Romans 6:12. The First Step When Confronting Sins

Romans 6

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

Up to now, we have shared what Christ has done for us.

Here we are given responsibility.

Many believe that the Christian life is praying a simple prayer or generally expecting God to deal with our sins.  We may even try methods to stop certain sins. But all seems to be a failure.  Understand, we, on our own without the power of the Spirit cannot stop sins.

But there are things we can do to begin the process.

One is verse 12.

DON'T LET ANY SIN REIGN IN YOUR PHYSICAL BODY

SIN=a living force, a principle we live by, a desire we feed.   Sin is personified as a king, a dictator forcing us through enticement to do its will.

The Apostle Paul strongly appeals to the believer, not to let any sin reign in the body.

Let nothing rule you.  Don't let a sin become a habit. Once you play with sin, it will keep coming back.  You will keep letting in.  At a point, you won't be able to make him leave.  

Tragic are the stories of everyone who dabbled in a sin, soon to become its slave.  Even after years of slavery and finally find victory they still suffer the memories of lost "what might have been."

For that habit will destroy more areas of your soul and its pursuit of life and fruit, you will not so easily recover from.  Later on, you will see the effects of it with great sorrow.

Sin habits will also permanently destroy strengths in your thinking and parts of your personality.  Sin is more dangerous than we think.

Though we return to God, sin will always leave a mark, a scar that may never fully heal.

But the hope is this:  God can and does restore.  The magnitude of that depends upon our responsibility to follow the Holy Spirit's guidance from Christ's Word.

The 1st responsibility is to fix a mindset to not let any sin rule us.  The habits must be broken.  Nothing which stands against the knowledge of God must continue.  They must fall to humble obedience to Christ.

"and as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed Me. What is this you have done? "Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.) (Jdg 2:2, 3)

Cain failed to heed the Lord's instructive warning "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master (Lxx = archo = rule over, govern) it. (Genesis 4:7).

These were some of the sins warned by Paul to eradicate:

lust, sexual impurity, covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language, and lying can show up in the lives of Christians (Colossians 3:5, 6, 7, 8, 9).

I will give you two pieces of advice to begin:

1.  Get alone with God and discuss your sins.  Proceed to repentance and believing God's mercy to wash you clean.  Then begin the road by asking His help to show you how.

2.  When we learn to enjoy a new food, we reject the old of poorer taste.  I strongly believe this in regard to dealing with sin.  Until you learn to experience the joy of learning God's deep truths your hunger for the flesh will not change much.  But as you grow to enjoy Bible study, exploring the depths of word studies and a deep understanding of the truths of verses and their passages, you will continue to hunger more for your sins.

My experience has been this:  As I have experienced more of God from prayer and the Bible, my appetite for God has grown and my appetite for sin has greatly decreased.  Over time, sin habits have ended.

Grow your taste for prayer and the Bible.  It will change what you eat.