Romans 6:12-14 – Living Under Grace

Romans 6:12 says,

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

The word therefore, which so often used by Paul throughout his epistles to tie concepts together means this command rests on everything he just proved, that we are in Christ.

And the word mortal shows he’s talking about our life right now, before glory.

In heaven sin won’t be present, but here, in our mortal body, sin’s still around. It can still try to reign and Paul says don’t let it.

Although sin’s still present it has no claim over a believer. Christ freed us from its power.

Our body will still die because it’s mortal, but sin can’t condemn us or demand our service.

Romans 8:23 says we’re still waiting for the redemption of our body. So yes, we still live in the same mortal flesh we were born with, but our soul and spirit are saved, and God even claims our body as His.

If we ignore sin, if we don’t care, if we don’t, quote, “let not sin reign,” then sin will still reign over us.

As saved people we can still walk around with sin ruling our life if we simply give up the fight.

This is where Paul begins to deal with our will. He’s not dealing with our works yet, but our will.

What do I want now that I’m a new creature? If I say, “I don’t care,” sin will take over by default.

When Paul says: “Let not sin reign.” That means don’t allow it to reign, don’t give it permission. Don’t hand it the throne of our lives.

Before we were saved, sin ruled automatically. After salvation, sin only rules if we let it. We can be saved and still live like a slave to sin if we refuse to reckon who we are.

Romans 6 is about rights. Who has the right to rule us now? Not sin. Not death. Christ does. Our life is hid with Christ in God remember. So Romans 6:11–14 is telling us to change our mind about who we think we are, because Christ has made us someone new — dead to sin, alive unto God, and no longer under the law but under grace.

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.” The “Let not” here clearly means do not allow.

Paul’s not talking about our outward actions yet — he’s talking about our will, our inner choice to either allow sin to rule or refuse it. This’s about who we give authority to in our mind.

Before we were saved, sin ruled everything — our body, our soul and our spirit. Romans 5:14 says “death reigned from Adam to Moses.” Romans 5:17 says “death reigned by one,” while Romans 5:14 says “sin hath reigned unto death.”

Sin was our master because we were in Adam. But now we’re in Christ. We’re dead with Him, risen with Him, freed from sin’s power, and alive unto God.

That’s what Paul has been teaching in Romans 6:1–11.

But now comes the problem!

Even though sin no longer has the right to rule us, many Christians still let it rule because we like sin too much. We tend to say, “I’m saved, so when I die I’ll go to heaven. Until then, sin is just too strong.” But that’s simply letting sin reign.

Grace doesn’t give us a list of rules — it changes how we think about ourselves. It teaches us to see sin, to regard sin as something that has no claim on us anymore.

Sin is still present in our mortal body, but it can’t condemn us, it can’t demand our service, and it can’t kill our soul. Our body is still mortal — Romans 8:23 says we are waiting for the redemption of our body — but our inner man is saved. So now the question is: what is our will?

If we don’t care, sin will still rule by default. If we reckon ourselves dead to sin, we can refuse its rule.

Romans 6:12 says.

let not sin reign… that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

 

Before salvation, we had no choice but to obey sin. Now we do have a choice.

Romans 6:6 says our old man is crucified so we “should not serve sin.” Romans 6:7 says the one who is dead is “freed from sin.” We’re not free of sin — it’s still in our flesh — but we’re free from its power. What power? It’s power to reign over us. It’s power to be the centre point of our lives, to dictate our every thought and action, to shape who we are, to cause us to shame ourselves and to condemn us to eternal death. Sin’s power watches over us with excitement and glee at every failure, egging us on, while delighting in our destruction because of it.

So Paul’s logic so far in Romans 6 is simple:

Know we’re dead with Christ (Romans 6:3–7).

Know we’re alive unto God (Romans 6:8–10).

Reckon it true about ourself (Romans 6:11).

Therefore, don’t let sin reign (Romans 6:12).

This is not Paul saying, “Try harder.” This is Paul saying, “Believe who we are, then choose who we’ll obey.”

If we reckon ourself dead to sin, then refusing sin’s rule becomes the natural next step. We simply stop giving sin permission to sit on the throne of our life.

As we said, Romans 6 is about rights. Who has the right to rule us now? Not sin. Not death. Christ does. Our life is hid with Christ in God. So when Paul says, “let not sin reign,” he’s telling us to align our will with the truth God already declared — that we belong to Christ, not to sin.

The first step in living the Christian life is to refuse sin’s reign.

From now until we’re in glory, we’ll feel a conflict between flesh and spirit, between the old man, still present in our mortal body, and the new man we are in Christ.

We look in the mirror and see the same old face — that’s our mortal body, but by faith, and only by faith, we know we’re saved, regenerated, a new creature. One day we’ll see and experience that glory in our whole body, but right now we must believe what God says about us by faith.

