To Whom or What Do You Present?

After reminding us that in Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God, Paul then reminds us of the natural step that should be taken regarding sin and God in verses 12-14 of chapter 6:  “¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. ¹³ And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴ For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”  Paul counsels the believer to not allow sin to reign in his body; after all, he is dead to the power of that sin through the power of Christ.  We are not to present our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness.  We don’t have to do that any longer because of the fact that we are now alive to God.  But Paul doesn’t stop there.  It never really works to just “stop” something.  The things we want to stop doing need to be replaced with things that we should be doing.  We must present ourselves to God.  He is our new king.  He has kicked sin off the throne and sat down for good.  I’d like to ask you to consider to whom you are presenting yourselves? Are there any areas where you are presenting yourself as an instrument of unrighteousness?  If so, why?  You no longer have to do it.  It’s not in your long term best interest, though I realize it might have short term benefit [almost all sin does].  When you present yourself to righteousness you guarantee long term benefit and you demonstrate that sin no longer has dominion over you.  Think about that for a second.  Sin no longer has dominion over you.  It once did…before Christ.  But a glorious transformation has taken place.  Sin no longer sits on the throne of your life…Jesus does.  So present yourself to Him.  Allow Him to rule and reign in your life.  You won’t be disappointed.