they felt more secure in their old environment. It was like a habit. It must have been frightening to move out into a new life. It would have been difficult to go somewhere else. And so some stayed behind on the plantations.

Romans 6 is our Emancipation Proclamation. We are told here that we are free to stop sinning and go on for the Lord. We no longer are slaves to sin. Sin is no longer master over us. If someone objects and says that the enticement of sin seems too strong to resist, theologically speaking we have no excuse.

Permanent Life

Verses 8–10 continue the thought of our identification with Christ by expressing just how permanent our union is. If Christ died only once, then we need to die only once to sin. If Christ is raised permanently from the dead, then our new life and power in Christ is permanent. “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” These verses make it clear that Christ’s death was directed toward sin. Specifically, Christ died to sin once for all. When we identified with Him spiritually at the moment of regeneration, we too died to sin once for all (vv. 3–5). And these verses also make clear the ramification of this death. Since Christ died to sin, death no longer is master over Him. Christ’s life is resurrection life, and he will never die again. The wages of sin is death, but death no longer has mastery over the one who has died to it.

But Christ’s death to sin is only half the story. He also arose from the dead and lives to God. And we know that since we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. This means that not only have we died to sin, but we have been raised to walk in newness of life. The life we now live, we live to God. The practical application of our identification with Christ is that we live lives pleasing to God.

Who Died?

Some have misunderstood this chapter to mean that the believer should no longer struggle with sin now that he has died to it. But these verses make it clear that sin has not died, but rather we have died to it. And furthermore, the issue at hand is sin’s mastery. Believers will still be tempted by sin. But sin shall no longer be master over us. And this condition is permanent. Just as Christ died once for all, never to die again, so we have permanently been liberated from sin’s mastery. And just as Christ now lives His life to God, so we should follow in His steps.

Take Him At His Word

In the first section of this chapter, we have seen that many believers are living defeated lives unnecessarily because their knowledge is faulty. They need to be reminded of the power and life that was given to them at the moment of regeneration. Now in the second section, verse 11, we find a transition from mere cognitive knowledge to practical application. The key word in this section is “consider.” Paul writes, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

At first appearance, this verse may seem to be a hedge. [20] We may misinterpret this verse as a softening of the theological truth of our death to sin. Paul has just spent 10 verses telling us that we died to sin, and now in verse 11 he tells us to pretend it to be so. What can he mean by “consider yourselves to be dead to sin?” Didn’t he just tell us we already are? In actuality, the word “consider” is a strong word. It does not mean “pretend it to be true,” but rather it connotes that we must wake up and realize that what he has been teaching is true. We have been acting as if it were not true. “Consider” is an accounting term which means “count it to be true because it is true.” [21] Verse 11 is the action verse. He has just given the theology in the previous verses, and he is now telling us to act upon what we know to be true. It is as if he is saying, “Now do it.”

Spend It

If I were told that $1000 had been placed in my checking account, the money would be useless to me unless I believed this to be true and actually used it. Verse 11 is telling us to use what has been given to us. God has freed us from slavery to sin, so we should now walk in newness of life. We are alive to God, having been placed “in Christ.” [22] We are free to obey Him. So we should do it.

Never Forget

Baby elephants are restrained by tying one of their legs with a thick rope attached to a long stake driven into the ground. The baby elephant pulls and pulls, but cannot get away. And we all know that elephants never forget. After countless attempts at escape, the elephant gives up and resigns itself to being restrained. That is why adult elephants need only be held with small ropes and short stakes. They learned long ago that it is futile to try to escape. So they do not even try. They just stand there. They could easily break the rope if they tried, but they never forget what they learned when they were young. It is the same with us. Some of us as believers have mistakenly assumed that we have to sin. We have the impression that temptation is so strong that we cannot resist. We learned to sin when we were young, and it has become a habit. Verse 11 is telling us that we can obey God. The rope to our old habits is thin and easily broken. A small tug is all we need to escape. We can obey. We are free to obey. The Holy Spirit who indwells us will help us obey.

We have seen in the first section of this chapter that our knowledge is faulty and needs correction. We saw in the second section that we are to act upon this knowledge and take God at His word. And now in the third section beginning with verse 12, we will see that there is a positive presentation that needs to be made.

What Do I Do?

Verse 12 begins with an application of verse 11. It says, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts.” The impression is that many believers continue to struggle with sin and their old way of life to the degree that sin is king and the believer is a slave to the lusts of his flesh. Because of the theology of the first 10 verses and the admonition of verse 11, this verse tells us clearly to stop the reign of sin in our lives. [23] Sin no longer need control us. The power of sin is gone. We do not need to succumb to the lusts of the flesh. We can resist successfully.

