Romans 6:1-14: Playing with Corpses and Cages

Romans 6:12.. "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions."

In Romans 6:1-11, Paul gives us a great picture of how God rescued us from sin. We can break his statements up into two images: being resurrected and being rescued. Firstly, God resurrected us from sin. Sin brough death to us, but God quite literally brought death to death and gave us life. Our old self was a body of sin, but God killed that body of sin and resurrected us under grace. "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that...we too might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). Secondly, God rescued us from sin. Sin had us locked in a cage of death, and we could not get out on our own, but God had the key of Christ that unlocked the door of the cage and let us out. "For one who has died has been set free from sin" (Romans 6:7).

However, the dead corpse of sin that God killed and the open cage of sin that God unlocked are both still an option for us. Though God has justified us and is sanctifying us, he has not yet glorified us. We are still in a world that is dominated by sin, and we will not get out of it until we are glorified with him. So what do we do with that? Do we "continue in sin that grace may abound" (Romans 6:1)? "No!" Paul says, "By no means! Absolutely not!" And this is his very point.

To sin after God has saved us is to climb back into the cage of sin and wrap the dead corpse of sin back around our bodies, as if we are asking to be dead and enslaved once again. When we sin, we play with the corpses and cages that God has set us free from. This is why we ought not to sin after God has saved us--because that is not who we are anymore. Why should we go back to that which God has saved him from? No prisoner, in his right mind, goes back to his prison cell after he has been set free. So ought we to not do this either.

So, do not "let sin therefore reign in your mortal body" but rather "present yourselves to God as those who have brough from death to life" (Romans 6:12-13). Don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God (Eph. 4:30). You are under grace, not under the law (Romans 6:14), so obey the one who saved you from that law by his grace. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies; don't play with corpses and cages.