Romans 6:1-14
It is too easy – so some say! Since grace super-abounds, and our wrong doings only serve the more to accentuate it, let us take advantage of this to give full rein to every whim of our carnal will (vv. 1, 15). But can we imagine the prodigal son, after having experienced the welcome given him by his father, having any desire to return to the far country, saying, "I know now that I shall always be welcomed back at home each time it may please me to return"? No, such reasoning is never that of a true child of God. Firstly, because he knows how much this grace cost his Saviour, and he is afraid to grieve Him. Secondly, because sin must have no more attraction for him. In fact, a corpse cannot be attracted by pleasures and temptations. My dying with Christ (v. 6) takes from sin all its power and authority over me. And what a marvellous deliverance this is!
Romans 3:13-18 confirms that all the members of a man: his tongue, his feet, his eyes . . . were "instruments of unrighteousness" in the service of sin (v. 13). Well then! at conversion these same members change their ownership. They become "instruments of righteousness" to be used by the One who has every right over me.