6 Tactics for Your Fight Against Sin

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. —Romans 6:12–13

Seek to Stop Sin

In Romans 6:12–13, Paul applies the truth of union with Christ directly to our battle with temptation. He offers a practical strategy for fighting sin that we can break down into six tactics. I’d encourage you to bring something specific to mind right now. What is a current temptation in your life? What battle with sin are you waging? Knowing the truth about yourself in Christ, how can you fight? How can you seek to stop it?

1. Don’t Go Back to Prison

Again, Paul writes in Romans 6:12, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.” Until Christ returns or we go to be with him, we live in mortal bodies—bodies that are tainted by sin and tempted to sin. But Paul exhorts us against acting as if sin reigns over our bodies any longer. Sin used to reign over us. We were slaves to sin, its prisoners (Prov. 5:22; Rom. 6:17). Like a cruel guard, sin once held us captive. But Christ came, paid our penalty, and purchased our freedom (Gal. 5:1). He broke sin’s shackles that held us fast, opened the prison doors, and called us out to follow him.

As a result, whenever sin shouts at us to come back inside, to put the chains back on, we can say, “No! You don’t rule over me anymore. Christ is my Lord now.”

When temptation comes, don’t think to yourself, “Sin is inevitable. Its pull is too powerful for me. What’s the point of fighting?” Instead, tell yourself, “Sin has lost its authority over me. I belong to Christ. Therefore, I will resist. I will not act as if sin reigns.”

Saved to Sin No More

Brad Wetherell

In this encouraging book, Brad Wetherell explores Scripture to show how union with Christ offers true freedom—helping believers fight sin, rest in grace, and live with lasting hope.

2. Don’t Give in to Passion

Romans 6:12 continues, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” Why do we sin? If we know something is wrong—if we know the pain it can inflict on others, the shame it can lay on us, and the dishonor it can bring to the Lord—why do it? Why does temptation come to us with so much power?

Here’s the truth, if we’re honest enough to admit it: We sin because we want to. Sin entices us by awakening our desires and stirring up passions within us. In the moment of temptation, sin looks appealing.

We see this dynamic at play in the world’s first sin. Why did Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit? Did they fail to trust God? Yes. Did they listen to Satan? Yes. But they also “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise” (Gen. 3:6). Adam and Eve sinned because they wanted to. They desired the fruit. Temptation stirred up a passion within them. And they gave in.

Even though we are united to Christ, we sometimes give in too. Until we are released from sin’s presence, until we arrive in heaven, we will continue to feel the pull of sin’s passions. But since we are united with Christ, we can resist these passions with a new fervor. We are no longer slaves to sin who are bound to obey its commands. We are saints in Christ who are blessed to obey all he commands (Ps. 119:1–3).

And the more we walk with Christ and experience that blessing, the more sin will lose its appeal. We can truly say with the psalmist,

I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart. (Ps. 40:8)

When temptation comes, admit to yourself, “I want to do this! I desire to sin!” Then pray, “Lord, with all the strength that is mine in Christ, help me hold back my feet from every evil way in order to keep your word, for your testimonies are my joy” (cf. Ps. 119:101, 111).

3. Don’t Fight for the Enemy

Paul continues his exhortation, “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness” (Rom. 6:13). This verse is about warfare. Our “members” are the various faculties with which we engage this world—our bodies, our minds, and our words. And since we are united with Christ, we must not use any of our members in a way that would dishonor Christ—as instruments for unrighteousness. The word for “instruments” can also be translated “tools” or “weapons.”¹ John uses the same word in his Gospel when he describes how Judas came with a band of soldiers to arrest Jesus “with lanterns and torches and weapons” (John 18:3). So when you read Romans 6:13, don’t picture an orchestra, picture an army equipped for battle.

As followers of Christ, we are in the Lord’s army. We cannot use our bodies, our minds, our words, or any of our members as weapons for unrighteousness. That would be like a soldier abandoning his country and offering himself in service to the enemy. This is why R. C. Sproul refers to sin as cosmic treason.²

In Christ, we have come out from under sin’s awful authority. We now see the destructive power of sin’s twisted passions. So we cannot allow ourselves to fight for sin. Instead, we must fight against it.

When temptation comes, call sin out for what it is. Tell yourself, “Sin is cosmic treason, and I am united with Christ, the one who stands firm against all evil.” Then pray, “Lord, help me not use my members to fight against my Savior, to whom I am united by faith. Instead, strengthen me to stand with him against evil.”