So, we’re to disobey sin.

Sin acts like a king, a tyrant, a dictator. It ruled us from birth. It told us that this creature, this product of original sin in Adam is who we are and we must obey it.

But now we know the truth. That’s sin talking, not God. So we revolt. We say, “No — I’m in Christ Jesus.” That’s what “let not sin reign” means. It’s a righteous rebellion.

Sin still has power in this world. It still drags people to death. But it has no power over me in Christ.

Can sin tempt us? Absolutely. Can it make our life hard? Yes, for sure. Can it change who we are in Christ or take away eternal life? No, never. We belong to Christ, sealed eternally in Him by the Holy Spirit. Our body is His. Sin has no rightful claim.

So Paul says: refuse sin’s rule the same way we’d refuse an evil ruler. We resist. We say no. We stand on the truth of who we are in Christ.

That’s why he says, “let not sin reign… that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.”

Lust simply means desires — often sinful ones. Our body has natural desires, but sin twists them. So don’t let sin rule those desires but instead bring our body under the truth of who we are in Christ.

Sin will try to convince us that nothing’s changed. It’ll say, “Look at your habits. Look at your failures. Look at your desires. I still own you.” But we answer by faith: “No, you don’t. I’m dead to you. I’m alive to God.”

Romans 6 is dealing with identity. Who are we? Before Christ, sin ruled everything — Romans 5:14, 17, 21 says sin and death reigned. But now Christ is our Head. We’re dead with Him, risen with Him, and alive unto God.

Sin can rule our mortal body if we yield to it, but it can’t touch our soul or spirit and it can’t change who we are in Christ or change the eternal life that we now live in.

 

Romans 13:14 says: make no provision for sin. Don’t feed it. Don’t excuse it. Don’t give it room.

1 Thessalonians 5:22 says to avoid even the appearance of evil. Our attitude toward sin should be refusal, not acceptance. We don’t wait till we’re in heaven to start resisting sin. There’s no sin there. We resist it now because we’re already alive unto God and dead to sin.

Romans 6:12–14 is teaching us to think differently by knowing something. We’re told to change our the thoughts of our mind to a different way of thinking. We’re to think like someone who belongs to Christ.

We rebel against sin because it’s no longer our master. Christ is. As our mind is fed more and more with this knowledge, and our thinking is changed and aligned with what and who we are in Christ, our point of view on everything changes as a result and the source of that knowledge, the information and the truth that we need to cause our mind to be filled with this new way of thinking, is the Word of God.

Romans 12:2,

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 

Romans 6:13 continues the same thought as the previous verse Romans 6:12,

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

 

Notice how the focus has shifted. Earlier in the chapter Paul talked mostly about Christ—His death, His resurrection, His victory.

But now the language turns again and again to you, to us, because once we know what Christ did, we’ve got to choose what we’ll do with that truth.

Verse 12 dealt with our mind, not letting sin reign. Verse 13 deals with our members, our hands, feet, eyes, mouth, the tools we use to live in this world. God doesn’t force our members to obey Him. We choose who we yield them to. We can yield them to sin, or we can yield them to God.

To “Yield” means to surrender. Verses 12 and 13 use battle language.

Sin is at war with our new man. When we got saved, God didn’t remove sin’s presence from our mortal body. He removed it’s power and it’s penalty, but its presence remains, and it will till we shed this mortal flesh. So we must learn to refuse to surrender our members to it.

We say, “You, sin, can’t have my body. You can’t have my mind. I belong to Christ.”

This conflict is why Christians often feel more turmoil than unbelievers. The unbeliever has no battle with — it reigns without resistance.

But the believer has peace with God , as Romans 5:1 points out, and conflict with the old man.

We’re crucified with Christ, but sin still tries to act like our king. It has no rights, but it’ll still try to rule.

A new Christian may avoid sin more simply because they stay busy in their mind with their new experience. It consumes them for a while and they spend time in prayer, learning scripture, and in fellowship with other Christians.

But when they relax, they fall back into old habits because they haven’t yet learned that they must “let not sin reign” and yield, surrender themselves to God. Romans 6 teaches us how to fight that war inside us.

Our peace is with God, not with our flesh or with the world.

Galatians 6:14 says the world is crucified to you and you to the world.

That means we no longer belong to the world’s system of sin. But that also means the world’s system of sin—and our old man—will resist us.

The good news is that the war is already won.

1 Corinthians 15:57 says Christ has given us the victory. Sin is defeated. But sin doesn’t know it. Like a bad loser, it keeps trying to claim authority. Our old man still acts like he’s in charge. But we answer by faith: “No. I’m dead with Christ. I’m alive unto God. You’re not my king anymore.”

