Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans John Calvin (continued)
John Calvin
13. Nor present your members, etc. When once sin has obtained dominion in our soul, all our faculties are continually applied to its service. He therefore describes here the reign of sin by what follows it, that he might more clearly show what must be done by us, if we would shake off its yoke. But he borrows a similitude from the military office, when he calls our members weapons or arms (arma); 192 as though he said, "As the soldier has ever his arms ready, that he may use them whenever he is ordered by his general, and as he never uses them but at his command; so Christians ought to regard all their faculties to be the weapons of the spiritual warfare: if then they employ any of their members in the indulgence of depravity, they are in the service of sin. But they have made the oath of soldiers to God and to Christ, and by this they are held bound: it hence behoves them to be far away from any intercourse with the camps of sin." — Those may also here see by what right they proudly lay claim to the Christian name, who have all their members, as though they were the prostitutes of Satan, prepared to commit every kind of abomination.
On the other hand, he now bids us to present ourselves wholly to God, so that restraining our minds and hearts from all wanderings into which the lusts of the flesh may draw us, we may regard the will of God alone, being ready to receive his commands, and prepared to execute his orders; and that our members also may be devoted and consecrated to his will, so that all the faculties both of our souls and of our bodies may aspire after nothing but his glory. The reason for this is also added — that the Lord, having destroyed our former life, has not in vain created us for another, which ought to be accompanied with suitable actions.
Romans 6:14-18
Romans 6:14-18
14. For sin shall not have dominion over you: 193 for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
14. Peccatum enim vobis non dominabitur, non enim estis sub Lege, sed Sub gratia.
15. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
15. Quid ergo? Peccabimus, quia non sumus sub Lege, sed sub gratia? Absit: 16. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience
192The idea of a king, a ruler, or a tyrant, is preserved throughout. Innate sin is a ruler, carrying on a warfare, and therefore has weapons which he employs. In the preceding verse are mentioned the gratifications with which he indulges his subjects — "lusts," here the weapons by which he defends his kingdom, and carries on an offensive warfare, committing acts of wickedness and wrong — "weapons of injustice, {ἀδικίας}." "He who sins," says an old author, "does wrong either to himself or to his neighbor, and always to God." — Ed.
193"Vobis non dominabitur," {ὀυ} {κυριεύσει} — shall not be a lord over you, shall not have power or authority or control over you; or, it may mean, shall not domineer over you, so as to retain you, as it were by force, under its power: and the reason given favors this idea; for he says, "Ye are not under law, but under grace." Law is the strength of sin; and by law it binds its subjects under its service. — Ed.