Romans 6:12. Let not sin therefore. ‘Therefore' i.e., because you reckon yourselves dead unto sin, etc. (Romans 6:11).

Reign. ‘It is no matter of comparison between reigning and indwelling merely, out between reigning and being deposed' (Alford).

In year mortal body. This is to be taken literally, and not referred to a body dead to sin, or to a corrupt body. The connection with Romans 6:11 suggests that this ‘mortal body' is under the power of sin; but it is the mortality of the body that is emphasized, in contrast with the life we have in fellowship with Christ who dieth no more (Romans 6:9); hence, to allow sin to reign there is contrary to living ‘unto God in Christ Jesus' (Romans 6:11).

That ye should obey the lusts thereof. So the briefer and better established reading. The reign of sin in our mortal body would have as its aim obedience to the desires of the body, which are sinful, because we are sinful. Obeying these is living unto sin, hence opposed to the principle of Romans 6:11.

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Old Testament