Observations:
Carrying off of the end of the last passage, that where sin increased, grace abounded more, Paul rebuts the question hanging in the air: "Shall we continue to sin so that grace may abound?"
He doesn't just say, "no." No, Paul very adamantly rejects that question, responding with one in kind: "How can we, who died to sin, still live in it?" Even more so, he draws the connection that, as we are baptised into Christ, we are baptised into Christ's death, so that, just as Christ was raised into life, that we would be as well. How lightly do we take that when we continue to sin?
Let me rephrase that: In accepting Christ, you take part in the death of God's Son, receiving freely-offered life.
In continuing to sin, we say that Christ's sacrifice amounts to nothing.
In a sense, it's like taking whatever amount of money you've earned from your inheritance and spending it all on prostitutes.
It is a blatant disregard of Christ's sacrifice, that we continue to live in sin!
As Paul continues, we see that it is not only a blatant disregard, but it is an impossibility. We have been crucified with Christ so that we may be no longer enslaved to sin. And if we have died with Christ, then we have also been resurrected into life with him, as Paul reasons, a life that is not subject to death any longer. Paul makes it clear that Christ died to sin and lives to God, illustrating that, if we are to be mirrors of Christ, then we, too, must die to sin and live to God.
For this reason, it is absurd that a Christian would return to a life of sin, that eh would so cheaply forsake the sacrifice of God. Indeed, I would argue that a desire to remain in sin is pathognomonic for a still-unsaved soul, which brings us to this last segment:
"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." Romans 6:12-14Paul is speaking directly. Do not allow sin to reign in your life. Paul's not saying that Christians don't ever sin. He's saying that Christians seek after God, not sin, giving themselves over to him, because sin no longer has jurisdiction over them.
Application:
WE ARE NO LONGER UNDER THE CONSTRAINTS OF SIN!
So why, then, do we live and act as though we are?
We act as though our sins run us, that they determine all of our actions, attitudes, and thoughts, when we should be living that way with regard to God.
Now, this is not saying that Christians will never sin, but that Christians will not have a mentality or predilection of sin anymore.
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