Romans 6:¹² Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, ¹³ and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God. ¹⁴ For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Far from it! ¹⁶ Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, ¹⁸ and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your body’s parts as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness. ²¹ Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. ²² But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The “therefore” in verse 12 is a follow up of 6:1-11. Since we have died to the power of sin to kill us then we should not allow sin to use our body parts to sin! Even if you do sin, sin will not become your master getting you to sin continually. You have been freed from your former master sin who controlled you by getting you to break whatever moral law you were under. You are freed from the power of the master sin and are now “under grace”. That grace forgives you of any sin 24/7 by the blood of Jesus.

Someone might think, “since I am saved by grace and sins forgiven 24/7, then I can just continue to sin willfully b/c I am now under grace” (6:15). Paul then says that reasoning is wrong (6:15).

1) 6:16 He states an obvious fact: “you are the slave of the one you obey”. Picture 1st century slavery in Rome. You would know if someone was a slave to some master b/c that slave would be obeying his master 24/7.

2) 6:16 If you choose to continue obeying your former master sin after becoming a Christian, then you make yourself a slave to master sin. That would put you back under the power of master sin which would lead to you falling from grace and sin being able to condemn you again.

3) 6:17 Thankfully you chose to leave your old master sin. You chose to become a slave to righteousness instead of master sin. It is ironic that we are “freed” from the slavery of our sin master and his power to kill us spiritually, and yet we chose to become slaves to obey Jesus 24/7.

4) 6:19 So, as slaves to righteousness, present your body parts to obey your new master Jesus. This will result in “sanctification”. I’m sure AI took this from some article, but I thought it was really good.

“In the Bible, sanctification refers to the process of being set apart and made holy, a work of God’s grace that transforms believers into more Christlike individuals. It’s not just a one-time event, but a progressive journey of spiritual growth and becoming more like Jesus. 

1. Initial Sanctification: This refers to the moment of conversion or being born again, when a person is declared righteous in God’s sight through faith in Jesus Christ. This is often compared to being “washed” and “set apart”. Hebrews 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

2. Progressive Sanctification: This is the ongoing process of becoming more Christlike, involving growth in holiness, purity, and righteousness. It involves the believer actively choosing to obey God’s Word, submitting to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and putting off sin and putting on Christlike character. Eph 4:20–24 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality.”

3. Future Sanctification: This refers to the ultimate perfection and holiness that believers will experience in heaven when they are united with Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In essence, sanctification is a journey:

Becoming like Jesus:The goal of sanctification is to be more like Christ in character, thoughts, and actions. 
Setting apart for God’s use:Like the vessels used in religious rituals, believers are set apart for a specific purpose in God’s plan. 

Being holy:Sanctification involves striving to live a life that pleases God, avoiding sin, and growing in holiness. 

5) 6:20 When you were the slave to master sin, you were free from obeying master Jesus. But what benefit did you get from obeying master sin? Spiritual death is what you received as the reward for your obeying master sin.

6) 6:22 But now with your new master Jesus and grace, what benefit or reward do you receive? Sanctification and eternal life.

7) 6:²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is really a profound statement. The word “wages” implies something that you earn by working. The wages of obeying master sin will be spiritual death and either eternal annihilation or suffering. But notice that eternal life is not called “wages”. Instead it is called “the gracious gift of God”. The Greek is charisma: Gift, grace-gift, spiritual gift (usually used to refer to miraculous spiritual gifts in the early church). But in 6:23 the charisma or gift is eternal life. I don’t believe that we still have those miraculous gifts of the early church, but we have a gift far greater, i.e. eternal life. You can’t earn the “reward” of choosing to become a slave to Jesus. Ephesians 2:⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” That doesn’t mean there aren’t any conditions or commands to be met on our part. We are told to repent, be baptized, obey Jesus’ commands, do good works, bear fruit, etc. We are told that if we don’t bear fruit, we will be cut off (John 15). But obedience to Jesus’ commands doesn’t mean that you have “earned” eternal life. If I extend my hand with a $100 bill to just give you as an unearned gift, but then I tell you that to get it you will have to reach out and take it out of my hand. When you do that and get the $100, does that mean that you have earned it b/c you obeyed my condition that I stated that you had to obey my command to reach out with your hand to take it out of my hand??????? No. It is the same with our salvation. You must obey the command to repent and be baptized in order to be saved, but when you do so it doesn’t mean that you have earned salvation in any degree. It is just a “condition” required to be saved, not a work to earn salvation. Remember Namaan the leper. He had to obey a command or condition in order to be cleansed of leprosy: he had to dip in the Jordan River 7 times. He finally did that and was cleansed of leprosy. His dipping in water did not earn his cleansing, but he had to obey or he would not have been cleansed.

2 Corinthians 9:¹⁵ Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! God gave us His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. He gave us eternal life as a gift for choosing to believe and obey Jesus. We all get excited when someone gives us a gift that we really like. How excited are we about the gift of eternal life that God gives us through Jesus?