Romans 6:12,13
by:
Dan Hill, PhD
Pastor, Southwood Bible Church
7655 South Sheridan Avenue
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74113
E-Mail: hill918@aol.com
NOW AT VERSE 12 WE BEGIN A NEW PARAGRAPH that is only three verses long.
In this paragraph Paul establishes a principle that he will then deal with
through Romans 7: To what will you yield? To the sin nature or to God?
Romans 6:12
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey
its lusts.
Here we have a contrast to the thesis statement of Romans 5:21. We are to
have grace reign in our lives.
And thus here we are commanded, as a present imperative, not to let sin,
singular, the OSN, reign in our mortal bodies.
AN IMPERATIVE MOOD sets up a decision we are to make. The decision of the
believer's volition is to let sin reign or grace reign.
If we decide to let grace reign we will, by faith, recognize that we are
dead to the OSN.
If, however, we make a decision to let the OSN reign, we will end up (an
infinitive of results) obeying its lusts.
LUST is EPITHUMIA and in some instances it can be a desire for that which
is acceptable.
Matthew 13:17, A desire to see prophecy fulfilled
Luke 22:15, Jesus' desire to eat the Passover with His disciples.
Two basic mindsets on this word converge in the NT:
JEWISH CONCEPT:
1. The Jewish use of the word in the intertestamental period
became a synonym for CHA-MAD, to COVET.
2. To control LUST the Jew would move towards asceticism, the denial of
desires, fasting, meticulously keeping Talmud Sabbath laws, denial of sexual
drives.
3. During this period the Jews also developed a theology of sin that demanded
more legalism, denial of desires, and increase ethical reflection.
4. Self discipline became nor merely a virtue but a demand of the Talmud
for conquering lust.
5. The view was eventually reached that desire is the chief sin and the
will of God could be expressed in a single formula, not to desire.
HELLINISTIC CONCEPT:
1. In Greece another track was taken. There the Stoic concept
was that LUST was the opposite of RATIONALISM.
2. Aloofness and separation from the sensual world was the way to conquer
LUST.
3. Zeno grouped together sorrow, fear, sexual pleasure, and lust as the
four chief passions.
4. Each of these arise, in the Stoic idea, out of a wrong attitude to possess
and the anxiety that comes when they are not present.
5. From that position it was easy for the Greeks to put lust as part of
the body which is the prison for the soul during one's lifetime.
6. The Greek Stoic would then struggle against the Lusts of the flesh.
AS IT IS USED IN THE NT some of both elements are brought together:
1. It can refer to an evil desire that takes one away from God
and His Word.
Mark 4:18-19 And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns;
these are the ones who have heard the word, and the worries of the world,
and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter
in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
2. Lust is also seen as that which is promoted by Satan:
John 8:44, You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires
of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand
in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie,
he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.
3. As with the Greek idea, LUST is seen as a desire to possess something
or someone else.
Matthew 5:27-28, You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery;
but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has
committed adultery with her already in his heart.
4. In the desire to possess, control, dominate someone else LUST is the
inability to control ones own body:
I Thessalonians 4:3-5, For this is the will of God, your sanctification;
that is, that you abstain from fornication; that each of you know how to
possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion,
like the Gentiles who do not know God.
5. Therefore, it is irrational, lacking sense, lacking the control we should
be able to exercise from the mind to the body.
APPLICATION: When we speak of control of the body we must be careful not
to think that the solution to this is stoicism or some extreme form of self
control. That concept eliminates the freedom we have at times to lose control.
To allow, within a proper setting, our emotions to fully express themselves.
To have a joy that is unspeakable, and thus unable to be defined with words.
David had this in II Samuel 6 when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to
Jerusalem and he, with total lack of control, took off his kingly robes
and danced naked before the Ark . . . and we are told that a legalistic
stoic, his wife Michal, criticized him for it.
