Romans 6:12

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12-14) Practical and hortatory consequence. Therefore expel sin, and refuse to obey its evil promptings. Keep your bodies pure and clean. Let them no longer be weapons in the hands of wickedness; let them rather be weapons with which to fight the battle of righteousness and of God. You have every encouragement to do this. For sin shall no longer play the tyrant over you. The stern and gloomy Empire of Law (which only served to heighten the guilt of sin) is over, and in its stead the only power to which you are subject is that of free forgiveness.

(12) Mortal.—And therefore at variance with the immortal life just described.

Benson Commentary

Romans 6:12-14. Let not sin — Any sinful disposition or inclination; therefore — Since you are regenerate and spiritually alive; reign in your mortal body — That is, reign in your soul while it dwells in your body. Many of our sinful inclinations have their seat in the body, and such evil inclinations as are of a more spiritual nature, are always some way more or less turned toward the body. That ye should obey it — Should yield to and be overcome by it; in the lusts thereof — In the irregular or inordinate desires which it excites within you. Neither yield ye your members — The members of your bodies, or the faculties of your minds; the word μελη, here used, as also chapter Romans 7:5, signifying both, and indeed every thing in us and belonging to us, which is employed as an instrument in performing the works of the flesh, enumerated Galatians 5:19-21. For some of these do not require the members of the body to their being performed, but are wholly confined in their operation to the mind. Hence, Colossians 3:5, evil desire and covetousness are mentioned among our members upon the earth which we are to mortify. As instruments of unrighteousness — Employed in its service; unto sin — For the committing of it. The original word οπλα, rendered instruments, properly denotes military weapons; and may be here used to signify, that those who employ their powers, whether of body or mind, or any ability they possess, in the service of sin, do in fact fight for it, and for its master and father, Satan; and the principalities and powers under his command, against God and Christ, and all the company of heaven. But yield yourselves unto God — Your lawful king, governor, and captain: dedicate yourselves, both body and soul, to his service; as those that are alive from the dead — Who, after having been spiritually dead, are quickened and put in possession of spiritual life; that is, are no longer alienated from the life of God, but have vital union with God; not as formerly, carnally minded, which is death, but spiritually minded, which is life and peace, chap. Romans 8:6; no longer under condemnation to the second death, but justified and entitled to eternal life; and your members — All your powers and abilities; as instruments of righteousness — Instruments employed in the promotion of piety and virtue; unto God — For his service and to his glory; or as weapons, to fight his battles, and oppose the designs of your spiritual enemies. For sin shall not have dominion over you — It has no right, and shall not have power to reign over you. The word κυριευσει, denotes the government of a master over his slave, and might be rendered, shall not lord it over you. As if he had said, Though it is true sin is strong, and you are weak in yourselves, yet if you faithfully strive against it, looking to God for power from on high, you shall be enabled to conquer. For ye are not under the law — Under a dispensation of terror and bondage, which only shows you your duty, but gives you no power to perform it; and which condemns you for your past violations of it, but offers no pardon to any on their repentance. The Mosaic law seems to be particularly intended, and the propriety of what is here observed is well illustrated, in that view, by the apostle in the next chapter. But his words may well imply also, that we are not so under any law as to be utterly condemned for want of a perfect conformity, or unsinning obedience to it. Not under a dispensation that requires such an obedience, under the penalty of death; which offers no assistance for enabling those who are under it to perform its requisitions, and grants no pardon to any sinner on his repentance. For the apprehension of being under such a dispensation would tend utterly to discourage us in all our attempts to conquer sin, and free ourselves from its power. But under grace — Under the merciful dispensation of the gospel, which offers to all that will accept it, in the way of repentance toward God and faith in Christ, a free and full pardon for all that is past, an entire change of nature, and those continual supplies of grace, which strengthen human weakness, and confer both the will and the power to conquer every besetting sin, and live in the practice of universal holiness and righteousness. For the nature of the grace, that is, of the new gracious covenant, under which we are placed, is such, that it does not require an impossible perfect obedience to the law of Moses, or any law, but the obedience of faith; promising, at the same time, the aids of the Holy Spirit, to enable men to do God’s will sincerely as far as they know it, and offering the pardon of sin to all on condition of repentance and faith in Christ, and in the declarations and promises of the gospel through him. Now under this gracious covenant mankind have been placed ever since the fall; ever since God said, The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head; ever since that time the apostle’s doctrine here, Ye are not under the law, but under grace, has been true of all the posterity of Adam; a doctrine which, instead of weakening the obligation of the law of God, written on men’s hearts, or the moral law in any of its requirements, establishes it in the most effectual manner. See note on Romans 3:31.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:11-15 The strongest motives against sin, and to enforce holiness, are here stated. Being made free from the reign of sin, alive unto God, and having the prospect of eternal life, it becomes believers to be greatly concerned to advance thereto. But, as unholy lusts are not quite rooted out in this life, it must be the care of the Christian to resist their motions, earnestly striving, that, through Divine grace, they may not prevail in this mortal state. Let the thought that this state will soon be at an end, encourage the true Christian, as to the motions of lusts, which so often perplex and distress him. Let us present all our powers to God, as weapons or tools ready for the warfare, and work of righteousness, in his service. There is strength in the covenant of grace for us. Sin shall not have dominion. God's promises to us are more powerful and effectual for mortifying sin, than our promises to God. Sin may struggle in a real believer, and create him a great deal of trouble, but it shall not have dominion; it may vex him, but it shall not rule over him. Shall any take occasion from this encouraging doctrine to allow themselves in the practice of any sin? Far be such abominable thoughts, so contrary to the perfections of God, and the design of his gospel, so opposed to being under grace. What can be a stronger motive against sin than the love of Christ? Shall we sin against so much goodness, and such love?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let not sin therefore - This is a conclusion drawn from the previous train of reasoning. The result of all these considerations is, that sin should not be suffered to reign in us.

