October 5, 2021 PRESENT YOURSELF TO GOD
Romans 6:11-15 “Even so consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lust, and do not go on presenting your members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law; but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
How we consider, or view ourselves, in regard to our life as a believer is crucial. Are we ‘sinners who continue in sin,’ or are we ‘new creations’ with a new nature? We are admonished in the verses above to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. In regards to sin, some may classify sin into two groups; the overt outward sin that is obvious, and the sin that is internal that may not be seen by others. For example, we are all appalled by the sin of murder; but we may not be so appalled by the ;sin of worry. It seems that we are ok with the ‘small’ sins; we excuse some sins by claiming that that is just ‘how we are wired.’ I’ve heard believers to say that ‘I am just in impatient person, that’s just the way I am.” Let us reject the lie that we have heard so long that says ‘Even though we are believers, we continue to sin and we cannot help but sin.” It is imperative that we do as Paul tells us to do if we are to overcome sin; we must consider ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God. In this case, consider means to ‘count it as so.’ We must believe that God has made provision for us to live without yielding to sin; He has put His nature in us; living out of this new nature, we do not want to sin. Romans 6:16 tells us “Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to him whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?” We can yield ourselves or present ourselves to who we are in Christ and present our ‘members as instruments of righteousness to God.’ We must proclaim our deliverance from the power of sin because God has said that sin shall not be master over us! We are to present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead; we were dead in sin, but God has made us alive. As mentioned above, we may excuse, or become accustomed to, what we may call ‘small sins’-such as worry, fear, wrong thoughts, and etc.; but the good news is that we can lay aside all sin and can be one hundred percent righteous in body, soul, mind, and spirit. I know what you must be thinking at this point; I am not saying we can reach sinless perfection, but I am saying we can live free from the power of sin-we do not have to sin. If and when we sin, we confess it to God and turn from it. The temptation to sin is not sin; yielding to the temptation is sin. Let me say that for us to sin, should be abnormal for us. We do not have to let sin reign in our mortal body; it is a matter of yielding ourselves to the Spirit, not to the flesh.
Romans 6:19, 22 “I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.” “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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