6:11
“So you must ...” Our salvation is utterly and completely dependent upon Christ, but that does not mean that we are mere passive recipients. God’s grace leads to our action. This chapter started with Paul dismissing the ludicrous suggestion that since where sin abounds, God’s grace abounds all the more, then we should sin so that there is even more grace. How we should live is to consider ourselves dead to sin, living as if sin has no hold or claim upon us. Once it did have a claim, once we were slaves of sin, but no longer. Instead we are alive to God in Christ Jesus.
6:12
Therefore we are not to allow sin to reign in our mortal bodies. Even considering the possibility that sin is a reasonable thing to do is to demonstrate a complete misunderstanding of the gospel and a complete failure to understand the nature of sin. The previous verses have explained how Jesus died to do away with sin. The nature of sin is that it dominates, it enslaves. So we are not to allow it to reign, for then it will make our bodies obey its passions, not Christ’s commands. We see again that we are active participants, along with Christ. We cannot do anything without Christ, without the Holy Spirit, but that does not mean that we are passive.
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