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4. Embrace God’s Authority

My family’s summers are full of trips to the pool. And since my kids are little, there are lots of pool rules: Don’t run. Don’t splash strangers. Don’t jump into the deep end without your floaties, forcing Mom to rescue you with all her clothes on (yes, it’s happened). The pool is a place of prohibitions. And yet in our better moments of parenting, my wife and I remember that the pool should also be fun. So after we rehearse our list of don’ts, we try to give a few dos. Do a big cannonball off the edge of the pool. Do enjoy a freeze pop from the concession stand. Do go down the water slide until your heart is content.

Sometimes we have the mistaken notion that God’s commands are only prohibitions, as if all he said to us was “Don’t do this. Avoid that.” But that’s not true. The Bible is full of positive commands in which God says, “Do this. Pursue that.” Romans 6:13 begins with a negative command: “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness.” But then the verse shifts to the positive: “[Do] present yourselves to God.” This is a call to submit to God’s authority.

That will not sound positive to everyone. Many people today want total autonomy. They want absolute freedom to determine their own identity, their own morality, and their own destiny.

A life apart from God’s authority is not freedom—it’s slavery to that tyrant called sin (John 8:34). But Christ releases us from sin’s grasp, unites us to himself, and brings us under the authority of the Father. And God’s purposes are always for our good (Rom. 8:28). His commands always lead to blessing and life (Ps. 1). Therefore, we can submit to his authority with great joy (Ps. 100:2; James 4:6–7).

We must submit to his authority because we are united with Christ. Jesus lives for the glory of God. His every desire is set on doing the will of his Father (John 4:34). And in union with him, we live for the glory of God too. Therefore, John Calvin writes, “[Paul] now bids us to present ourselves wholly to God, . . . being ready to receive his commands, and prepared to execute his orders . . . so that all the faculties both of our souls and of our bodies may aspire after nothing but his glory.”³

When temptation comes, call sin out for what it is.

5. Remember Your Story

Romans 6:13 continues further, “Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.” In other words, never forget where you came from. Remember your story. You were once in Adam, ruled by sin, condemned before God, and destined for everlasting death. But in his mercy, God brought you into a whole new position. Now you are in Christ, ruled by grace, justified before God, and destined for everlasting life (Rom. 5:12–21; 1 Cor. 15:22).

Our new position was established at conversion. We died with Christ, and our old life in bondage to sin ended (Rom. 6:2–3). We rose with Christ, and our new life in service to God began (Rom. 6:4). God worked a miracle of grace in our lives, bringing us from death to life. The more we savor the sweetness of this transforming grace, the more temptation will lose its power.

When temptation comes, resist sin’s passions by savoring God’s grace. Stop and remember your story. Remember what God has done for you in Christ. Meditate on how he has brought you from death to life.

6. Serve the King

Romans 6:13 ends by saying, “Present . . . your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” Present your members to God—“to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Tim. 1:17). In Christ, we are God’s servants, and there is no higher purpose or greater privilege in life than to glorify him. What could be better?

We get to present our members to God. We get to bring every part of our lives, lay them before him, and ask, “What would you like to do with these?” And he will not dismiss us because of our weaknesses or say, “I can’t do anything with that!” No, he takes what we have to offer, and he uses it for his good purposes (Phil. 2:13). Even more than that, his power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). He can turn any piece of who we are and make it into an instrument for righteousness—even the members we once used as weapons against him.

God can transform what has been tarnished. He can take a mind that was once full of unbelief and fill it up with faith. He can take a heart that was once trapped in greed, anger, or lust and release it to pursue generosity, peace, and love. He can take hands that were once used for violence and use them to serve the needy. He can take a mouth that was once prone to slander and cause it to pour forth words that build up and give grace (Eph. 4:29).

Tthe Christian life is not simply about avoiding sin; it is also about pursuing righteousness. On any given day, we should look for opportunities to use our members in ways that will honor God. But when temptation comes, this is how we fight: We don’t go back to prison, give in to sinful passions, or fight for the enemy. Instead, we embrace God’s authority, remember our story, and serve the King.

Apply these tactics to the temptation you called to mind at the beginning of this chapter, and by God’s grace, you will fight well.

Notes:

Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2000), under ὅπλον.
R. C. Sproul, The Holiness of God (Tyndale, 1985), 115.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, trans. John Owen, Calvin’s Commentaries (1844; Faithlife, 2010), 231.

This article is adapted from Saved to Sin No More: How Union with Christ Empowers a Life of Holiness by Brad Wetherell.

Brad Wetherell (DMin) is senior pastor of the Orchard, a multisite church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Brad also serves on the steering committee of the Gospel Coalition’s Chicago regional chapter, which gathers pastors for encouragement, fellowship, and prayer. Brad and his wife, Kristen, have three children.

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