Giving Myself Away

But just as important as knowing about our identification with Christ, and considering it to be true, is the third step: presenting ourselves to God as those alive from the dead. Verse 13 says, “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.” Why would He ask me to yield or present the members of my body to Him? [24] This injunction sounds a lot like the presentation of Romans 12:1–2. [25] There Paul urges us to present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice to God, which is our spiritual service of worship. This permanent presentation results in a daily renewing of our minds, so that we will not be conformed to this world. [26] But what does He mean by making a presentation of our bodies?

In essence, what He is asking me to do is to make the decision to place myself in His care. [27] It is a decision that says ahead of time, long before the temptation is there, that when the time comes, I will obey. [28]

No Thank You

There is a campaign from the government to prevent our children from ever taking drugs. They are teaching our children to make the decision far in advance so that when the time comes, they will, “Just say NO!” In the same manner, verse 13 tells us that there should be a standing rule in our life that we will obey God. We should not agonize over every temptation trying to decide what we should do. We should have already presented the members of our body to righteousness so that we know in advance what the answer will be. There is no great question. Of course I will obey, what else? You expected me to sin? I don’t have to sin. This is speaking of a presentation, a decision, a choice we make ahead of time that we will serve God and not serve sin. [29]

How Often?

This presentation is not to be made daily. The grammar of the passage indicates that this should be a standing decision that we made long ago. [30] It should occur only once. Perhaps we will need to renew it from time to time, following a time of backsliding. [31] But this presentation should be permanent.

Interestingly, it is verse 11 that should be practiced on a daily basis. Moment by moment we should be considering ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Verse 14 summarizes our condition. It declares, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” We are not under the law, which produces guilt and slavery to a code of obedience. But instead, we are under grace. [32] We are given the resurrection power of Christ to obey. And sin shall no longer be master over us. [33]

In Other Words

Galatians

This is a prevalent theme in Paul’s theology. We can see how he developed the same theology using different concepts by comparing his other letters. Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” Our identification with Christ in His crucifixion is as clear here as it was in Romans 6. But the summary of how to live as a believer is expressed in different terms. Since I died with Christ to my old way of life, and Christ now lives in me, I now live by faith in the Son of God. The key to obedience in this passage is described as living by faith. [34]

Ephesians

Ephesians 4:22–24 expresses the same theology with different concepts. “That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” The picture here is of taking off our old clothes and leaving them behind. [35] Then we put on our new clothes, symbolizing the conscious decision to live in accordance with the new life. We should have laid aside our old man once and for all. We should have put on the new man once and for all. [36] But the renewing of our mind is a continual process that should take place daily. We should cleanse our minds daily with the Word of God and allow it to purify our lifestyle. We should let the Word of God permeate every part of our being and our mind will be renewed. [37]

Colossians

Again in Colossians 3 we see the same theology expressed in different terms. “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above. .. . Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.. .. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead. .. . Put them all aside. .. since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge.” In verse 5 we are instructed to once and for all put to death our earthly members. [38] We are to once and for all put them aside (v. 8). [39] But we need to continually seek the things above, concentrating, or focusing our mind on God’s eternal values (vv. 1–2).

We can see that Paul expressed the same truth in numerous ways. At the moment of salvation we identified with Christ spiritually so that we have died to our old way of life and we have been raised to walk in newness of life. We are no longer slaves to sin, and we are free to live by faith and obey God. We must make a standing decision that we are going to obey, and then we must renew our minds and live according to what we know is true.

A Magical Formula?

There is a danger in treating these steps as a magical formula to solve the struggle with sin. Some have mistakenly assumed that if they only “know, consider and present” that they will no longer be frustrated by sin. But the mere following of such steps is not the thrust of the teaching.

The Key Is Obedience

The key to all these passages is obedience. We see this clearly in Romans 6:16–18. Paul declares that we must be slaves to someone. If it is not Christ, then it is sin. “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” We can see from this verse that the bottom line of the presentation is obedience to God. [40] The believer can choose his master. Paul says that our obedience makes us slaves of righteousness. “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

Filling For Power

What Paul is driving at is that we need to obey God and forsake our old way of life of sin. Obedience is not only the key to pleasing God, but it also is necessary in order to have the Holy Spirit’s power available for success. Without the Spirit’s power, obedience is extremely difficult. In order to receive the Spirit’s power, we must be filled with the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is actually the issue of control. [41] The degree to which we are controlled by the Spirit is the degree to which we are filled. And the key to allowing the Spirit to control us is to obey. The Spirit will fill us when we obey.