Reign - Have dominion; obtain the ascendency, or rule.

In your mortal body - In you. The apostle uses the word "mortal" here, perhaps, for these reasons,

(1) To remind them of the tendency of the flesh to sin and corruption, as equivalent to "fleshly," since the flesh is often used to denote evil passions and desires (compare Romans 7:5, Romans 7:23; Romans 8:3, Romans 8:6); and,

(2) To remind them of their weakness, as the body was mortal, was soon to decay, and was therefore liable to be overcome by temptation. Perhaps, also, he had his eye on the folly of suffering the "mortal body" to overcome the immortal mind, and to bring it into subjection to sin and corruption.

That ye should obey it - That sin should get such an ascendency as to rule entirely over you, and make you the slave.

In the lusts thereof - In its desires, or propensities.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Ro 6:12-23. What Practical Use Believers Should Make of Their Death to Sin and Life to God through Union to the Crucified Saviour.

Not content with showing that his doctrine has no tendency to relax the obligations to a holy life, the apostle here proceeds to enforce these obligations.

12. Let not sin therefore—as a Master

reign—(The reader will observe that wherever in this section the words "Sin," "Obedience," "Righteousness," "Uncleanness," "Iniquity," are figuratively used, to represent a Master, they are here printed in capitals, to make this manifest to the eye, and so save explanation).

in your mortal body, that ye should obey it—sin.

in the lusts thereof—"the lusts of the body," as the Greek makes evident. (The other reading, perhaps the true one, "that ye should obey the lusts thereof," comes to the same thing). The "body" is here viewed as the instrument by which all the sins of the heart become facts of the outward life, and as itself the seat of the lower appetites; and it is called "our mortal body," probably to remind us how unsuitable is this reign of sin in those who are "alive from the dead." But the reign here meant is the unchecked dominion of sin within us. Its outward acts are next referred to.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Let not sin therefore: q.d. Seeing this is the case, that you are dead to sin, baptized into Christ, are planted together into the likeness of his death, &c., therefore the rather hearken to and obey the following exhortation. By sin he means the sin or corruption of our nature, the same that before he called the old man, and the body of sin. There are remainders thereof in the regenerate; in them it is mortified, but not eradicated; therefore to them this exhortation is not unnecessary.

Reign; he doth not say, let it not be or reside, but let it not reign or preside; let it not bear sway or have dominion in you; let it not have the upper hand of the motions of the Spirit of God.

In your mortal body; the body (called here a mortal or frail body) is put by a synecdoche for the whole man; and he the rather makes mention of the body, because the parts and members thereof are the usual instruments of sin. Therefore it follows in the next verse, Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness.

