“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof...For sin shall not have dominion over you.”
Some years ago, I heard a nationally known evangelical radio teacher expounding our texts, found in Romans chapter six. To my shock and utter dismay, he said a Christian could live without sinning, that he had gone all the previous day without committing one sin. He attempted to use the above scriptures as proof-texts. But a text taken out of context is a pretext!
No Believer can live without sin, although he or she may live above sin. As an assistant pastor said to me once, “We no longer have to live in the saloon, we can now live in an apartment above it.” The words “reign” and “dominion,” as found in Romans six, as well as in other places, have to do with power, not presence; authority, not absence.
When Joseph’s brethren said, “Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? they were speaking of him having control over their lives. Like a king having reign and dominion over his subjects. We are now free from sin's power over us, but not its presence in us. Both Joseph and his brethren remained, whoever had the control.
Sin’s presence is always with us (Rom.7), like Siamese twins, we are joined together, and only death does us part. God has left you and me with the means to feed the new nature. We also have the means at our disposal to feed the old. But once we give in to the “old man’s” deceitful pleadings and nourish him, he will always get the upper hand.
Emancipated servants should follow the one who gave His life for their freedom, and not return to the tyrannical, slave driver they once served!
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