Someone might respond that we are in a “Catch 22” situation. He might point out that if the Spirit fills us we will obey, but the Spirit will not fill us unless we obey. In a sense, the objection is well-founded.

Making It Easy On Ourselves

The temptation process can be described as the fork in a road. We can choose to go left and sin, or go right and obey. According to Romans 6 we are free to obey. We could choose to rebel if we wanted, but we have the liberty to obey. If we make the mental decision to obey, at that point the Spirit will fill us and give us the power to carry out our decision and find the way of escape. More than mere freedom to obey, we also have the propensity to obey because of the orientation of the new heart that God has placed within us. And furthermore, we have the indwelling presence of the Spirit prompting us to obey. When we have successfully passed the first temptation, we have the continued filling of the Spirit to give us the power to continue to obey. When the next temptation comes, the Spirit is already controlling us, so it is easier to obey this time. [42] Everything is going for us. We have the standing decision we made to obey God, we have the new heart within us, we have the indwelling presence of the Spirit, and we have the Spirit in control. When we walk by the Spirit in this manner, we do not carry out the desires of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). This is a lifestyle obedience.

But it is quite a different story if we choose to rebel. If we convince ourselves that God cannot be trusted anymore and that we must take care of ourselves, then we choose the left fork in the road and sin. Now the Spirit is not filling us, so His influence in our lives is greatly diminished. When we come to the second temptation, we are already in the habit of rebelling, so the chances are increased that we will choose to sin again. And thus begins a pattern of disobedience. The initial choice to obey is crucial. If you obey, it will become easier and easier to obey. If you disobey, it will become harder and harder to please God. [43] Romans 6 is the key to getting off to a good start. It is the passage that proclaims our freedom from the slavery to sin.

The initial presentation is crucial for our success over the practice of sin. Rather than ending in death, we can see the Spirit working in sanctifying us, making us more like Christ. Verse 19 says, “I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.44 For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.” Before we were saved it was impossible for us to please God. Verse 20 says, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.” There was no future in that lifestyle. We were heading for death. Verse 21 says, “Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.”

But our ultimate goal is found in Verse 22. “But having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.” Before we were saved we were slaves to sin, but now we have been freed. We have a new master now. We are enslaved to God. The benefit is that He is working in us to make us more and more like His Son. And ultimately, He will glorify us and we will live eternally with Him. The contrast could not be greater. The outcome of sin is death. But God gives us eternal life as free gift in Christ. Verse 23 forms the conclusion, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!

