Romans 6:12-18: a reflection

12Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. 15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered. 18Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

Paul confronts a dangerous idea: since we are saved by grace, not law, does that mean sin no longer matters? By no means, he answers. And he gives a striking reason: sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. Grace does not give sin free rein; it breaks sin's dominion. Do not let sin reign in your body, he urges; you have been set free from sin to become servants of righteousness.

Notice how Paul relates grace and sin's mastery. Some imagine grace means sin no longer matters, that we can go on sinning freely. Paul says the opposite: grace is precisely what breaks sin's mastery over us. Under law, sin held dominion; under grace, we have been set free from sin, freed from its rule, so that it need no longer reign in us. Grace does not license sin; it liberates us from it. We were slaves of sin; now, thanks be to God, we have been set free to serve righteousness.

That is a liberating truth for the struggle against sin. Sin can feel like a master we cannot escape, a dominion we are stuck under. Paul says: sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are under grace. In Christ, sin's mastery is broken; you have been set free from it. This does not mean the struggle vanishes, but it means sin is no longer your master, and you need not let it reign. Do not present yourself to sin as its servant, as if you were still under its rule. You have been freed. Present yourself to God, and live as one no longer under sin's dominion but under grace.

Lord, thank you that grace does not give sin free rein but breaks its dominion: sin shall not have dominion over me, for I am under grace. When sin feels like a master I cannot escape, remind me that in Christ its mastery is broken and I have been set free. Help me not to present myself to sin as its servant, as if still under its rule, but to present myself to you, living as one freed from sin's dominion to serve righteousness. Thank you for setting me free.