¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, ¹³ and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Considering ourselves to be dead to sin, we must act on that rugged belief. Our sanctification requires not only the reality of being dead to sin and alive to God (a spiritual truth reflected in our baptism), but it now demands our cooperation. This does not mean our sanctification is not yet complete, but that the robustness of our faith depends on our acting on the reality of what we already have, progressively realizing it in our lives. For it is entirely possible to be sanctified, yet not live in a sanctified manner.

Thus the apostle, inspired by the Holy Spirit, who is the Sanctifier, charges us believers to do something about this truth. In the previous verse, we were told to “consider” the teaching of our death and life in Christ to be true. Now we are told to act on it. Actually, the first leads to the second. We are animated first by truly believing our identity with Christ. The command now in verse 12 should follow automatically, but is laid out specifically.

In order to do this, Paul speaks of “your mortal body” and the “members of your body.” He is obviously speaking of the physical body, but doing so in a way that encompasses all of living. In a sense, he may be using a figure of speech called a “merism,” where he refers to two opposite ends of a spectrum, meaning to include everything in between. We might say, for example, “They came from near and far,” meaning people came from everywhere. Likewise, Paul says faith must apply not only to the spiritual realities (we are dead with Christ and alive with Him), but also to the physical realities of our personal, daily lives. There is nothing more basic about life than the lusts and urges of bodily cravings. Our physical bodies carry about our inner, spiritual person, and our inner person chooses how we use the parts of our bodies (eyes, hands, feet, genitals, etc.) as instruments in carrying out our intentions. Like a hammer or tool used by a carpenter, we use our “members” as our instruments, either to build a life based on faith in God’s Word, or to serve our unrighteous desires.

At the most fundamental level, the victory of living out the truth of our sanctification is pictured as parts of our body (as “instruments”), being used like worship instruments in service for God’s righteous purposes. This becomes the controlling modus operandi for the Christian life. We are alive from the dead ways of life and alive to God—so we commit ourselves to act that way.

Lord, I commit my body and everything else to Your righteousness.