6. Some might see Paul's, Peter's, John's use of the words lust of the flesh
as a Stoic concept. That the body is the seat of lust while the soul is
the seat of rational thinking. However, these writers use FLESH as a description
of the OSN, a concept unknown in the Greek world prior to the NT.
While the flesh, the OSN contaminates and the body, it influences the soul.
For the believer the influence is the Holy Spirit ministering to the human
spirit:
I Thessalonians 5:23, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely;
and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I Thessalonians 5:24, Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring
it to pass.
AGAIN, the emphasis is on what God will do, not what we do.
7. However, since it is God's desire for us not to be distracted, not to
follow Satan's plan, not possess or control another, not to lack control
of ourselves, LUST also violates God's will for our us.
SUMMARY OF LUST:
1. We must not fall into an artificial dualism regarding who
we are. As believers we are body, soul, and spirit. There three are a connected
part of one whole, YOU. The person you are, the person God accepts.
2. Mankind has desires, there are things in life that we desire. Desire,
is not lust.
3. There are desires of the human spirit:
Ecclesaties 3:11, He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has
also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the
work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.
Because of what God has done to us at salvation, the spirit yearns for God
and desires His approval, closeness, fathership.
There are desires of the soul:
We desire relationships with others, we desire friends, we desire that someone
know us, that we are significant. In our soul we desire to be loved.
In our soul we desire what is good for others.
Romans 10:1, Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is
for their [Israel's] salvation.
We desire to be with others:
Romans 15:23, But now, with no further place for me in these regions, and
since I have had for many years a longing to come to you.
And there are also desires of the Body:
Luke 22:15, And He (the Lord) said to them (the Twelve), I have earnestly
desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
Both food and fellowship
And we have a desire for physical intimacy, and sexual contact:
I Corinthians 7:5, Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a
time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again lest
Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
4. We are a connected whole, body, soul, and spirit. We must not separate
or try to set one part against the other assuming God accepts one and not
the other or one more than the other.
5. The only thing that can even pierce as deep as the immaterial part of
man is the Word of God. It goes into us as a surgeon would when going into
the very bone and marrow, which is not separated, but connected.
Hebrews 4:12, For the word of God is living and active and sharper than
any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit,
of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions
of the heart.
When a surgeon gets to the bones and narrow, he is deep into the material
part of man. The word goes that deep into the immaterial part of man.
The analogy of joints and marrow see the connectedness of the soul and the
human spirit, not a separation.
6. Desire then is not opposed to God (as the Jews would have supposed),
nor is it irrational (as the Greeks would have had it be). It is very much
a part of who we are and the person God accepts by His grace.
7. Desire becomes lust when:
1) Our desires distract us from the wonderful things that God
has for us.
2) When it is part of Satan's influence and plan (idolatry).
3) When our desire would be hurtful to another, when we would try to possess
and control another.
Psalm 139:23-24, Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my
anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me
in the everlasting way.
4) When our desire takes over and we no longer control it but it controls
us. We lose self control and we can then so easily hurt others and hurt
ourselves.
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.
Here are the mechanics for the faith decision that we make to not let sin
reign in our mortal bodies but to let grace reign in our lives.
In the KJV the Greek word is translated "yield" . . .
1. The word is PARISTJMI and is a present imperative, indicating
a choice on our part to keep on doing something.
2. The word in its simple form means to stand before or along side.
3. It has a legal meaning in that one would present themselves before a
judge.
4. It has a military meaning in that one would put himself under orders
to his commander.
5. Another military meaning is found in surrender, the enemy surrenders
to one who is the conqueror
6. It described a servant who would present himself to a ruler, to put himself
at his Lord's disposal.
7. It had a religious meaning in that one would present his sacrifice at
the temple.
Romans 12:1, I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present
your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual service [of worship].
SO THE WORD PRESENT or yield sets up a choice. Present yourself as an instrument
or tool of the sin nature for the LUST of the sin nature to reign in your
life.
OR PRESENT YOURSELF TO God for Grace to reign in your life.
CONSIDER THIS:
1. We all know how powerful of a force lust can be. We even
have a criminal volition called crimes of passion which would be better
termed crimes of lust.
