Sin Will Have No Dominion

Introduction

Almost anything can be a weapon, and that is because all of us are weapons ourselves. The ability we have to choose what we do with our actions is a constant weapon that everyone carries. Outlaw guns and people start stabbing. Outlaw knives and people will make knives of their own. A sharp stick back be used as a weapon. The reality of human nature is that we will always do harm to others if it seems to be in our best interest unless we are changed. We use words as weapons, gestures as weapons, even giving someone a look can be a certain kind of weapon that deals harm on someone unless the source of that anger and malice is dealt with.

At the cross, the violence of humanity was dealt with in the most violent act ever done. The act of violence upon God himself in human flesh, the act of violence upon the man who was the incarnate Son of God. In our text we are told that we have weapons, although in our translation they are members. Members are those things in our faculties and abilities that can be used in the war for our souls and the war against evil. We can either submit our arms to God or we can submit them to sin. We can either use ourselves as weapons to destroy that which is evil in us, or we can use them as weapons to destroy the work of God through sin which leads to death.

To be under grace, as we have seen here last time, does not mean we are free to sin. On the contrary, it gives us the freedom to leave sin, which leads to death, behind so that we can live to righteousness. This is caused by our unity with Christ, represented in Baptism, as we die to self and sin and are raised to newness of life in Christ. That newness of life is lived out, not in sin leading to death, for it is life and not death that we are awakened to. So we live to righteousness, leading to life because of our unity with Christ in his life.

The Command against Sin

Paul then ends that section with our text tonight, which is the command against sin emphasized by the reasons given before.

We are told, “let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” This gives us a metaphor of a king. This king is named sin. Sin seeks to claim that you are its citizen and servant and thus you must obey what it has to say.

Previously, as we saw through Adam, all humanity came under sin because of the sin of Adam, a sin that left them subjects of King Sin. This King Sin has a wage, and it is death. He pays out this wage exactly to the amount as the sin that is acted out for him. We should understand that this is paid out in eternal death and damnation. Hell is the wage of sin. King Sin sees you, Christian, and he identifies you as one of his slaves. He commands that you get back to the work of sinning so that you may receive your full wage. But there is another King now who has claim on your soul. He takes all those who trust in him and puts them to death in the old kingdom so that they may live anew in the new kingdom. King Sin continues to sue King Jesus for your soul, and he demands that you obey him and receive his wage. King Jesus now commands you to live in his Kingdom of Righteousness which pays the wage of life. Now the question is: whose citizen do you believe your are?

If you believe that, whose call are you going to obey? Will you obey the call of sin? Then you believe that you are a citizen of sin. Now falling into sin at times is like trying to shake the habits of the culture back when you lived in the Kingdom of Sin, but who do you work for? That is who you owe your allegiance to.

Why Sin Shall not Reign.

So, what are the reasons

We are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This isn’t how you get saved, you get saved by trusting in Christ by faith. But once you are saved, don’t you realize that you have died to your citizenship to King Sin? And how can we say we are working for righteousness when we are actually working for sin? Do we think we will get the righteous wage while we work for sin?

Besides this, there is a further reason why sin should not be allowed to reign. And that is that King Jesus has defeated King Sin on the cross for you. Grace overcame sin even where it abounded by the law. In his death, Jesus took the curse of the law, and in his resurrection he has brought life to those who previously lived in death. So not only are there two kings, but King Jesus has overwhelmingly won victory over King Sin. The result of this is that the chains of slavery that once bound you to sin are loosed and you are set free. And now are you going to live as if you were still a slave to your old, defeated master?

What Sin Shall not Reign?

How this works out in our lives is that sin ceases to hold power over our lives. “For sin will have no dominion over you.” That is a promise. If you are in Christ, sin did not win the battle. Jesus did. But then the question comes, well if sin has been defeated, why do I still feel like sinning? Why does it still appeal to me? Why do I still fall into it?

