“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.”
Romans 6:12
There’s a popular children’s movie made by Disney called Aladdin. Many of you are probably familiar with it. In the movie, there is a Sultan, which basically means the king, who has an advisor. He is the Sultan’s right-hand man. The advisor, however, is actually the villain. He uses some dark magic to hypnotize the Sultan and convince him to do exactly what he wants. Basically, the evil advisor is ruling over the kingdom, even though the Sultan was still in charge, at least by title.
Use that idea to think about how this verse applies to us. If we say that we know God and believe in the saving name of Jesus, but sin still reigns in our body, we are a lot like the kingdom in Aladdin. In title, it was ruled by Sultan. In reality, it was being ruled by the evil advisor. Likewise, we may say that we are a child of God, but if we allow sin to reign in our lives, without repentance or serious change, we are Christians in name alone, not in reality. In reality, sin is our master, not God.
In the end of Aladdin (spoiler alert), the advisor’s magic is taken away and he is no longer able to control the Sultan. The kingdom is once again under the leadership of a good person, not a villain.
In the same way, Christ came to earth, lived a perfect life, died on our behalf, and rose from the dead in order that sin may no longer control us, that the slavery to sin which we were unable to break ourselves could be broken and they sin would own us no longer. If we continue to allow sin to have a say in our lives, we are being ruled not by God but by Satan. We have to allow Jesus to come into our lives and set us free from our sin, so that we can be led by God and not by our sin.
Who is your master? Is it God, or is it sin? Reflect and ask yourself who or what is really in control of your life, not just nominally, but really.
If it’s sin, turn to Christ. Repent and leave that sin behind, and instead let your body be an instrument of righteousness through God and no longer an instrument of sin.
Prayer:
Father,
I pray that you would give me the wisdom to reflect and discern who or what is really reigning in my life. Help me to break free from the sin that snares me, and reign over my life in it’s place.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
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