All of us have at times been driven by lust. It is powerful, overwhelming,
almost uncontrollable.
2. Yet as powerful as lust is, grace is more powerful.
If God tells us that grace is to reign through the +R that He has imputed
to us, then we know that grace is more powerful than lust.
3. If you want a comparison to help determine how powerful the grace of
God is, consider that it is more powerful than any lust of mankind.
AND THE REASON GRACE IS MORE POWERFUL THAN LUST is because of what grace
provides:
Galatians 5:16, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out
the desire of the flesh.
This does not say that we suppress lust, that we deny it, that we put ourselves
under a law system to avoid it. It tells us that the way we will not carry
out the lust of the flesh will be by our Walk by the Spirit.
Walking was very common in the old world, something everyone did, a very
non-meritorious action.
Galatians 5:17-18, For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and
the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another,
so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by
the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
An extension of the Angelic Conflict. This is the covert, inward warfare.
But it is not between you and Satan or even you and the OSN. Here conflict
is between the Holy Spirit (indwelling you) and the OSN.
The Lust of the OSN and the Holy Spirit are in conflict. Is the OSN more
powerful than the Holy Spirit or is the Holy Spirit more powerful than the
OSN?
This is a middle voice of advantage, so what is the advantage?
In order that you cannot do the things that you prefer.
You now have a more powerful option than just will power or self discipline.
These do not always work when it comes to things you prefer or things you
wish to do or are driven to do by the lust of the OSN.
But the Holy is more powerful, He is more powerful than the OSN (a thing)
and more powerful than Satan (the supreme angel).
I John 4:4, Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
In 6:18 notice how Paul eliminates the law approach: But if you are led
by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
The Jews thought more laws would counteract lust, the Greeks thought the
self disciplined life would take care of it. Both are wrong for the believer,
we have the grace of God that allows us to be led by the Spirit. He is the
victory.
Then in verse 22-23 Paul gives us specifics as what is produced by God in
us that will eliminate lust:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no
law.
The preposition AGAINST is KATA which looks at a standard set along side
the fruit of the Spirit to establish then or define then. And there is not
law standard.
THEREFORE: The antithesis to lust is grace which sets us the filling of
the Holy Spirit, which then goes on to walking in the Spirit and the production
of the fruit of the Spirit.
PRINCIPLE: If you yield to God and walk by the Holy Spirit producing in
you love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
you will find no need to lust.
Galatians 5:15, If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
"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."
----------
The word INSTRUMENT is OPLON and is as weapons and armor (but not as in
the full armor of Ephesians 6).
The concept is one that includes the necessity for someone to do something
with the instrument or the weapon.
An instrument or weapon is on no value, no use until it is placed in the
hand of one who knows how to use it.
The word BODY is not found in this verse. The phrase used is MELJ UMWV,
"your members".
Those members are weapons, they are instruments. The members are our total
being, not merely the material but the immaterial, our emotions, our temperaments,
our minds, the body itself are interments to be placed in the hand of God.
We are ALIVE FROM THE DEAD, Paul has already shown us that, and now we can
yield to God as . . .
Instruments of righteousness: How do we do that?
God has declared us righteous at justification and we continue in His righteousness
in sanctification.
Look back over Romans to what Paul has said of Righteousness:
Romans 3:21 through 26
Romans 4:5 and 6
Romans 5:17
Then also consider:
Romans 10:1 through 5 [Paul speaks of Israel]
Romans 14:17, For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 2:21, I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness
comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.
Philippians 3:9, And [that I] may be found in Him, not having a righteousness
of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.
Also II Corinthians 11:12-15 Satan's counterfeit Righteousness.
HERE IS THE PRINCIPLE: We are not righteous nor do we have righteousness
by what we do. We have righteousness because of what Christ did and what
the Holy Spirit keeps on doing.
Being righteous is to be RIGHT and when we are right with God, both in relationship
and in truth, then His righteousness will be formed in us.
End of Lesson 25
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