That ye should obey it in the lusts thereof; i.e. that you should obey sin in the lust of the body. The gender of the relative article of the Greek, requires it should be so read and understood. The meaning is not as if lusts were in the body alone, for Christ teacheth the contrary, Matthew 15:19,20; but because all sinful lusts do mostly show and manifest themselves in and through the body, Galatians 5:19.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,.... Since grace reigns in you, sin should not: seeing ye are dead to sin, are baptized into the death of Christ, and are dead with him, and alive through him, sin therefore should not reign in you, and over you. This exhortation does not suppose a freewill power in man naturally, for this is spoken to persons, who had the Spirit and grace of Christ, and in whom God had wrought both to will and to do of his good pleasure; nor is this exhortation unnecessary to believers, though they are dead to sin, and though God has promised it shall not have the dominion over them, and though reigning sin, as divines say, cannot be in regenerate persons; for though they are entirely dead to sin as justified persons, yet not perfectly so as sanctified: they are indeed dead to sin, but sin is not dead in them; it struggles, it makes war, leads captive, and threatens absolute and universal dominion, wherefore such an exhortation is necessary; besides, though God has promised that sin shall not have the dominion, yet making use of means, such as prayer to God that it may not, striving against it, opposing it, in order to hinder its dominion, are no ways inconsistent with the promise of God, whose promises often have their accomplishment in the use of means: moreover, whereas some divines say, that reigning sin may be and others that it cannot be in regenerate persons, it should be observed, that if by reigning sin is meant, sinning against God out of malice and contempt, with the whole heart, without any struggle against it, or repentance for it, or so as to lose the grace of God, and never rise more, then it must be said that it cannot be in a regenerate man; but if by it is meant, falling into sin against their consciences, knowingly and willingly, so as to distress their minds, lose their peace, and grieve the Spirit of God, so as to be held under it, and be led captive by it, such power sin may have in them, and over them; and therefore the exhortation is not needless; and when the apostle says, let it not reign "in your mortal body", by it is either meant the whole man, or rather the body only, which is the instrument of sinning, and is become mortal through sin; and being so, is a reason why it should not reign in it, since it has done so much mischief to it already: and this also denotes the time of sin's being in us, and of the danger of its reigning in us; it is only whilst we are in this mortal body; and the consideration of our mortality should quicken us to war against sin, and be careful not to

obey it in the lusts thereof; the lusts of the body, or flesh, which are therefore sometimes called fleshly lusts, are many, and have great power and influence; and may be said to be obeyed, when provision is made to fulfil them, when these are the business of a man's life, and the whole of his conversation is taken up in them, without struggle against them, or opposition to them; and heroin lies the reign of sin.

Geneva Study Bible

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

(6) An exhortation to contend and strive with corruption and all the effects of it.

(o) By reigning Paul means that principal and high rule which no man strives against, and even if anyone does, it is in vain.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Romans 6:12 f. Οὖν] in consequence of this λογίζεσθε, for the proof of it in the practice of life. For this practice the λογίζεσθαι κ.τ.λ[1434] is meant to be the regulative theory. The negative portion of the following exhortation corresponds to the νεκροὺς μὲν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ in Romans 6:11; and the positive contrast ἀλλὰ κ.τ.λ[1435] to the ΖῶΝΤΑς ΔἚ Τῷ ΘΕῷ.

ΜῊ ΒΑΣΙΛ.] With this nothing sinful is admitted (comp Chrysostom); but on the contrary the influence of the (personified) sin, conquering the moral ego, is entirely forbidden,[1437] as the whole connection teaches.

