Read: Romans 6:12-14 - STEP Bible, Bible Gateway
Do you notice something odd about these verses? St Paul seems to conceive as sin as a sort of power, a kind of authority, that can exercise influence in our lives, and take control of how we act. Do not, he says, ‘let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies’. That’s important: Paul doesn’t just think sin is something that we do. He thinks sin is something that takes control of us.
Whether or not Paul was the first person to make that observation, it is remarkably astute. Sin is like goodness: the more you do it, the more it becomes second nature, until such a time when it controls your actions before you even realize it. Before you know it, you are sinning automatically (or, alternatively, doing good automatically), and Paul talks about this state of affairs in terms of enslavement, of being a slave to either sin or righteousness.
Actually, Paul thinks you and I have very little control over ourselves. He holds – and he is almost certainly right – that whatever we think about our self-control, it is invariably something or someone else who controls us. So we offer up our bodies – the instruments of our thinking and doing and speaking – to one or other master. Which will it be? Will it be to sin, which will pretty soon control and enslave you? Or will it be to God, who, over time, and with practice, will become your master in righteousness as he was to Christ?
It’s our choice, St Paul reckons. He thinks that the very fact we have the choice is a remarkable thing in itself, and something that has come about only because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. But he does think it’s our choice, and we have to make the choice every single day.
These devotions were originally written for the parish of All Saints, Ascot and we are grateful for permission to republish them on Fulcrum.
Patrick is curate of All Saints’, Ascot in Berkshire. A musicologist by training, he is married to Lydia, a university lecturer, and dad to Madeleine. He writes (sporadically) at benedixisti.wordpress.com and tweets (even more sporadically) as @patrickgilday.