I remember a movie from the 1980’s where 2 guys go to spend a weekend at their boss’s fancy beach house. Only they find out when they arrive that he is dead! But, since they want to enjoy the pleasures of the beach house and it’s lifestyle, they pretend he is still alive, and spend the whole weekend with a dead guy, just so they can enjoy themselves. That of course, is just a movie, but how often do we do the same thing in our lives? As Christians we died to sin when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Saviour, but how often do we allow sin to reign as “king” in our lives – simply because we want to enjoy the “pleasures” it pretends to provide us!
Remember what Paul wrote in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” In verse 6, he continues, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” Then, continuing with verse 11-13, “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 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.”
Sin no longer has dominion over us. We no longer have to obey it’s lustful schemes and desires. Yet, how often do we obey the commands of “sin” in our bodies, rather than the commands of God’s Word? If we allow sin to have control over us, it most definitely will. However, it is like a dead king. It is no longer our master and ruler, but it will seek to rule us if we give in to it!
Paul sums it up in verse 16, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” Sin can’t control us as Christians, unless we allow it to. We make the choice! Do we want a dead king or a living Almighty KING? We can’t have both…it all depends on who we choose to obey!