ἘΝ Τῷ ΘΝΗΤῷ ὙΜ. ΣΏΜ.] ἘΝ simply indicates the seat and sphere, in which the forbidden dominion would take place (not by means of, as Th. Schott thinks). As to θνητῷ, every explanation is to be avoided which takes the word in any other sense than the ordinary one of mortal (comp Romans 8:11), because it has no other signification (see all the examples in Wetstein), and because the context contains nothing at all in favour of giving any other turn to the notion of the word. We must reject therefore the opinion that it is equivalent to ΝΕΚΡῷ, as taken in the ethical sense: dead for sin (Turretin, Ch. Schmidt, Ernesti, Schleusner, Schrader, and Stengel). Directly affirmed of the body, the mortality could not but be understood by every reader quite definitely as the physical. The purpose of the epithet however must manifestly result from the relation of motive, in which the mortality of the body stands to the prohibition of the reign of sin in the body. And the more precise definition of this motive is to be derived from the previous νεκροὺς μὲν τῇ ἁμαρτιᾷ, ζῶντας δὲ τῷ Θεῷ. If we are convinced, namely, that we are dead for sin and alive for God; if we account ourselves as those who have put off the ethical mortality (Ὡς ἘΚ ΝΕΚΡῶΝ ΖῶΝΤΑς, Romans 6:13), then it is an absurdity to allow sin to reign in the body, which in fact is mortal. This quality stands in a relation of contradiction to our immortal life entered upon in the fellowship of Christ, and thus the dominion, for which we should deliver over our body to sin, would prove that we were not that for which, nevertheless, in genuine moral self-judgment, we have to take ourselves; since in fact the mortal life of the body, if we yield it to the government of sin, excludes the immortal Christian life described in Romans 6:11. Hofmann imports more into the passage than its connection with Romans 6:11 suggests; namely the double folly, that such an one should not use the power, which the life of Christ gives him over the mortal body and therewith over sin; and that he should permit himself to be entangled in the death to which his body falls a victim, while he possesses a life of which also his body would become joint-participant. This is a finespun application of the true interpretation. Different is the view of Köllner (comp Calvin: “per contemtum vocat mortale”), that it is here hinted how disgraceful it is to make the spirit subordinate to sin, which only dwells in the perishable body; and of Grotius: “de vita altera cogitandum, nee formidandos labores haud sane diuturnos” (comp Chrysostom and Theodoret; so also on the whole Reiche). But the context contains neither a contrast between body and spirit, nor between this and the other life. Flatt thinks that Paul wished to remind his readers of the brevity of sensual pleasure; comp Theophylact. But how little would this be in keeping with the high standpoint of the moral sternness of the Apostle! According to others, Paul desired to remind them warningly of the destructiveness of sin, which had brought death on the body (de Wette, Krehl, Nielsen, Philippi, also Maier). But this point of view as to destructiveness is remote from the connection, in which the pervading theme is rather the unsuitableness of the dominion of sin to the communion of death and life with Christ. Others still explain it variously.[1442]

ΣΏΜΑΤΙ] body, as in Romans 6:6; not a symbolic expression for the entire ego (Reiche, following Ambrosiaster and various early expositors); nor yet body and soul, so far as it is not yet the recipient of the Spirit of God (Philippi); for even in all such passages as Romans 8:10; Romans 8:13; Romans 8:23; Romans 12:1 σῶμα retains purely its signification body. But sin reigns in the body (comp on Romans 6:6), so far as its material substratum is the ΣΆΡΞ (Colossians 2:11), which, with its life-principle the ΨΥΧΉ, is the seat and agent of sin (Romans 7:18 ff. al[1444]). Hence the sinful desires are its desires (αὐτοῦ), because, excited by the power of sin in the flesh, they are at work in the body and its members (Romans 7:5; Romans 7:23; Colossians 3:5). Sin aims at securing obedience to these desires through its dominion in man. Consequently ΕἸς ΤῸ ὙΠΑΚ. Τ. ἘΠΙΘ. ΑὐΤ. implies the—according to Romans 6:11 absurd—tendency of the allowing sin to reign in the mortal body, which the Apostle forbids.

μηδέ] also especially not (as e.g. 1 Corinthians 5:8).

παριστάνετε] present, i.e. place at the disposal, at the service. Matthew 26:53; Acts 23:24; 2 Timothy 2:15; Athen. iv. p. 148 B; Lucian, d. Mark 6, 2; Diod. Sic. xvi. 79; Dem. 597 pen.

τὰ μέλη ὑμῶν] your members, which sin desires to use as executive organs, tongue, hand, foot, eye, etc. The mental powers and activities, feeling, will, understanding, are not included (in opposition to Erasmus, Reiche, Philippi and others); but Paul speaks concretely and graphically of the members, in reference to which the mental activities in question are necessarily presupposed. Comp Colossians 3:5.

ὍΠΛΑ ἈΔΙΚΊΑς] as weapons of immorality, with which the establishment of immorality is achieved. The ἁμαρτία is conceived as a ruler employing the members of man as weapons of warfare, wherewith to contend against the government of God and to establish ἀδικία (opposite of the subsequent ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΎΝΗς). It injures the figure, to which Romans 6:23 glances back, to explain ὍΠΛΑ (comp כּלי) instruments, as is done by many (including Rückert, Köllner, Baumgarten-Crusius, Krehl, Fritzsche, de Wette, and Ewald), a meaning which it indeed frequently bears in classic Greek since Homer (see Duncan, Lex. ed. Rost, p. 844), but never in the N. T. Comp especially 2 Corinthians 6:7; 2 Corinthians 10:4.