So Romans 6:13 tells us to yield ourselves unto God. We choose who rules our members. We choose who gets our obedience. We choose who gets our loyalty. Sin will always try to pull us back, but it has no power unless we hand it the reins.

We must choose what to do with our body, our mind, and our will.

Romans 6:13 says our members are “instruments.” They can be used for righteousness or unrighteousness. Before we were saved, they could only serve sin. But now we’re a new creature, even though we still live in the same mortal body, within the same sin dominated world. So we must choose to yield our members to God.

This is the heart of Romans 6: knowing who we are, refusing sin’s rule, and surrendering ourself to God because we belong to Him.

Paul reminds the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6:15 saying,

Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.

 

In 1 Corinthians 6:19 he says,

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

 

Here’s Paul’s “Know ye not” again.

Paul had already taught this to the Corinthians before Romans was written. Paul’s first epistle was almost certainly 1 Thessalonians and it’s obvious from 1 Thessalonians that he’d already taught these things that Christ revealed to him before he actually wrote 1 Thessalonians.

So the “Know ye not” is Paul reminding his audience of what they already knew, or should have already known.

Here he’s reminding them, and us, that our body is the “temple of the Holy Ghost,” and in the next verse, 1 Corinthians 6:20, he says,

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

 

We’re “bought with a price” and what a price that was, the death sacrifice of the Son of God Himself. That means our mortal body is not sin’s property. It’s not even our property. It’s Christ’s.

This is part of the mystery revealed by Jesus to Paul, that not only are we in Christ, but Christ is in us as confirmed by Colossians 1:27.

His body was given for me, and now my body is given to Him.

Paul calls this union a “great mystery” in Ephesians 5:30–32—like a husband and wife becoming one flesh.

His body is ours; our body is His.

So when we hear about yielding our members to God, it’s urging us to use our body for righteousness, not for the old life we had in Adam.

Ephesians 4:17–20 says this,

This I say (and that’s Paul saying), This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But ye have not so learned Christ;

 

Unbelievers walk in darkness because their understanding is darkened. Their actions flow from what’s inside them. But we’re not ignorant anymore. We have the life of God in us. So our members should now serve God, because what’s inside us has changed.

Romans 6:13 is telling us that our body belongs to Christ. Don’t hand it back to sin. Yield it to God instead.

Paul keeps showing again and again that what we believe—the truth we hold in our mind—is what changes us.

He labours on this, pushing at it, coming at it time and again. He knows that we become what we think about most, what’s uppermost in our mind, and he wants us to fill, to renew our mind with who and what we are now in Christ and how sin no longer controls our life and our eternal destiny.

First comes the truth of the gospel, the blessings of Romans 5, then the new identity of Romans 6:1–11. Only after we know who we are in Christ does Paul begin talking about what we do. Belief comes first, behaviour follows.

So the order in Romans 6 is simple:

Know who we are in Christ.

Reckon it true about ourself.

Let not sin reign in our mind.

Yield not our members to sin.

That’s the flow.

It’s all to answer the question of Romans 6:1, “Shall we continue in sin?” by saying, “Why would I? That’s not who I am anymore.”

The unsaved person sins because they’re ignorant of the truth that we’ve just seen in Ephesians 4:17–19.

But we know Christ. We have the life of God. So our life should look different.

Ephesians 4:20–24 goes on to confirm that,

But ye have not so learned Christ;

If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

 

We “have not so learned Christ.”

Unlike the unsaved person, we learned that Christ died for us, rose from the dead, and made us a new man. So put off the old man by renewing our mind to the reality of the new man and by doing this, we put on the new man—created in righteousness and true holiness.

Only after that does Paul list the behaviours: put away lying, speak truth, stop stealing, stop corrupt communication, etc. Behaviour follows belief.

That’s why Romans 6:13 says, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God.” Our members—our hands, feet, eyes and mouth—are tools. Before salvation they could only serve sin. Now they belong to Christ. We choose who we yield them to.

Now, this yielding is not “trying harder.”

It’s not a sacrifice we offer to God. It’s ownership. Our body’s not sin’s body anymore. It’s not even ours. It is Christ’s. 1 Corinthians 6:15 says our bodies are “members of Christ.” Verse 19 says our body is the “temple of the Holy Ghost.” Verse 20 says we’re “bought with a price.” So yielding simply means giving Christ what already belongs to Him.

 

It’s said that yielding is the key to spiritual joy, strength, service, and fruit. Not because yielding is some sort of heroic act of sacrifice, but because it’s the moment we stop pretending our body belongs to our old man. It’s like a flower yielding to the sun—it’s what it was made to do. In Adam we were made for death. In Christ we’re made for glory. So yield, surrender, to that truth.

