Rom 6:13-14, 8:2 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 13. Neither yield ye your members ] Do not yield to temptation. It is no sin to be tempted , the sin lies in yielding . While the sin exists only in Satan's solicitation, it is the devil's sin , not ours : when we yield, we make the devil's sin our own : then we ENTER INTO temptation . Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Satan himself cannot force you to sin: till he wins over your will , he cannot bring you into subjection . You may be tempted ; but yield not to the temptation. Yield yourselves unto God ] Let God have your wills ; keep them ever on his side; there they are safe , and there they will be active . Satan cannot force the will, and God will not. Indeed it would cease to be will were it forced by either: it is essential to its being that it be free . And your members as instruments , &c.] Let soul and body be employed in the service of your Maker; let him have your hearts ; and with them, your heads , your hands , your feet . Think and devise what is pure; speak what is true, and to the use of edifying; work that which is just and good; and walk steadily in the way that leads to everlasting felicity. Be holy within and holy without .

‏ Romans 6:13-14

Verse 13. Neither yield ye your members] Do not yield to temptation. It is no sin to be tempted, the sin lies in yielding. While the sin exists only in Satan's solicitation, it is the devil's sin, not ours: when we yield, we make the devil's sin our own: then we ENTER INTO temptation. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Satan himself cannot force you to sin: till he wins over your will, he cannot bring you into subjection. You may be tempted; but yield not to the temptation.

Yield yourselves unto God] Let God have your wills; keep them ever on his side; there they are safe, and there they will be active. Satan cannot force the will, and God will not. Indeed it would cease to be will were it forced by either: it is essential to its being that it be free.

And your members as instruments, &c.] Let soul and body be employed in the service of your Maker; let him have your hearts; and with them, your heads, your hands, your feet. Think and devise what is pure; speak what is true, and to the use of edifying; work that which is just and good; and walk steadily in the way that leads to everlasting felicity. Be holy within and holy without.

Verse 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you] God delivers you from it; and if you again become subject to it, it will be the effect of your own choice or negligence.

Ye are not under the law] That law which exacts obedience, without giving power to obey; that condemns every transgression and every unholy thought without providing for the extirpation of evil or the pardon of sin.

But under grace.] Ye are under the merciful and beneficent dispensation of the Gospel, that, although it requires the strictest conformity to the will of God, affords sufficient power to be thus conformed; and, in the death of Christ, has provided pardon for all that is past, and grace to help in every time of need.

‏ Romans 8:2

Verse 2. For the law of the Spirit of life] The Gospel of the grace of Christ, which is not only a law or rule of life, but affords that sovereign energy by which guilt is removed from the conscience, the power of sin broken, and its polluting influence removed from the heart. The law was a spirit of death, by which those who were under it were bound down, because of their sin, to condemnation and death. The Gospel proclaims Jesus the Saviour; and what the law bound unto death, IT looses unto life eternal. And thus the apostle says, whether of himself or the man whom he is still personating, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Most people allow that St. Paul is here speaking of his own state; and this state is so totally different from that described in the preceding chapter, that it is absolutely impossible that they should have been the state of the same being, at one and the same time. No creature could possibly be carnal, sold under sin, brought into captivity to the law of sin and death; and at the same time be made free from that law of sin and death, by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus! Until the most palpable absurdities and contradictions can be reconciled, these two opposite states can never exist in the same person at the same time.