How to Have Victory Over Persistent Recurring Sins. (Romans 6:1–14)

Episode Title: How to Have Victory Over Persistent Recurring Sins

📖 Romans 6:1–14

🔔 Welcome

Welcome to The Bible Project Daily Podcast! In today’s episode, we visit one of the most practical and transformative passages in the book of Romans: how believers can experience real victory over recurring, persistent sin. Romans 6:1–14 doesn’t just offer theology—it offers hope, power, and a new way of living.

Is grace a license to sin? What does it mean to be “dead to sin” and “alive to God”? If you've ever felt trapped in habits you can’t shake or guilt you can’t escape, this message is for you. We'll walk through three simple but powerful steps: Know. Believe. Present. And we’ll see that grace doesn’t merely forgive—it transforms.

📝 Episode Notes

 Key Themes:

• Grace is not an excuse for sin, but the very power to overcome it.
• In Christ, we’ve been spiritually united with His death and resurrection.
• We are no longer slaves to sin—we are alive to God.

Outline of the Message:

1. Know – You died with Christ and are now alive to God. (vv. 3–5)
2. Believe – Your old self is dead; you are no longer a slave to sin. (vv. 6–10)
3. Present – Offer yourself to God as someone brought from death to life. (vv. 11–14)

Key Verse:

“Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 6:11

🙏 Be Encouraged.

You are not powerless. You are not hopeless. If you are in Christ, you are a new creation. You can live in victory—not perfectly, but increasingly—because of what Christ has done. Let’s walk in that newness of life together.

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• 20:03 (Cont.) How to Have Victory Over Persistent Recurring Sins. (Romans 6:1–14)

Transcript

How to Have Victory of Persistent Recurring Sins.

 (Romans 6:1–14)

Transcript.

 Let me begin with a provocative idea: Sin presents an opportunity for God to display His grace through forgiveness. The greater the sin, the more astonishing the grace. 

Does that mean sin somehow glorifies God? That kind of thinking is more common than we’d like to admit. In fact, the message of salvation by grace—received through faith in Christ alone—is often misunderstood as a license to sin.

If you've ever shared the gospel, you’ve likely encountered people who respond, “If it’s just about trusting Christ, then I can believe and live however I want.” 

Others, even believers, might assume that because God forgives, sin isn’t all that serious. Historically, some groups have even claimed that sinning more allows grace to abound more. But this isn't new—it’s the very mindset Paul addresses at the start of Romans 6….

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

(Romans 6: 1-14)

Paul had just declared in Romans 5:20 that “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” So, he now wants to anticipate the objection: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1). His response? Absolutely not. “Certainly not!” he says in verse 2. 

The Greek expression is forceful—translated variously as “God forbid!” or “What a terrible thought!” Paul is horrified by the suggestion.

Why such a strong reaction? Because believers have died to sin. That’s the key. In verse 2, Paul asks, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” His point is clear: if you’ve died to something, you don’t go on living in it. If you've been united with Christ, your old life has ended.

Paul continues by reminding believers of their union with Christ through baptism—into His death, burial, and resurrection (vv. 3–5). This union means we not only share in Christ’s death to sin, but we also walk in newness of life. Our “old self” was crucified with Him so that we are no longer slaves to sin (v. 6). Just as Christ rose from the dead, we too now live a new life.

Because of this, Paul exhorts us: don’t let sin reign in your body (v. 12). Don’t offer yourself to sin, but to God—as those who have been brought from death to life. And why? Because, as verse 14 declares, “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

So, while the passage begins with a theological question—should we sin so grace may abound? It also addresses a very practical concern: how can believers experience victory over sin? The answer lies in knowing who we are in Christ, reckoning ourselves dead to sin but alive to God (v. 11), and presenting ourselves to Him in obedience.

In summary:

No, grace is not a license to sin.

We’ve died to sin—we don’t live in it anymore.

We are now alive to God, empowered to walk in newness of life.

Grace doesn’t just forgive—it transforms.

Now some might push back and say, “Okay, I believe in Jesus Christ as Paul describes in the earlier chapters of Romans—but I don’t feel like I’ve died to sin. I still struggle with it.” And let’s be honest: we all do. If you say you don’t, you’ve just proven you do, because you’ve lied!

So, what does Paul mean when he says we’ve died to sin? And more importantly, how can we experience real victory over it?

Paul’s answer begins in verse 3, and while it can sound theologically dense, it’s incredibly practical. To simplify, I want you to notice three key words that form the backbone of this passage:

Know, Believe, Present.

Verse 3: “Do you not know...”

Verse 8: “Now if we died with Christ, we believe...”

