Romans 6:12 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

NIV: Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.

NASB: Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,

CSB: Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.

NLT: Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.

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

NKJV: Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

In the previous verse, Paul told us to think of ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in the same way that Christ is dead to sin and alive to God. Now he tells us not to let sin reign or rule in our current, mortal bodies. We must not let sin make us obey it.

This strikes some readers as confusing. Hasn't Paul said that we are dead to sin (Romans 6:1)? Hasn't he told us that the "body of sin" has been done away with (Romans 6:6) and that we have been set free from sin by dying with Christ when we trusted in Him (Romans 6:7)? So how could sin possibly rule in us or make us obey its passions? The simple answer is this: We have been freed from the authority of sin over us, but we have not lost the desire to sin. In short, sin still appeals to us. It's easy for us to forget, or even to disbelieve, that we never again have to do any sinful thing (1 Corinthians 10:13). We are not slaves to sin. We can only volunteer.

Paul commands us to have that conversation with ourselves on an ongoing basis. He commands us to engage in that battle with our desires. Don't let sin tell you what to do, he writes. For the saved Christian believer, sinful desires are not the boss anymore. Christians should not give over control to those urges.

Romans 6:1–14 explores how Christians should think about and respond to sin now that we are in Christ and our sins are forgiven. In explaining this, Paul reveals new information about what happened when we put our faith in Christ. In a spiritual sense, we died with Him, and to our sin. We were then resurrected to a new spiritual life. Now Paul instructs us to continue remembering that we are no longer slaves to sin. We must not offer our bodies to be used for sin, but we must offer ourselves as instruments of righteousness, instead.

In Romans 6, Paul answers the question of whether Christians should continue to sin. His answer is emphatic: we absolutely should not. First, when we came to God by faith in Jesus, we died to sin. We are not slaves to it any more. Second, what did living for sin ever get us? It led to shame and death. The righteousness given to us for free by God in Christ Jesus leads to becoming like Jesus and to eternal life. We should serve righteousness instead of sin.

After comparing Adam and Christ and what their choices brought into the world, Paul now turns to ask if Christians should continue in sin once they have been saved. He gives several reasons why we must not: we died to sin's power over us; we are now servants to righteousness; and what good did sin ever bring to you, anyway? Paul will transition in Romans 7 to a discussion of what it means to be released from the law of Moses.

The book of Romans is the New Testament's longest, most structured, and most detailed description of Christian theology. Paul lays out the core of the gospel message: salvation by grace alone through faith alone. His intent is to explain the good news of Jesus Christ in accurate and clear terms. As part of this effort, Paul addresses the conflicts between law and grace, between Jews and Gentiles, and between sin and righteousness. As is common in his writing, Paul closes out his letter with a series of practical applications.