Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 2 Study # 2
August 7, 2016
Humble, Texas
(024)
1769 Translation:
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.
1901 ASV Translation:
13 neither present your members unto sin [
as]
instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as 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 law, but under grace.
- I. Paul's Concept of "Presentation".
- A. The basic idea of the term is "to present someone/thing alongside of someone/thing else" with the strong implication that the "presentation" is to make the "presented" an accessible helper to the one to whom the presentation is made (Romans 16:2).
- B. Paul uses the same word in 6:13; 16; and 19 and then does not use it again until 12:1.
- 1. In 6:16 he argues that because the action taken (presenting) is rooted in the prior issues of "hearing" and "submitting oneself", it makes the "presenter" a "slave" (doulos) of the one who has produced the doctrine that is heard and, being believed, to which one submits.
- 2. In 6:19 he argues that they formerly "presented" their members to uncleanness and iniquity in a way that is to be copied presently in "presenting" these same members as slaves to righteousness.
- a. The transition is spelled out as a definite process: listen, believe, submit, do.
- b. The issue is not self-determination to "do"; it is determination to "present" to God. It is His to decide what He will do with what is presented to Him.
- 1) The "presentation" is the root issue, not the behavior that automatically follows. In general terms, the "doing" is what the person wants to do and uses the doctrine that is being heard as the "excuse" to do it.
- a) If indeed it is God Who works in you both to will and to do (Philippians 2:13), it cannot then be man who comes up with the will and ability.
- b) One of the greatest stumbling blocks to believers in relation to the will of God is the notion that it is their responsibility to "want" to do His will and to "come up with" the ability to so do.
- c) In the knee-jerk legalism that is endemic to the entire human race, the immediate reaction is to think in terms of "doing", but Paul is simply calling for a presentation.
- 2) In the contrasting realities, the "presentation" to The Sin assumes It already has a claim upon the person, whereas the "presentation" to The God is to be first a presentation of "yourself" to God and then the members of your body. It should be obvious that one cannot actually present one's members to one who does not already have significant access to the whole person.
- 3. His use of the same concept in Romans 12:1 means that there is no real progress in Truth until the "hearer" sufficiently "believes" so as to "act". In other words, the "act" is the presentation, not the after-works. Those belong to the One to whom the presentation has been made.
- II. The Foundation of the "Presentation".
- A. It is to "The God".
- B. It is of the whole person; then the members of that person's body.
- C. It is on the basis of being made "alive from the dead".
- 1. The single most crucial issue is whether, in fact, one wishes to be God's servant.
- 2. Following close upon the heals of this "want" is the question of ability; thus, Paul writes of doing this "presentation" as "those alive from the dead".