Romans 6.13b-Present the Members of Your Body as Instruments of Righteousness
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday July 2, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:13b- Present the Members of Your Body as Instruments of Righteousness
Lesson # 193
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:1.
Last evening we will study Romans 6:13a, in which the apostle Paul prohibits the Roman believers from placing the members of their bodies at the disposal of the sin nature as instruments of unrighteousness.
This evening we will complete our study of Romans 6:13 by noting Paul’s command to the believers in Rome to place the members of their body at the disposal of the Father as instruments of righteousness.
Romans 6:1-13, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin for he who has died is freed from sin. 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. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts 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.”
“But” is the adversative use of the conjunction alla (a)llav) (al-lah), which introduces a command that stands in direct contrast with the prohibition in the first half of the verse.
“Present” is the second person plural aorist active imperative form of the verb paristemi (parivsthmi) (par-is-tay-mee), which once again is used transitively and means, “to place yourself at another’s disposal.”
The word denotes that Paul is commanding the Roman believers “to place” the members of their human bodies “at the disposal of” and benefit of God the Father.
The apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit commands the Roman believers “to place” the members of their body “at the disposal of” the will of God by appropriating by faith their identification with Christ’s resurrection.
The second person plural form of the verb denotes that Paul is addressing all of the believers in Rome as a corporate unit and means, “all of you.”
This is a “constative aorist imperative” meaning that this is a solemn or categorical command.
The aorist imperative means that Paul is saying to the Roman believers, “Make this your top priority” or “I solemnly charge all of you” to place the members of your human bodies at the disposal and benefit of the will of God the Father “and do it now!”
“Yourselves” is the reflexive personal pronoun heautou (e(autou) (heh-ow-too), which emphasizes the volitional responsibility of the Roman believers in placing the members of the human body at the disposal and benefit of the will of the Father as those alive from the dead.
Romans 6:13, “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.”
“To God” is the noun theos (qeov$), which refers to the first member of the Trinity, God the Father since the articular construction is commonly used to indicate that theos is a reference to the Father.
“Those alive” refers to the justified sinner conducting himself in a manner that is consistent with his new position in Christ in which he has died with Christ and has been raised with Him.
It implies that the believer is to appropriate by faith the teaching that he is identified with Christ in His resurrection, which is called, “current positional truth” meaning that when Christ rose from the dead, God considers the justified sinner to have done so as well.
The verb zao speaks of the believer appropriating by faith the teaching that he has been crucified, died and has been buried with Christ as well as raised with Christ, which results in the believer experiencing eternal life.
The word refers to the believer experiencing his new position in Christ by appropriating faith the teaching that he has died and has been raised with Christ.
“From the dead” refers to members of the human race who have died physically.
“Your members” refers to the different parts of the human body and is used with reference to the old Adamic sin nature, which resides in the genetic structure of the human body.
“As instruments of righteousness” is composed of the accusative neuter plural form of the noun hoplon (o%plon) (hop-lon), “as instruments” and the genitive feminine singular form of the noun dikaiosune (dikaiosuvnh) (dik-ah-yos-oo-nay), “of righteousness.”
As we have noted many times in detail in our studies of the book of Romans and as we noted earlier in our study of Romans 6:13, the noun dikaiosune is a general term referring to “integrity” and “virtue” of character.
The word describes the actions of believers since the word functions as a genitive of production.
Here it refers to actions on the part of the believer, which are upright, honest, perfectly whole, undiminished, sound, unimpaired and in perfect condition.
It refers to actions on the part of the believer that reflect moral excellence, goodness, and conduct that is conformed perfectly to the will of God.
The righteousness of God is all that God is all that He commands, all that He demands, all that He approves, and all that He provides through Christ.
In Romans 6:13, the word refers to the actions of believers that are in obedience to all that God commands, all that He demands, all that He approves and all that He provides through Christ.
The noun dikaiosune, “righteousness” functions as a “genitive of production” indicating that the members of the body of these Roman believers are to “produce” this righteousness.
After salvation, the believer is commanded to present the members of his physical body as instruments of righteousness, which is accomplished by appropriating by faith the imputed righteousness they received at salvation (Romans 6).
This faith is demonstrated by the believer through his obedience to the teaching that he has died with Christ and has been raised with Him (See Romans 6:11-13).
The Lord Jesus Christ commanded His disciples to seek after God’s righteousness.
Matthew 6:33, “But above all else (number one priority in life), all of you make it your habit to diligently, earnestly and tenaciously seek after the kingdom of the God and His righteousness (grow to spiritual maturity), sparing no effort or expense, and as a result all these things will be provided for all of you.”
Paul commanded Timothy to pursue living in the righteousness of Christ (See Timothy 2:22).
1 Timothy 6:11, “But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.”
2 Timothy 2:22, “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”
The Word of God trains the believer to live in the righteousness of Christ.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
In fact, the Word of God is designated in Hebrews 5:13 as the “Word of righteousness.”
Hebrews 5:13-14, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”