Notes

1. Ken Daughters is a faculty member at Emmaus Bible College.
2. “Many Christians have a basic desire to live a holy life, but have come to believe they simply cannot do it. They struggled for years with particular sins or deficiencies of character. While not living in gross sin, they have more or less given up ever attaining a life of holiness and have settled down to a life of moral mediocrity with which neither they nor God are pleased. The promise of Romans 6:6–7 seems impossibly beyond them. The strong command of Scripture to live a consistently holy life only frustrates them.” Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1978), 52.
3. Hendriksen captures the flavor of their reasoning when he writes, “If works mean so little, why perform them at all? Besides, if grace is everything, why not sin flagrantly, lustfully, in order to give grace the opportunity to operate?” William Hendriksen, Exposition of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, NTC (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980), 194.
4. The word for sin, ἁμαρτία (hamartia), is used 16 times in the noun form and once in the verb form in Romans 6. When it is used in the singular, it usually describes sin as a state of sinfulness, or sin as a ruling power, rather than an individual act of sin. The context of Romans 5 and 7 confirms this. Thus, the sin problem spoken of in Romans 6 is not so much individual sins, as it is the indwelling principle of sinfulness which leads men to rebel against God’s standard of righteousness.
5. “What he does present here is not the impossibility of committing a single sin, but the impossibility of continuing in a life dominated by sin.” Everett F. Harrison, “Romans,” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 12 vols. Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976), 10:68
6. “Paul is saying that death and life are incompatible. It is impossible to be dead and alive at the same time. So a Christian can’t be living in sin when he has died to it. All who come to Christ make a break with sin, a definite act that took place in the past at the moment of salvation.” John MacArthur, Freedom from Sin (Chicago: Moody Press, 1987), 16.
7. “What the apostle has in view is the once-for-all definitive breach with sin which constitutes the identity of the believer. A believer cannot therefore live in sin; if a man lives in sin he is not a believer. If we view sin as a realm or sphere then the believer no longer lives in that realm or sphere. The believer died to sin once and he has been translated to another realm.” John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, NIC (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1965), I:213.
8. The fundamental idea of baptism is identification. We have shared spiritually in Christ’s death by identification with Him through our baptism with the Spirit. The fundamental idea of death is separation. Christ’s death provided substitutionary atonement for sin. He took the penalty of sin and broke its power. As believers we are separated from the penalty and power of sin and reconciled to God.
9. “Paul is here concerned to insist that justification has inescapable moral implications, that our righteous status before God involves an absolute obligation to seek righteousness of life, that to imagine that we can ‘receive righteousness in Christ without at the same time laying hold on sanctification’ (Calvin) is a profane absurdity.” C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans, ICC (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1975), I: 295.
10. “Paul expresses in the most decisive and emphatic way the truth of our having died with Christ; for burial is the seal set to the fact of death--it is when a man’s relatives and friends leave his body in a grave and return home without him that the fact that he no longer shares their life is exposed with inescapable conclusiveness. So the death which we died in baptism was a death ratified and sealed by burial, an altogether unambiguous death.” Cranfield, Romans, I:304.
11. “Paul used ‘newness’ of life to refer to a new quality or kind of life, not ‘new’ in terms of chronology. Righteousness now becomes the pattern for believers as opposed to the past, which was characterized by habitual sin. Sin may manifest itself from time to time in the believer’s life, but it will not characterize his new life-style.” MacArthur, Freedom from Sin, 22–23.
12. The picture is of the believer being grafted into Christ. “No term could more adequately convey the intimacy of the union involved. It is not that this relationship is conceived of as a process of growth progressively realized. The terms of the clause in question and the context do not allow for this notion. The death of Christ was not a process and neither is our conformity to his death a process. We are in the condition of having become conformed to his death. But ‘grown together’ points to the closeness of our relation to him in his death.” Murray, Romans, 218.
13. The word “likeness” does not mean identical. The believer’s death to sin is a spiritual identification resembling Christ’s death and no more. It was made possible by His death. The believer is dead to sin because of his spiritual participation in Christ’s death conquering sin. R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1980), 399.
14. “Both Ephesians and Colossians state that our being raised with Christ is past; our present text, however, uses a future tense (ἐσόμεθα [esometha], “we shall be”) of the event. Although it is possible that the reference here is to the eschatological future, or to the moral life, the flow of the text suggests that we should view ἐσόμεθα (“we shall be”) as a “logical” future--union with Christ in his resurrection follows logically and inevitably upon union with him in death.” Douglas J. Moo, “Law, Works of the Law, and Legalism in Paul,” Westminster Theological Journal, 45 (Spring, 1983): 216.