Paul uses pictures to help us understand. A crop yields to the farmer who planted it. A bride yields to her husband in willing union. In the same way, we yield to Christ because we’re joined to Him. Ephesians 5:30–32 calls this the “great mystery” and we read,

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

 

We’re members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. His body is ours; our body is His.

So Romans 6:13 is not saying, “Stop sinning and do better.” It’s saying:

Our body belongs to Christ now. Don’t hand it back to sin. Yield it to God.”

That’s the heart of the Christian life—knowing who we are, refusing sin’s claim, and willingly giving ourself to the One who saved us.

So, Paul’s showing that the Christian life starts with what we believe, not what we do. God changed us the moment we trusted the gospel—Romans 5 says we were justified, given peace with God, given access to grace, given hope, given the Holy Ghost. Romans 6 explains what that means for our identity. Only after we know who we are does Paul talk about how we live.

So again, the order is:

Know the truth about Christ.

Reckon it true about ourself.

Let not sin reign in our mind.

Yield not our members to sin.

Yield ourself to God.

Behaviour follows belief. Religion flips that around and says, “Change your behaviour first.” But Paul says we can’t change anything until we know the truth of who we are in Christ.

Our real life is in heaven now. Colossians 3:1-5 says,

IF ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence (which is strong desire; especially sexual desire and lust), and covetousness, which is idolatry:

 

To “mortify your members which are upon the earth,” means: to live here as someone who belongs up there. To mortify means to make dead, to put to death, to slay.

Our head is in heaven even while our feet stand on earth.

 

All of this leads to Romans 6:14, one of the greatest verses in the chapter and we read,

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

 

Sin has no ownership, no rights, no rule, no authority. We don’t answer to it anymore. Grace reigns now as Romans 5:21 told us. We’re under grace, not under the law.

The law gives sin its strength says 1 Corinthians 15:56,

The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

 

The law says, “You broke it—you’re condemned.” But if we’re not under the law, sin has no power to accuse us. We’re dead with Christ, and a dead man’s not under the law. Grace doesn’t give us permission to sin—it gives us freedom from sin’s dominion.

So Paul’s answer to “Shall we continue in sin?” is simple:

No—because the glorious truth is sin has no dominion over us. We’re under grace.

To really feel the impact of that, we have to understand what the law was.

God gave the law to Israel to govern people in their mortal bodies, on this earth. The law could never save anyone. Galatians 3 says the law was added to show sin. Romans 3:19 says, the law was given “that every mouth may be stopped” and “all the world may become guilty.”

God gave the law so people would know they needed grace. It showed how impossible it was for a person to ever meet God’s standard of righteousness in their own strength.

Think about the law of sin and death. Who could escape that? Nobody—except someone who died and rose again. Christ died and rose, and now He’s no longer subject to the law of sin and death. And because we’re in Christ, we’re alive unto God and no longer under that law either. We live in our mortal body under grace, not under sin. Living under grace is a much higher calling.

So why would a Christian try to go back to the law? That’s going back to Israel’s earthly program, back to a system meant to condemn, not save. We’re not under that system today as a saved person.

Galatians 3:13 says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. The law’s hardest parts weren’t the ceremonies—those were easy. The hard part was loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbour as yourself. Nobody could do that. But Christ fulfilled it, and now we’re free from the curse that came down on us for not fulfilling it ourselves.

So when Romans 6:14 says, “Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace,” it means sin has no ownership, no rights, no rule, no authority over our life. We don’t answer to it anymore. Grace reigns now as Romans 5:21 said. We’re under grace the same way we used to be under sin—completely.

Grace doesn’t just give us a little help. Grace governs us. Grace defines us. Grace gives us our position, our blessings, our identity, our mission. We don’t run to God begging for more grace every time we fail. We already live under it. It surrounds us. It holds us. It keeps us.

 

We just saw in 1 Corinthians 15:56 that, “The strength of sin is the law.” The law gives sin its power to accuse. But if we’re not under the law, sin has no strength. It can’t condemn us. It can’t claim us. We’re dead with Christ, and a dead man isn’t under the law. We’re alive with Christ, and grace reigns over us.

So Paul’s answer to “Shall we continue in sin?” is simple:

Why would we? We’re not living under sin. We’re living under grace.

Under law, behaviour affected our standing with God. Under grace, our standing is settled with God. Under law, we obeyed first and only then were we blessed. Under grace, we’re blessed first, and spiritual fruit grows from that. Under law, we were condemned. Under grace, we’re justified. Under law, sin reigned. Under grace, righteousness reigns through Jesus Christ.

That’s why Romans 6:14 is such a glorious verse. It tells us who we are now, free from sin’s dominion, free from the law’s curse and living under the reign of God’s grace.