Romans 6:13-14 "Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts."
Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin: Reckon is an accounting word. Paul tells us to account or to reckon the old man as forever dead. God never calls us "crucify" the old man, but instead to account him as already dead because of our identification with Jesus' death on the cross.
Reckon yourselves to be … alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord: The death to sin is only one side of the equation. The old man is gone, but the new man lives on (as described in Romans 6:4-5).
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body: This is something that can only be said to the Christian, to the one who has had the old man crucified with Christ and has been given a new man in Jesus. Only the person set free from sin can be told, "do not let sin reign."
The Christian is the one truly set free. The person who isn't converted yet is free to sin, but not free to stop sinning and live righteously, because of the tyranny of the old man.
In Jesus, we are truly set free and are offered the opportunity to obey the natural inclination of the new man - which wants to please God and honor Him.
Therefore do not let sin reign: The old man is dead, and there is new life -free from sin - in Jesus. Yet, many Christians never experience this freedom. Because of unbelief, self-reliance or ignorance, many Christians never live in the freedom Jesus paid for on the cross.
Dear God, thank you, thank you for setting me free! For accounting me as free and making me alive with you through Christ! I praise you for the new life you've given me and the opportunity to obey the "new man" in me. You are truly a Holy and loving God!!!!
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