ΠΑΡΑΣΤΉΣΑΤΕ] the aorist here following the present (comp Bernhardy, p. 393), marking the immediateness and rapidity of the opposite action which has to set in. It stands to ΠΑΡΙΣΤΆΝΕΤΕ in a climactic relation. See Winer, p. 294 [E. T. 394], Kühner, II. 1, p. 158.

ἑαυτούς] yourselves, your own persons, and specially also your members, etc.

ὡς ἐκ νεκρ. ζῶντας] as those that are alive from the dead (risen), i.e. those who have experienced in themselves the ethical process of having died and attained to the resurrection-life with Christ. Only thus, in the sense of the moral renovation discussed in Romans 6:2-11—not in the sense of Ephesians 2:1 (Philippi and older expositors)—can it be explained agreeably to the context, especially as ὡς corresponds to the ΛΟΓΊΖΕΣΘΕ Κ.Τ.Λ[1449] in Romans 6:11. This ὡς, quippe, with the participle (as in Romans 15:15, and very frequently), expresses, namely, the relation of the case, in which what is demanded is to appear to the readers as corresponding to their Christian state, which is described as life from the dead.[1450]

Τῷ ΘΕῷ] belonging to God, as in Romans 6:10-11.

[1434] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[1435] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[1437] But Luther’s gloss is good: “Mark, the saints have still evil lusts in the flesh, which they do not follow,” Comp. the carrying out of the idea in Melancthon.

[1442] Olshausen connects thus: “let not the sin manifesting itself in your mortal body reign in you.” In that case Paul must have repeated the article after ἁμ. According to Baur there lies in θνητῷ the idea: “whose mortality can only remind you of that, which it even now is as νεκρὸν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ.” But, had Paul desired to set forth the moral death through the adjective by way of motive, he must then have written, after ver 11, ἐν τῷ νεκρῷ ὑμῶν σώματι, which after what goes before would not have been liable to any misconception.

[1444] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.

[1449] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[1450] The ὡς is not the “like” of comparison (Hofmann, who, following Lachmann, prefers with A B C א the ὡσει, which does not elsewhere occur in the writings of Paul), but the “as” of the quality, in which the subjects have to conceive themselves. Comp. Wunder, ad Soph. Trach. 394, p. 94; Kühner, II. 2, p. 649. According to Hofmann the comparative ὡσει is only to extend to ἐκ νεκρῶν (and ζῶντας to be predicative): as living persons like as from the dead. But such a mere comparison would be foreign to the whole context, according to which Christian are really alive (with Christ) from the dead, and paralysing the pith of the view, which does not lie in a quasi, but in a tanquam. The Vulgate renders correctly: “tanquam ex mortuis viventes.” He who participates ethically in the resurrection-life of the Lord is alive from death, but not alive as if from death; just as little is he as if alive from death. Theodore of Mopsuestia rendered the ὡσει, which he read, in the latter sense; referring it to ἐκ νεκρ. ζῶντας together, and explaining the meaning to he that, previous to the actual resurrection, only ἡ κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν μίμησις is required.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Romans 6:12 f. Practical enforcement of Romans 6:1-11. The inner life is in union with Christ, and the outer (bodily) life must not be inconsistent with it (Weiss). ἐν τῷ θνητῷ ὑμῶν σώματι: the suggestion of θνητὸς is rather that the frail body should be protected against the tyranny of sin, than that sin leads to the death of the body. μηδὲ παριστάνετε … ἀλλὰ παραστήσατε: and do not go on, as you have been doing, putting your members at the service of sin, but put them once for all at the service of God. For the difference between pres. and aor. imper., see Winer, p. 393 f. ὅπλα ἀδικίας: the gen is of quality, cf. Luke 16:8-9. ὅπλα in the N.T. seems always to mean weapons, not instruments: see 2 Corinthians 10:4; 2 Corinthians 10:6-7, and cf. ὀψώνια, Romans 6:23. ὡσεὶ ἐκ νεκρῶν ζῶντας: they were really such; the ὡσεὶ signifies that they are to think of themselves as such, and to act accordingly.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. Let not sin therefore reign] Here begins the direct moral appeal to the will. This till now has been either withheld, (while the Divine motive was being explained,) or made only indirectly, as in Romans 6:2; Romans 6:6, and Romans 3:31.—Notice how perfectly free and natural is the appeal to the will.

