Don’t Let Sin Reign (Rom. 6:12-14)
Photo from Unsplash The language of this text is martial and the issue at hand is the absolute necessity to prevent the attempted conquest of the soul by sin and the imperative to resist its incursions into the soul. You will notice the language: reign, obey, yield, dominion. Sin seeks to reign over us by making us obey sinful desires, so that we yield to it and let it have dominion over us. But we are not to let it reign like a king in our hearts. Instead, we are to present the members of our bodies as instruments, or weapons of war, for the sake of God and his righteousness. We are to fight back, in other words. We are to wage an unceasing war against sin in the arena of its lusts. The word for “instruments” in verse 13 is the Greek word hopla, which is translated elsewhere as “weapons” and “armor.” For those of you who know a little about history, you may know that the soldiers who fought for the ancient Greek city-states like Sparta ...