Verse 13: “...present yourselves to God…”

These three words form a simple outline for how believers can walk in victory:

You must know something.

You must believe it.

You must present yourself to God.

Let’s take them one by one.

1. Know – You Died with Christ and Are Now Alive to God

Paul says in verse 3.

“Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?”

Here, Paul is not talking about water baptism, but spiritual baptism—the work of the Holy Spirit at conversion.

The moment you trusted Christ, the Holy Spirit did a number of things: He regenerated you, indwelt you, sealed you, and—crucially here—placed you into Christ.

That means when Christ died, you died with Him. When He rose, you rose with Him. It’s not symbolic; it’s spiritual reality.

Verse 4 says.

“We were buried with Him through baptism into death… that just as Christ was raised… we too might walk in newness of life.”

So, the believer isn’t just forgiven; they’ve been fundamentally changed. You died to sin’s dominion and were raised into a new life, a life that is alive to God.

2. Believe – You Are United with Christ

Verse 5 explains.

“If we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.”

Our union with Christ means His death and resurrection are now the defining realities of our spiritual lives.

Verse 6 continues:

“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”

This “old man” isn’t your old sin nature—it’s your old self, the person you were before Christ. That version of you was crucified. And just as a dead man can no longer be enslaved, you are no longer under sin’s dominion.

Verse 7 sums it up:

“He who has died has been freed from sin.” That’s a legal declaration. Sin is no longer your master.

Now here's the problem that often trips us up. Paul says the “old man” was crucified with Christ. But when we look at our lives, we still sin. So, we think, “Wait a second. If the old man died, why am I still struggling with sin? Did something go wrong? Did I not really die to sin?”

That used to tie me up in knots. I thought, “Maybe this old man wasn’t fully dealt with after all.”

But here’s what finally brought clarity: Paul isn't talking about your old sinful nature (what the New Testament often calls the flesh) being crucified. That’s still very much alive and kicking. Just read Romans 7 and you’ll see Paul himself wrestled with it. 

What was crucified, Paul says, is your old man—and that’s a whole different thing.

The “old man” isn’t just a part of you—it’s the whole you that existed before you trusted Christ. That you who was enslaved to sin, helpless against it. 

That version of you is dead. That person is gone. That old man was nailed to the cross. Dead. Buried.

And the very reason I believe that Paul uses the phrase old man and not old nature is important. Man refers to the whole person, not just a part. The entire self, as it once was in Adam, bound to sin—has been crucified.

Why? Two reasons, and Paul gives both of them clearly, each beginning with the word that:

That the body of sin might be done away with – this could mean your physical body being ruled by sin, or more likely the “whole mass of sin,” the accumulated weight of your old life’s rebellion. It has been broken.

That we should no longer be slaves to sin – This is critical. Before Christ, we had no choice. Sin was our master. But now? We’ve been set free.

So, let’s boil this down. When you put your faith in Christ, something happened to you. You were placed into Christ—and Christ was placed into you. You were spiritually and eternally united with Him in His death and resurrection. And now you are a new person. You are no longer a slave to sin. You. Don’t. Have. To. Sin.

Paul even says it in verse 7: For he who has died has been freed from sin. The Greek word there for “freed” is the same word used earlier in Romans for “justified.” You’ve been declared right with God—and that includes being released from sin’s grip.

Imagine a slave, whose master commands him to do something. The slave is obligated to obey. But now imagine that slave is dead. The master can shout all he wants, the slave’s not getting up. He’s dead. He’s free. 

That’s the picture Paul’s giving. You are dead to sin’s rule.

Now, of course, you're still breathing. But spiritually? Positionally? You died when Christ died—and were raised when He was raised. That is not just a symbolic idea. It is a spiritual, theological, and experiential truth.

If you’re in Christ, you died too when he died.

You died. Your old man was crucified. You were raised to live a new life. This is not just something nice to believe—it’s something you need to reckon to be true.

That’s Paul’s next step. Verse 11 says, Likewise, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That word reckon is the key. It means to count on it, to bank on it. It’s not just intellectual agreement—it’s trusting that what God says about you is true. You’ve got to take it to the bank.

So here’s where we are:

Know what happened.

Believe it’s true.

Next, we’ll see—you have to present yourself to God on that basis.

Because only when you truly believe that you're dead to sin and alive to God will you start to live like it.

Now, of course, the way Paul says it is, “If we died with Christ, we believe we will also live with Him.” He explains in verse 9: “Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.” 

Verses 9 and 10 are speaking exclusively about Christ. Christ, having been raised from the dead, no longer dies—death has no dominion over Him. That’s straightforward. The death He died, He died to sin once for all. But the life He lives, He lives to God.

