Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body
Since grace reigns in you, sin should not: seeing ye are dead to
sin, are baptized into the death of Christ, and are dead with
him, and alive through him, sin therefore should not reign in
you, and over you. This exhortation does not suppose a freewill
power in man naturally, for this is spoken to persons, who had
the Spirit and grace of Christ, and in whom God had wrought both
to will and to do of his good pleasure; nor is this exhortation
unnecessary to believers, though they are dead to sin, and though
God has promised it shall not have the dominion over them, and
though reigning sin, as divines say, cannot be in regenerate
persons; for though they are entirely dead to sin as justified
persons, yet not perfectly so as sanctified: they are indeed dead
to sin, but sin is not dead in them; it struggles, it makes war,
leads captive, and threatens absolute and universal dominion,
wherefore such an exhortation is necessary; besides, though God
has promised that sin shall not have the dominion, yet making use
of means, such as prayer to God that it may not, striving against
it, opposing it, in order to hinder its dominion, are no ways
inconsistent with the promise of God, whose promises often have
their accomplishment in the use of means: moreover, whereas some
divines say, that reigning sin may be and others that it cannot
be in regenerate persons, it should be observed, that if by
reigning sin is meant, sinning against God out of malice and
contempt, with the whole heart, without any struggle against it,
or repentance for it, or so as to lose the grace of God, and
never rise more, then it must be said that it cannot be in a
regenerate man; but if by it is meant, falling into sin against
their consciences, knowingly and willingly, so as to distress
their minds, lose their peace, and grieve the Spirit of God, so
as to be held under it, and be led captive by it, such power sin
may have in them, and over them; and therefore the exhortation is
not needless; and when the apostle says, let it not reign "in
your mortal body", by it is either meant the whole man, or rather
the body only, which is the instrument of sinning, and is become
mortal through sin; and being so, is a reason why it should not
reign in it, since it has done so much mischief to it already:
and this also denotes the time of sin's being in us, and of the
danger of its reigning in us; it is only whilst we are in this
mortal body; and the consideration of our mortality should
quicken us to war against sin, and be careful not to
obey it in the lusts thereof;
the lusts of the body, or flesh, which are therefore sometimes
called fleshly lusts, are many, and have great power and
influence; and may be said to be obeyed, when provision is made
to fulfil them, when these are the business of a man's life, and
the whole of his conversation is taken up in them, without
struggle against them, or opposition to them; and heroin lies the
reign of sin.