Practical Guidance from Romans 6 and 7

Leslie M. Grant

Recognise this dread principle ‘sin’ as an enemy. As to the unbeliever, sin is his master, but sin has no dominion over the believer, who is under grace (Rom. 6:15). Christ is the Master of the believer and sin is his vicious enemy, attempting to defeat and destroy him. Nor is it a virtue to underestimate the power of an enemy. Sin’s power is dreadfully great, but our Master is infinitely greater. These two points should be deeply impressed on us.

Take sides fully with your true Master against the sin which is both His enemy and yours. This means you must not excuse yourself in the least degree for giving way to sin, nor blame it on anything or anyone else, but blame yourself fully for it. Let it be stressed that this is a vitally important matter, for far too many defeat themselves by not honestly taking the full blame for their failures. Notice Romans 6:21, and see also Job 33:27–28.

Reckon (or count) yourself dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:11). We have full title to do this because God counts the death of Christ as our death. It is an absolute, established fact in God’s eyes that believers have died with Christ (v. 8) and therefore have died to sin (v. 2). If sin presents its subtle temptation to your mind, it is therefore right for you to respond, ‘No! I have died to that.’ You are rather alive to God now and your true life is in Christ, not in sin.

Yield yourself to God as one who is alive from the dead (Rom. 6:13). It is not your determination that will keep you from sin but submitting to the only one who is able to keep you from it. Remember, having died with Christ you are now alive from the dead, on the other side of death, where Christ is in the glory of God. Your life is there, ‘hid with Christ in God’ (Col. 3:3). If you have not before gone into the presence of God to take the deliberate step of yielding yourself to Him, do so without delay. There is no power for you anywhere else.

Yield your members as instruments of righteousness to God (Rom. 6:13). To yield ourselves is the first thing, and this should be done once for all. But ‘members’ speak of the details of our life: our mind (what we think), our eyes (what we see), our ears (what we hear), our lips (what we say), our hands (what we do), our feet (where we go), etc. The first three of these are passive, but they are central to all that comes from us. ‘Set your affection (or mind) on things above’ (Col. 3:2), where our life is. If our thoughts are on profitable things (Phil. 4:8), this will greatly influence our actions. As to seeing and hearing, we must constantly be on our guard. Lot, in seeing and hearing, was vexed in his soul from day to day by the filthy conversation of the wicked (2 Pet. 2:7–8). If we make provision for the flesh (the sinful nature) in the way he did, by friendship with the ungodly, or even by modern technology bringing evil conversation into our homes,[1] we cannot but be affected by it. Let our eyes behold rather the purely satisfying beauty of the Lord Jesus, and let our ears drink in His precious Word.

Be concerned about yielding to God in all of these details day by day. This means constant exercise in communion with Him, both in meditation on His Word and in prayer, along with the self-judgment which this will rightly produce.

[1] Today, this includes what is accessible on the Internet, such as social media (eds.).

From: Truth and Testimony, 2023