All of that is about Jesus Christ. But then in verse 11, Paul applies it to us:

“Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The word believe in verse 8 and the word reckon in verse 11 are being used here as synonyms. Paul is saying that we need to believe this. The word reckon comes from the language of accounting—it means to take into account, to calculate. You make a deposit into your account—now reckon it in your ledger, and make decisions accordingly.

In the same way, I’ve died with Christ. Now I need to calculate that truth into how I live. I need to believe that it actually happened.

Practically speaking, this means I need to come to grips with the fact that something has happened to me, and now—I don’t have to sin. 

That’s the message of this passage.

Back in chapter 1, verse 17, Paul wrote:

“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’”

From faith to faith. The first faith in Romans 1:17 is believing that Jesus died for me and trusting Him as Savior—that’s the message of Romans 4. The second faith is believing that I died with Christ—that’s the message of Romans 6.

Romans teaches that justification is by faith—and sanctification, too, begins with faith. It starts with believing that something real and irreversible has happened to me: I’m no longer under sin’s dominion. I am a new person in Christ. My old self has been crucified. I need to believe that.

Let me pause and speak plainly about this.

Years ago, I came to understand a great truth: by nature, I am a sinner. Do you believe that? I do. And I also believe it’s both biblically and psychologically dangerous not to believe it. Scripture warns, “Take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall.”

Now I still have the capacity to sin. But what has dawned on me, more clearly than ever, as a direct result of studying this passage, is this: I’m a new person—and I don’t have to sin.

Do you believe that?

Do you believe you’re a sinner? Do you believe you’re a saint?

The real question is: which of those is your primary identity?

That’s the issue Paul is getting at in Romans 6 when he says, “Reckon it.”

I’ve spoken to people enslaved to sin or habits—people who’ve failed so often that they’ve concluded they’re just sinners and there’s no hope for them. 

But what I’m saying is: no. You need to understand that something radical has happened to you. The person you were before Christ is dead. You are a new person now. And you need to believe that.

That’s where living a life that’s alive to God begins.

You are forgiven in Christ. You are a new creation. You are alive to God. You need to come to grips with that fact, reckon it, and believe it.

I think Romans 6 overlaps, in some ways, with the idea of self-image. 

You know as well as I do: if you tell a kid they’re bad for long enough, they’ll believe it and start acting like it. But if you tell them, “You can do it—you’ve got what it takes,” they just might believe that, too, and rise to it.

Now, it’s not a perfect parallel, but it’s similar.

God says to you: “You are my child. You are a saint. You have a new nature. You can live a godly life. You are alive to Me.”

Believe Him. And if you do—you’ll begin to live it out.

The only difference is, when God says it, He’s never wrong.

So, you need to understand what’s true. You need to know it. And then—you need to believe it.

There’s a third step. Paul lays it out in verse 12: we need to present ourselves.

He says:

“Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.”

And then in verse 13:

“And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

We can break verses 12 and 13 down into two negative commands and two positive ones.

First, the negative:

Since you’re dead to sin and alive to God, don’t let sin reign in your mortal body. You’re no longer under its rule—so stop letting it act like it’s still in charge.

That phrase mortal body simply means the physical body we live in now, subject to death. Paul is saying: Don’t let sin reign in the body you still inhabit.

Yes, you’ve died to the old life, but that doesn’t mean your flesh—the body you still live in—has lost the capacity to sin. It hasn’t. It still has desires. Paul calls them “lusts,” but don’t reduce that word to just sexual temptation. These are all sinful desires, and they’re still present.

The difference now is: You don’t have to obey them anymore.

So don’t let sin rule. Don’t act like it’s still in charge.

Your members means the parts of your body—your tongue, your hands, your eyes, your feet. 

·         You don’t have to use your tongue to lie.

·         You don’t have to use your hands to steal.

·         You don’t have to use your body to sin.

In fact, Paul is saying: don’t do it. Your old self is dead. So, stop living like it’s still alive.

Now, the positive side:

Instead of presenting your body to sin, Paul says, “Present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

It’s the same point, flipped. Just as you once used your hands, your tongue, your eyes to commit sin, now use those same parts of your body to serve God.

Present your body to Him—use it to live rightly.

But don’t misunderstand this word present. 

Some people read this and think it’s about a moment of dedication, something you do once, maybe in a prayer. But that’s not what Paul is talking about.

The presentation here isn’t a symbolic act. It’s practical. It’s what happens in the moment you choose to obey—when you actually do something righteous.

The presentation mentioned here is not something that happens during a spiritual retreat—it’s what happens when you use your mouth to speak the truth instead of lies. When you use your hands to serve instead of harm. When you obey God in the everyday moments of life.

