Romans 6:12

Let not sin therefore reign Here begins the direct moral appeal to the will. This till now has been either withheld, (while the Divine motivewas being explained,) or made only indirectly, as in Romans 6:2; Romans 6:6, and Romans 3:31. Notice how perfectly free and natural is the appeal to the will.

reign This word implies sin's presence still in the "mortal body" of the justified; a presence dwelt upon so fully in ch. 7, at the close. But they are to resist and subdue it, just because they are (1) judicially free from its claim, or doom; and (2) freed by a means, exactly such as to bring them into the "newness" of a "life unto God;" i.e. a totally new condition of connexion and intercourse with Him as the Father of their Head. Such a condition, in the nature of things, cannot be merely objective. It is objectiveas regards the acceptance of believers in the Risen Lord, and His intercessory life for them; but it must alsoinevitably be subjectiveon its other side, because the final cause of the objective positionis the realization of a subjective spiritual state;namely, that of holiness and love before God. The factsare expressly given in order to workupon the conscience and will. See further, Postscript, p. 268.

in your mortal body See on "the body of sin," Romans 6:6. Here the "mortality" is emphasized, because it marks the fact (see further on Romans 8:23) that the deliverance of the body is still incomplete, so that it is still a special field for the action of sin. See below on Romans 7:24.

that ye should obey it, &c. Better read, so as to obey the lusts thereof; i.e. of the body. This clause explains the word "reign." Sin "reigns" when the will goes withsolicitations to evil as it does on the whole go, since the Fall, till Redemption gives it the motive power to resist and prevail. "Lusts:" desires after evil, and away from God, of every kind; whether "sensual" or not. The most refined æstheticism may be as truly a "lust of the mortal body" as the grossest vice, if it perverts the will from holiness.