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"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of
one shall many be made righteous."
Obedience reveals the master and the mould.
In the earlier section of Rom. 6: we read:--
"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts
thereof" (6: 12).
Obedience, therefore, is the outward sign of a dominion, its mainspring is desire (lust),
and its medium the members of the mortal body. This is true whether we speak of sin or
of sanctification. If we are under the dominion of sin, we shall show it; and if we are
under the dominion of grace, we shall show it: "His servants ye are to whom ye obey"
(Rom. 6: 16).
The word translated "lust" really means "desire". There are "worldly desires"
(Titus 2: 12), "ungodly desires" (Jude 18) and "fleshly desires" (I Pet. 2: 11); but there
are also commendable desires as in Matt. 13: 17, Luke 22: 15, I Tim. 3: 1,
Heb. 6: 11, I Pet. 1: 12. If it is true that "the flesh lusteth against the spirit", let it not
be forgotten that "the spirit lusteth against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the
other" (Gal. 5: 17). Without desire, the hand falls limp, the feet grow slack, the pulse is
sluggish, and when it can be said that "desire shall fail" (Eccles. 12: 5) the end of life and
activity is near. Desire was the active agent in the garden of Eden (Gen. 3: 6), but desire
is not necessarily absent from the realm of the spirit and holiness.
Moreover, there is no coercion in either sphere:--
"Neither YIELD ye your members . . . . . unto sin, but YIELD yourselves unto God
. . . . . to whom ye YIELD yourselves servants to obey . . . . . as ye have YIELDED your
members servants to uncleanness . . . . . even so now YIELD your members servants to
righteousness" (Rom. 6: 13-19).
Man was not forced to disobey God in the beginning, neither is he forced to obey Him
now. The introduction of coercion or compulsion into the realm of either sin or
sanctification would rob both of their moral character, and the whole scheme of
redemption would become unreal and meaningless. In Rom. 12:, where this thought of
yielding the body to God is again uppermost, the apostle calls it our "reasonable" or
"logical" service:--
"Even now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness" (Rom. 6: 19).
The above sentence seems to sum up the main contention of the apostle in this section.
The phrase "righteousness unto holiness" seems to link up Rom. 1: - 5: 11 (whose theme
is justification) with Rom. 5: 12 - 8: (whose theme is sanctification). It is a wonderful
thought that the very members of our mortal body which once were yielded as servants to
sin may be as readily and really yielded as servants to righteousness. This is "unto
holiness" and is indeed "practical sanctification".