reign] This word implies sin’s presence still in the “mortal body” of the justified; a presence dwelt upon so fully in ch. 7, at the close. But they are to resist and subdue it, just because they are (1) judicially free from its claim, or doom; and (2) freed by a means, exactly such as to bring them into the “newness” of a “life unto God;” i.e. a totally new condition of connexion and intercourse with Him as the Father of their Head. Such a condition, in the nature of things, cannot be merely objective. It is objective as regards the acceptance of believers in the Risen Lord, and His intercessory life for them; but it must also inevitably be subjective on its other side, because the final cause of the objective position is the realization of a subjective spiritual state; namely, that of holiness and love before God. The facts are expressly given in order to work upon the conscience and will. See further, Postscript, p. 268.

in your mortal body] See on “the body of sin,” Romans 6:6. Here the “mortality” is emphasized, because it marks the fact (see further on Romans 8:23) that the deliverance of the body is still incomplete, so that it is still a special field for the action of sin. See below on Romans 7:24.

that ye should obey it, &c.] Better read, so as to obey the lusts thereof; i.e. of the body. This clause explains the word “reign.” Sin “reigns” when the will goes with solicitations to evil—as it does on the whole go, since the Fall, till Redemption gives it the motive power to resist and prevail.—“Lusts:” desires after evil, and away from God, of every kind; whether “sensual” or not. The most refined æstheticism may be as truly a “lust of the mortal body” as the grossest vice, if it perverts the will from holiness.

Bengel's Gnomen

Romans 6:12. Μὴ, not) Refer the ἀλλὰ but [yield yourselves unto God, Romans 6:13] to μὴ, not [here]: and refer καὶ τὰ μέλη, and your members, etc., to μηδὲ, neither [both in Romans 6:13] [There is a remarkable force in this dehortation on the one hand and exhortation on the other, V. g.]—μὴ οὖν βασιλευέτω, let not sin therefore reign) The same verb occurs in ch. Romans 5:21. A synonymous term in Romans 6:9. It is a correlative of serve, Romans 6:6.—θνητῷ, mortal) For you, who are now alive, are become alienated from your body, ch. Romans 8:10.—αὐτῃ ἐν) This savours somewhat of a paraphrase. Baumgarten and I, as usual, hold each his own opinion, as to the mode of interpreting this passage.—ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις αὐτοῦ, in its lusts) viz. σώματος, of the body. The bodily appetites are the fuel; sin is the fire.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof. (The reading of the Textus Receptus, "obey it in the lusts thereof," has but weak support.) Though our "old man" is conceived of as crucified with Christ - though this is theoretically and potentially our position - yet our actual lives may be at variance with it; for we are still in our present "mortal body," with its lusts remaining; and sin is still a power, not yet destroyed, which may, if we let it, have domination over us still. Regeneration is not regarded as having changed our nature, or eradicated all our evil propensions, but as having introduced into us a higher power - "the power of his resurrection" (Philippians 3:10) - in virtue of which we may resist the attempted domination of sin. But it still rests with us whether we will give our allegiance to sin or to Christ. Οὐ γὰρ τὴν φύσιν η΅λθεν ἀνελεῖν ἀλλὰ τὴν προαίρεσιν διορθῶσαι (Chrysostom). The lusts, obedience to which is equivalent to letting sin reign, are said to be those of our "mortal body," because it is in our present bodily organization that the lusts tempting us to evil rise. But it is not in their soliciting us, but in the will assenting to them, that the sin lies. "Quia non consentimus desideriis pravis in gratia sumus" (Augustine, 'Prop.,' 35). "Cupiditates corporis sunt fomes, peccatum ignis" (Bengel). The epithet θνητῷ ("mortal") is fitly used as distinguishing our present perishable framework - the earthen vessels in which we have our treasure (2 Corinthians 4:7) - from our real inward personality, ἔσωθεν ἄνθρωπος (2 Corinthians 4:16), which is regarded as having risen with Christ, so as to live to God for ever. "Vos enim, viventes, abalienati estis a corpore vestro (cf. Romans 8:10)" (Bengel). Romans 6:12

Vincent's Word Studies

Reign (βασιλευέτω)

The antithesis implied is not between reigning and existing, but between reigning and being deposed.

Body

Literal, thus according with members, Romans 6:13.