Then Paul gives the reason for all this in verse 14:

“For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Why shouldn’t sin dominate your life? Because you’re no longer under the law—you’re under grace.

And that brings us back to where we started in verse 1. Does grace mean we’re free to sin? Absolutely not. Grace means the opposite.

Grace is not freedom to sin. it is freedom not to sin.

Let me sum this all up as clearly as possible:

Believers should not continue living in sin in order to magnify grace. That’s the key message here. Why? Because it’s by grace that we’ve been united to Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. 

That union means we’ve died to sin—and we’ve been made alive to God, to live a new kind of life.

In other words: grace doesn’t encourage sin—it kills it.

Yes, we are forgiven freely, because Jesus died for us. But that same grace also crucifies the old life—and empowers us to live righteously in Christ.

So, we’re called to present ourselves to God—our bodies, our words, our actions—as instruments of righteousness.

Now, all of that is the theological big picture. Let’s bring it down to everyday terms with two practical thoughts.

First, when you trusted Jesus Christ, something fundamental changed. You were constitutionally changed. You became a different person.

Now, the common way we talk about that is to say, “The Holy Spirit came to live inside you.” And that’s true—but the change goes deeper than that.

Your bondage to the flesh—what defined your life before Christ—was broken. It was crucified. And because of that, you no longer have to sin. You don’t have to live the way you used to live. You’re not the person you once were. Something happened to you, and that something makes all the difference.

Here’s an illustration:

Imagine a man in prison. Every morning, the warden tells him: “Get up at 6. Put on the prison uniform. Eat at 7.” He has no choice—he’s a prisoner. He does what he’s told.

But then one day, he’s pardoned. He walks out free.

Now the warden can still bark commands—but the man doesn’t have to obey. He doesn’t have to get up at 6. He doesn’t have to wear the uniform. He doesn’t have to eat on schedule.

Why?

Because he’s not under that authority anymore. He’s a free man.

That’s the kind of change grace brings.

You’re not who you were. You’ve been set free.

So now—live like it.

This passage is teaching that when you trusted Jesus Christ, something changed inside of you. That’s the first thing. 

But here’s the second thing you need to know:

In order for this to work in your life, you have to cooperate with God. You need to realize that something has happened to you, believe it, and then act on it. 

You’ve been set free from the old life—you are now free to do what God says in His Word. Free to live a righteous, godly life.

Now, there are some people who teach that because of what has happened to you—and they do correctly understand what’s happened—a life of sin for the believer is impossible. 

In fact, some well-known Bible teachers have come to this passage and said, “Well, if all this is true, then a Christian can’t  sin, if they do they are not a Christian!”

In my opinion, that’s going too far. That perspective is so discouraging. It overlooks a whole lot of what this passage actually says. 

I mean, if it were automatic—if living a righteous life just naturally flowed out of you—then why did Paul include all these commands? 

No, you know it and I know it: a believer can still sin, right? In fact, I’d go so far as to say a believer can even habitually sin. He shouldn’t, but he can. He can even wallow in it. Again—he shouldn’t, but he can.

And if you doubt that, go home and read 1 Corinthians.

The trap some people fall in to is to reduce sin to their pet categories—usually external stuff like obvious, overt sins. These people are some of them are the proudest people you’d ever want to meet. 

If pride isn’t sin, I don’t know what is. It’s the sin mentioned of Satan himself.

So, hear me on this:

If you want to experience victory over sin, you have to cooperate with what’s happened to you.

You do that by remembering that something radical has happened to you if you’ve trusted Jesus Christ.

You don’t have to sin. You can live a righteous life.

But if that’s going to happen, you have to cooperate. You’ve got to know what’s happened. You’ve got to believe it. You’ve got to say, “Lord, here I am. I present myself to you for righteous deeds.”

We developed habits in our old life, and even after we trust Christ—when we’re truly free—we can keep living the old way. Not because we have to. But because we’ve never stopped to realize:

We’re free.

It’s a whole new life.

But you’ve got to cooperate with it, or it won’t work.

Now, folks—listen—

You’ve developed a lot of bad habits in your life.

You don’t have to live by those habits anymore.

If you’ve trusted Jesus Christ, you are in a totally new position.

You can now say no to sin.

You can now say yes to righteousness.

You can say, “I will do what the Word of God says. I can be loving. And by God’s grace, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I will be.”

That’s what this message is all about.

Let me tell you something:

If you have trusted Jesus Christ, there is no reason why you need to be a victim of the flesh.

Because of Jesus Christ—you are a victor over it.

You need to know that.

You need to reckon it.

You need to present yourself to God.

And then you simply need to do what He has told you to do from here on in.