15. The “old self” refers to the unregenerate man, and especially to his lifestyle. It is to be distinguished from the flesh. The “old self” no longer exists in the believer, whereas the flesh continues to influence the believer, though its mastery has been nullified. The believer is not both “old self” and “new self.” John Murray, Principles of Conduct (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1957), 212–16. “This does not mean that the believer lives untroubled by the possibility of sinning. .. . But it is another vivid way of saying that the power of sin is broken in the believer. To come to Christ means the complete end of a whole way of life. There may be slips, but they are uncharacteristic.” Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988), 251. This is not to say there is no longer a struggle with sin. I concur with Stott that “the old nature is still alive and active in regenerate believers.” John R. W. Stott, Men Made New: An Exposition of Romans 5–8 (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1966), 40.
16. The “old self” was crucified once and for all with Christ. There is no process in which the “old self” is gradually crucified. Crucifixion is a single, once for all act. Murray, Romans, 220.
17. “Body” refers to one’s physical body and not to the person as a whole. Gundry writes, “The σῶμα ([so ma], “body”) denotes the physical body, roughly synonymous with “flesh” in the neutral sense. It forms that part of man in and through which he lives and acts in the world. It becomes the base of operations for sin in the unbeliever, for the Holy Spirit in the believer. Barring prior occurrence of the parousia, the σῶμα (“body”) will die. That is the lingering effect of sin even in the believer. But it will also be resurrected. That is its ultimate end, a major proof of its worth and necessity to wholeness of human being, and the reason for its sanctification now.” Robert H. Gundry, Soma in Biblical Theology (New York: Cambridge Press, 1976), 50. I do not think Stott’s view goes far enough: “Now ‘the sinful body’ or ‘the body of sin’ (AV) is not the human body. This body is not sinful in itself. It means rather the sinful nature which belongs to the body.” Stott, Men Made New, 44.
18. The idea of our body of sin “being done away with” is the concept of rendering it powerless to dominate us (Hebrews 2:14). Our physical body which was under the domination of sin has been rendered inactive so that it can no longer remain a stronghold for the indwelling principle of sin. That is not to say that the physical body has no power, only that it is rendered powerless to the control of sin. The believer can still be enticed by sin, but its reign of tyranny has been broken so that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
19. The concept of being freed from sin is judicial in nature. Murray writes, “‘Justified from sin’ will have to bear the forensic meaning in view of the forensic import of the word ‘justify.’ But since the context deals with deliverance from the power of sin the thought is, no doubt, that of being ‘quit’ of sin. The decisive break with the reigning power of sin is viewed after the analogy of the kind of dismissal which a judge gives when an arraigned person is justified. Sin has no further claim upon the person who is thus vindicated. This judicial aspect from which deliverance from the power of sin is to be viewed needs to be appreciated. It shows that the forensic is present, not only in justification but also in that which lies at the basis of sanctification.” Murray, Romans, 222.
20. “Consider” is not a hedge word implying that we have not really died to sin. Ladd responds to this objection by writing, “One cannot consider himself dead with Christ unless he has actually died and been crucified with Christ, but because this has happened, it can be put into practice in daily experience.” George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974), 474. Cranfield agrees, “The verb λογίζεσθαι [logizesthai, “consider”], as used here denotes not a pretending (‘as if’), nor a mere ideal, but a deliberate and sober judgment on the basis of the gospel.” Cranfield, Romans, I:315.
21. “Consider” speaks of the resulting evaluation from having taken the preceding facts into account. Eichler writes, “The concept implies an activity of the reason which, starting with ascertainable facts, draws a conclusion, especially a mathematical one or one appertaining to business, where calculations are essential.” Johannes Eichler, “Think,” The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, ed. Colin Brown (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), 3:823.
22. “We are in Christ, inasmuch as God accepts Christ’s death as having been died for us and His risen life as being lived for us; for this means that in God’s sight we died in His death, that is we died in Him, and were raised up in His resurrection, that is, in Him, and now live in Him.” Cranfield, Romans, I:316.
23. The grammar suggests the translation, “Stop allowing sin to continue to reign in your mortal body.” 
24. “Members” originally referred to one’s limbs, but it came to include any natural capacity. Cranfield, Romans, I:317.
25. “To ‘yield’ means to present for service. .. as one ‘alive from the dead,’ ‘a living sacrifice’ (12:1).” James M. Stifler, The Epistle to the Romans (Chicago: Moody Press, 1960), 113.
26. “A Christian is called upon to make a definite yielding of his life to God to make possible its full blessing and usefulness just as he was called upon to believe in order to be saved. The familiar exhortation found in Romans 12:1, to ‘present’ ourselves to God, is the same word in the aorist tense, again a definite act of yielding to God.” John F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit, 3rd ed. (Findlay, Ohio: Dunham, 1958), 197–98.
27. “Believers are to present themselves to God as those alive from the dead. Here the whole personality is in view.” Murray, Romans, 228.
28. “What Paul is saying then is this, ‘Do not continue to put your bodily parts at the disposal of sin, as weapons of wickedness. Stop doing this; and instead, right now, completely and decisively, put yourselves at God’s disposal. Offer yourselves to him!” Hendriksen, Romans, 202.
29. “Sin is conceived of as a master at whose disposal we place these members in order that they may be instruments to promote unrighteousness. The exhortation is to the effect that we are not to go on placing our physical organs at the disposal of sin for the furtherance of such an end. The positive counterpart is that we are to present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead and our members as instruments of righteousness to God.” Murray, Romans, 228.
