As we reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, we need to present our members as “weapons of righteousness to God” (6:13). Most versions do not translate this part of the Word this way. Instead of “weapons,” the King James Version uses the word “instruments.” However, the same Greek word is used in 2 Corinthians 6:7 in the phrase that is translated “the armor of righteousness.” It is better to render the word “armor” as “weapons.” Paul says that he has the weapons of righteousness. Thus, Paul’s concept in Romans 6 is of weapons of righteousness, not of instruments of righteousness, due to the war between righteousness and unrighteousness. Romans 7:23 proves that a battle is raging within man. Romans 13:12 says, “let us put on the weapons of light.” This also proves that a war is raging. In such a fight we do not need instruments; we need weapons. Every member of our body is a weapon. We should be on the alert for the next battle, for we are warring constantly. Once we realize that we are dead to sin and alive to God, and reckon ourselves to be such, we must present our members as weapons of righteousness to fight the battle.
Furthermore, we need to present ourselves and our members as slaves to God (6:16, 19, 22). If we present ourselves to God as slaves and our members as weapons of righteousness, we will be sanctified spontaneously. This means that we take sides with the resurrected Christ Who dwells within us as life. We stand with this eternal life. In this way we give the eternal life the opportunity to work within us, to separate us from everything common, and to sanctify us. The result of this presentation is sanctification. This is the order of our experience: we see, we reckon, we present ourselves to God, we reject sin, and we cooperate with God.
We must reject sin, for it still dwells in our fallen body (6:12). Do not cooperate with sin any longer. Reject sin and cooperate with God. Do not be so spiritual that you become passive and cease to do anything at all. Passivity is dreadful. If you are passive, you will be cheated and deceived. We should be neither passive nor too active, since neither our passivity nor our activity is of any value. What then should we do? We must see the facts, reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, present our members and ourselves to God, reject sin, and cooperate with our God. We should not do anything on our own. Do not try to love your wife or submit to your husband. Do not try to be humble or kind. However, you need to reject sin. When sin comes to you with a proposal, you must say, “Sin, depart from me. I have nothing to do with you.” Do not let sin continue to lord it over you (6:14). This means that you reject sin and turn to God and say, “Lord, I am Your slave. I want to cooperate with You. Whether or not I love my wife, it is up to You. In the matter of loving I want to cooperate with You. I want to be Your slave. Whatever You do, I will follow You and cooperate with You.” Do not be passive or active. Simply reject sin and cooperate with God. If you do this, you will not only be righteous, but also sanctified. You will undergo an inward, dispositional change.
The issue of sanctification is life eternal (6:22). Thus, Romans 8 follows Romans 6. Romans 6 concludes with sanctification unto eternal life; Romans 8 begins with the Spirit of life. Do not ask me where to put Romans 7. Although this chapter is in the Bible and cannot be deleted, it can be eradicated from our experience. We may leap from the end of Romans 6 to the beginning of Romans 8.
What the Apostle Paul means in Romans 6 is that, on the one hand, we are in the fact of having been crucified and resurrected with Christ and that, on the other hand, we have the divine life. That fact that we have been crucified and resurrected with Christ has transferred us out of Adam into Christ. The divine life enables us to live a sanctified life. We need to see that we have been transferred. Based upon our seeing, we reckon ourselves as such by believing. Then we need to cooperate with the divine life by rejecting sin and by presenting ourselves and our members to God. We do have a position to reject sin, for now we are “not under law but under grace” (6:14). Sin has no ground, no right, to make any claims upon us, but instead we, standing under grace, have the full right to reject sin and its power. At the same time, by taking sides with Christ, we present ourselves and our members as slaves to God that the divine life may work within us to sanctify us, not only positionally, but also dispositionally, with the holy nature of God.
As a summary, we may say that we have all been baptized into Christ. By being baptized into Him we have been identified with Him in His death and resurrection. We have grown together with Him in His death and are now growing together with Him in His resurrection life. We see that we are dead to sin and alive to God and reckon it so in our heavenly accounting book. Based upon this reckoning, we present ourselves as slaves to God and our members as weapons of righteousness. This affords the opportunity for the divine life within us to do its sanctifying work. Then we learn to reject sin and to cooperate with God. The result of it all is sanctification, which ends with life eternal. Praise the Lord!