ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
weapons." Our "members" are our eyes. ears, tongues. hearts. feet-any part of the "mortal body." Now look at verse 12 again: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." From this Paul means for us to remember that sin is still present in the flesh. How- ever. we are not to let it reign over our mortal bodies. It will always be there. as long as we are in this life; but our respon- sibility is not to let it reign. There is a difference between a man's living in a country and reigning there. I live in the United States, but I do not reign here. Paul is saying that the old sinful nature is not taken away in this life. It is not eradi- cated. The Lord Hin:iself said to Nicodemus. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3: 6). You and I received from our fathers that sinful nature, and it can not be changed. We shall have it until Christ comes; or, if He tarry, until we depart to be with Him. There are many good people who believe that we lose our Adamic nature when we accept Christ. They say we become incapable of sin. But the Bible does not teach that we can not sin; neither does it teach that we must sin. It does teach that it is our nature to sin and our responsibility not to sin. If we follow what God says in verses 1-11, we shall see that sin is in us, but we should never allow it to reign over us. Sin, the tyrant, is dethroned. Our old master is not allowed to give orders. I told you about visiting my former employer in Australia. He was no longer my master; but suppose he had started issu- ing orders to me. If I had wanted to obey, I could have done so. Likewise, if sin is allowed to, it will issue orders. God says that the old nature has no claim on us. and we need not obey it. To illustrate, let us consider Nebuchadnezzar and his great power. All people trembled before him, because he held the power of life and death. But he was deposed. and someone else reigned in his stead. Even though he was still living. no one needed to obey him after he was dethroned. Sin is still in the Christian, but it should no longer rule. Page 102)
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