Romans 6:8-11
⁸ Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
⁹ Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
¹⁰ For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
¹¹ Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We are alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the mediating agent, the One we go through to get to God.

Romans 6:12
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

“Let not sin…reign.” All we have to do to give sin the upper hand in our lives is nothing. If we are simply passive, we will let sin reign. We cannot afford to be passive about sin. We need to take a proactive stand against it. And the reason we can be proactive against sin is because Jesus Christ already died to sin once. We don’t have to die to sin again by letting it reign in us.

Romans 6:13-14
¹³ Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
¹⁴ For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

God has ordained that we should have dominion. Our first test of dominion is the same test Adam had—dominion over sin. We need to exercise our God-given authority over sin granted to us by the liberating blood of Jesus Christ.

Romans 6:15-16
¹⁵ What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
¹⁶ Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Suppose you were a slave. I saw you slaving away in the master’s field and said, “You know what, that’s a miserable life.” So I go out into the field and ask you to take me to your master. “How much for this slave,” I ask him. He tells me the price and I pay it. I turn to you and say, “You’re free! You are not a slave anymore. Go on and live the life you’ve always dreamed of!” As you walk away, I energetically pat myself on the back for having done my good deed of the day. I am excited. A brand new life stands before you, a world full of possibilities and opportunities. But then I see you walk back out to the field and pick up your hoe. You bend your back to the hot sun and go back to slaving away. Are you still a slave? No, your freedom has been bought. But would you be acting like a slave if you went back to the master’s field? Yes. That’s what we do when we yield to sin after receiving Christ. He has paid the price to get us away from sin. But if we yield to our flesh and serve sin, then sin becomes our master.

Sin becomes our master, not because Christ didn’t pay the price, but because we decide to remain in sin. We can’t blame Jesus Christ for our sin. If we are in sin, it’s our own fault. “Oh, Lord, take the desire from me,” we pray, “Lord, do it for me.” He has already done what He is going to do regarding sin! He died to it so that we don’t have to! This is not a passive game. He paid the price, and by His blood redeemed us from sin. We are not to sit around waiting for God to keep sin from us. God is expecting us to dominate sin!

Sin waits at the door and you must master it, He told Cain.[1]  Cain refused to give a blood sacrifice to master sin and instead shed the innocent blood of his brother. This is what will happen to us if we do not apply the blood of Jesus Christ to our lives to master sin. Sin will get the upper hand in our lives and we will become guilty of bloodshed.[2]

Romans 6:17
But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

The term translated “servants” is in the Greek doulos, a slave. We were slaves to sin. How do we get out from under its domination? We obey from the heart. Salvation is a heart choice, for “with the heart man believes unto righteousness.”[3] Once the blood has purged our hearts, we need to continue obeying Him from the heart. Christianity works from the inside out, not outside in. It doesn’t ask us to do right, look right, dress right, and smell right so that maybe we can be right. No, it’s about the heart. Jesus didn’t focus on the action of sin, but its origin. He said that a man who looked on a woman with lust had committed adultery in his heart.[4] He went after the root causes of sin to set us free from its clutches. We need to obey from the heart the doctrine which was delivered to us that we may be delivered from sin.

Romans 6:18
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

This is why we were set free! We are to become the servants of righteousness, to subjugate ourselves and become slaves to it, so that we can make things become right in this world. Where there was lying, there is now truth telling; where there was thieving, there is now giving; where there was hatred, there is now love; where there was sickness, there is healing; where there was dishonor, there is honor; where there was cowardice, there arises courage; where there was fear, now there is faith. Thus the righteousness of God flows through us to a dying world, and His kingdom and His righteousness begin to be established on the earth. This is why He redeemed us—not to sit around passively bound by our sins, but so that we could do righteously.

[1] Gen 4:7 Amplified Version
[2] In sin, there is always an offended party. From the Ten Commandments and the two laws, we learn that there are two general classes of offense: offenses against God and offenses against men. When we sin against God, we defile our own soul and in essence are guilty of our own blood. When we sin against man, either by commission or omission, we become guilty of their blood.
[3] Rom 10:10
[4] Matt 5:27-28