I. Sin shall not reign over you (vs12)
A. The wording of 12 and 13 states that we have an option.
1. At the very base of love lies choice.
2. God is desiring of our love and therefore placed obedience in our lives to demonstrate that love to Him.
3. The mere fact that we are able to choose to be obedient or disobedient supplies us with the knowledge that that love exist.
B. The apostle uses the word "mortal" here, perhaps, for these reasons as stated by Barnes:
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.
a. It is a miserable life to be controlled by the flesh.
b. The scriptures tell us from the very beginning that it is to be the word of God that should control our thoughts and abilities.
c. In the garden God told Adam “You shall not eat of the tree”, at that point they were to be under the control of His word.
d. This is exactly the same principle given to the readers of Romans.
e. This direction has been given due to the tendency of the flesh to fulfill itself for the moment.
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.
a. What was the first thing Satan played on? Eve’s senses.
b. He caused a visual to begin in her mind and she became focused on “every tree in the garden”.
c. It is because our weakness is our flesh.
d. Many times if we look into the spiritual outcome before we act on temptation the sin is avoided.
e. It is when we look to sin through our “mortal” bodies that we begin to fail.
II. Do not test sinful passions
A. Sin is not destroyed in our lives
1. It is still active and can still injure the believer.
2. We are to be proactive against sin.
3. This is descriptive in the whole armor of God. We should never be unprepared when it comes to temptation.
4. The Word of God should be active enough in our lives that recognition of sin should be generated and defeated when it comes.
5. Let us not forget the destruction that is caused by sin.
6. It is useful to be declared on even the 3-4 generations that follow.
B. New King James Version - 2 Cor 10:5
5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
1. John MacAurthur reminds us that in order for sin to have power over us it must pass through our will.
2. If we follow the principle of verse 5 and bring our mind into submission to Christ than our will shall bend to His leaving us with the victory over sin.
III. Present yourself to God
A. The believer is to be devoted to God.
B. Everything he is and has is to be dedicated to the worship and service of God.
C. Anything less than total devotion is short of God's glory: it is sin. (Preachers outline and sermon bible)
IV. Grace trumps sin
A. Though the debate on this passage leads us to believe that sin can be victorious in our life, the truth comes through in the end that sin cannot have dominion over us.
B. Even in times of our despair when we have fallen, grace is there to catch us.
