Romans 6:12 tells us, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” We are commanded to present the very members of our body—our hands, feet, eyes, and even our sexual organs—to God as instruments of righteousness.

However, if we start at this verse, we cannot obey it in God’s power. We have to start back at the beginning of Romans 6.

Before we can present our bodies to God, we must first embrace Romans 6:11: “Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” This statement strikes at the heart of who we are, not just what we do. Though it may not seem like it at times, as Christians, we are dead to sin and alive to God.

Because the Spirit of the risen Christ is in us, we are united to Him. Through His Spirit, he shares with us his resurrection life—not just an unending life, but a new quality of life in age without sin. We are no longer defined by our sinful past, our present struggles with sin, our former guilt, our shame, or our relationship to this sinful age. We are fundamentally different people now: we are defined by the age to come and the One who is King of that age. This is who we truly are.