30. “The tense that is used in this instance indicates the once-for-allness of the dedication involved in the presentation of ourselves and of our members. We are regarded as presenting ourselves and our members once for all to God for His service and the promotion of righteousness.” Murray, Romans, 228.
31. Moo does not want to make too much of the aorist tense of this verb, but he is realistic when he writes, “In conjunction with the prohibition in the present tense (“stop presenting”), an “ingressive” idea is probably best--as you stop presenting yourselves to sin, begin presenting yourselves to God. Such a transition may take place many times in the life of the believer (although Paul would no doubt hope that only one such committal would be necessary).” Douglas J. Moo, “Law, Works of the Law, and Legalism in Paul,” Westminster Theological Journal, 45 (Spring, 1983): 220.
32. Because we are under grace, we have the power of the Spirit to serve God. Hendriksen writes, “Grace dethrones sin. It destroys sin’s lordship and enables the believer to offer himself, and whatever pertains to him, in loving service to God! The child of God is able to do this because he is not under law but under grace.” Hendriksen, Romans, 203.
33. “Though sin will still have a hold upon them until they die, they will henceforth, as subjects of Christ over whom He has decisively reasserted His authority, be free to fight against sin’s usurped power, and to demonstrate their true allegiance.” Cranfield, Romans, I:319.
34. “Yet Christ does not operate automatically in a believer’s life; it is a matter of living the new life by faith in the Son of God. It is then faith and not works or legal obedience that releases divine power to live a Christian life.” Donald K. Campbell, “Galatians,” The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Walvoord and Zuck, eds. New Testament Edition. (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1983), 596.
35. “In God’s purpose all the old, filthy, sin-infected garments in which ‘the old man’ was clad went into the discard also as utterly unbefitting the life of the new sphere into which the believer was translated.” Ruth Paxson, The Wealth, Walk and Warfare of the Christian (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1939), 108.
36. “Paul’s whole argument in ‘put off the old man’ and ‘put on the new man’ is based on the presence of these two natures within the Christian and the necessity of a choice being made as to which is to have the mastery of the life.” Ruth Paxson, The Wealth, Walk and Warfare of the Christian (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1939), 109.
37. “But the change from indicative to imperative as between Colossians and Ephesians may have a further explanation. Colossians was sent to established Christians, whose baptism had signified the putting off of their old ways; if Ephesians is addressed to new Christians on the occasion of their baptism, the imperative ‘put off...put on’ would be very much in order.” F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and the Ephesians, NIC (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984), 358.
38. “The practice of reckoning dead finds an excellent illustration in the gardener’s practice of grafting. Once the graft has been made on the old stock the gardener is careful to snip off any shoot from the old stock that may appear. So, in the believer’s life, since he has now been grafted into the Last Adam and His new life, he must by the Spirit put to death any products of the old life that may appear.” S. Lewis Johnson, “Christian Apparel,” Bibliotheca Sacra (January 1964): 24.
39. “In the Colossian injunction the aorist tense points to a decisive initial act which introduces a settled attitude.” Peter T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon, WBC (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1982), 176.
40. “The apostle shows in this verse that there are only two alignments in the ethico-religious realm and that the criterion of our alignment is that to which we render obedience, whether it be ‘sin unto death’ or ‘obedience unto righteousness.. .. The emphasis upon obedience shows that obedience to God is the criterion of our devotion to Him and that the principle of righteousness is to present ourselves to God as servants unto obedience.” Murray, Romans, 231.
41. “It is not a question of securing more of the presence of God but of entering into the reality of His presence and yielding to all the control and ministry for which He has come to indwell. While in this age it is impossible to be filled with the Holy Spirit unless permanently indwelt, it is a sad reflection on the spiritual state of many Christians that though their bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit they are not yielded to Him and know nothing of the great blessings which His unhindered ministry would bring. .. . It is, of course, impossible for any Christian to be filled with the Spirit by simply willing it. The Scriptural conditions for this fullness of the Spirit are revealed. It is the responsibility of the Christian to meet these conditions of yieldedness. .. . No Christian can be said to be in the will of God unless he is filled with the Spirit.” Walvoord, The Holy Spirit, 192, 194.
42. “This states the universal law that a man becomes the moral subject of what he does. If he yields to sin that sin gets a grip upon him. If he lies once, not only is he likely to lie again, but that lie has him in its power. .. . It is also true that acts of obedience tend to a habit and enslave their doer in the comfortable bonds of righteousness.” Stifler, Romans, 114.
43. “Sin has a tendency to enslave the sinner. The first time he lies, he may be horrified; the second time, only somewhat shaken; the third time lying seems far more natural and easy. At last the sin of telling untruths has him in its grasp. For other sins the story is similar. At last this person is living in sin, has become enslaved to it.” Hendriksen, Romans, 204.
44. Paul is not using “flesh” here in the physical sense referring to the body. His remark about the “weakness of the flesh” leads us to conclude that he is using “flesh” in the sense of the weak human nature seen in contrast to God.