The answer is that you, still imperfect in your faith, do not believe this to be true, at least at moments. Growing in faith and sanctification are the same thing. The Holy Spirit helps us grow, but how? By increasing our faith. He nurtures weak faith and makes it strong, and in doing so turns a sinner into a saint. The more he strengthens your faith and the more your faith endures, the more this reality hits home. Are you willing to let the Holy Spirit show you this reality so that you may respond in faith more? Do you pray for the clarity of that truth? Paul prays in Eph 1:17-18

Ephesians 1:17–18 ESV

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

See what Paul’s desire was? It was that the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him would be given to us. The Spirit of Wisdom is the Holy Spirit who gives us more and more of a look at the truth, that Sin is dead and Jesus is victorious! Is there a place in your life where sin is reigning? Shed the light of truth on it, ask yourself, “what lie am I believing?” and then speak the truth to that lie. Speak the truth that Christ is the victor over sin in you.

Using our Members

So we get to verse 13 where Paul tells us not to present our members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. In a military context, instruments means weapons. Since Christ has won the war over sin, let us not subject ourselves to sin as if we were sin’s soldiers, meant to put forth the cause of unrighteousness. But rather, we are to present ourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. So our members, instead of being weapons for unrighteousness, should be weapons for the winning side on which we are on. The side of righteousness.

Since we have been brought from death to life, we have been brought from sin to righteousness. There is no wage, rather a gift, but there is work, and the work is different. We are now called to live righteous lives because we have become righteous in the sight of God through Christ. We will no longer dwell in the nightmare of death to our own hurt by acting out the sins of our old life.

Sin Will Not Dominate

So again we return to this promise that given to us. Sin will have no dominion over you. We may think about this question for a moment. Is it making a statement about the future or the present? I think he is speaking of the full end of things. Sin will have no dominion over you in the final analysis. There are times where sin wins the battle, but it will lose the war. Over time, sin will loose more and more of the battles that you win through your faith in the victory already won at the cross.

For a child of God, living under the dominion of sin just isn’t a possibility.

John Gill

An Exposition of the New Testament, Volumes I–III Chapter 6

nor does it express merely what ought not to be, but what cannot, and shall not be; it is an absolute promise,

Law was the place where sin reigned. But in Christ we are separate and put into another Kingdom. Again, Gill says,

An Exposition of the New Testament, Volumes I–III Chapter 6

saints are in another kingdom, the kingdom of Christ and grace; could sin reign again over them,

Consider it a promise from Christ that sin will have no dominion over you. If you believe that promise, you won’t give sin the chance to dominate you. That is why we were told back in verse 11 that we must consider ourselves dead to sin. Consider it because it is true. Believe it because it is true. If you do that, sin will have no dominion over you. Continue in your faith and in the works that come out of that faith and you will continue to live out that wonderful promise.

We are told that is it because we are not under law but under grace. Paul parallels the law to sin, not because the law was sinful but because it was the catalyst for sin abounding. If we were still under the law, we would abound in sin and be hopeless. But because we are now under grace, the gift of God that forgives us our sins, sin cannot dominate us. Now the question Paul will face has to do with the law. If we are not under the law, are we then free to sin since we are under grace and aren’t held accountable to the law anymore. That is a question we will explore next week.

Conclusion

In this passage, we have seen that a Christian is under the reign of Christ. The reign of sin is ended for them, and they are responsible to a new master.

This, along with verse 11, pushes us to ask a question: what in my life is being used as an instrument for unrighteousness? Is it my thoughts, my time, my eyes, my heart? What in me is still serving the principle that leads to death? What practices could someone find in my life that would be sin and what is the wage of that sin?

This is no legalism, if it was legalism I would be saying that the law is how we are saved. But our text goes in a very different direction. It points us to seeing salvation as entirely of grace, and since we are under grace we cannot be under the law. But because grace leads to life, it leads us away from what produces death.

So it is always time for us to examine ourselves to see if there is anything in our lives that is working for the wrong wage. Letting sin into our lives will work against what the Holy Spirit is doing in preparing us for the wage of life won by Christ on the cross. It is no wage we have earned, but a gift given so that we may work unto it. The gift is already given in Christ, eternal life, and we are now slaves of righteousness because righteousness is linked to life. We have an imputed righteousness which gives us the ability to live a righteous life. Let us strive to walk the road to that life by the grace of the Spirit in us. Let us not forget that if you serve sin, the wage will be death. But if you are saved, you are saved by the free gift of Christ leading to a righteous life. There are only two masters, which one are you serving?