The Ruler of the Heart Wins

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. (Romans 6:11-12) (ESV)

When we think about fighting, struggling, and overcoming temptation and sin, we tend to look at behavior. We know behaviors are only a symptom of a deeper problem. The problem is in the heart, because that is where the root of the sinful conditions resides. John Owen said this about our battle against sin, he said, “A man may beat down the bitter fruit from an evil tree until he is weary; while the root abides in strength and vigor, the beating down of the present fruit will not hinder it from bringing forth more.” We can try our best to beat down the bad fruit from the tree, but it will only grow back in time, we need to attack the root. Romans 6:12 states, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.” For Christians it is essential to be obedient to God’s Word. At times we look to obedience as a gauge to judge our success in defeating sin; our focus is on the results and the symptoms. Scripture shows us obedience is an outcome, the focus of Romans 6:12 is not obedience, but who reigns in the heart. If we want to be obedient, we must look further than our behavior or obedience. To defeat sin we have to go to the root. The root question is, “who is reigning today?” To paraphrase Romans 6:12, “Who reigns is the one who commands obedience, they are the ones who force the body to obey.” If you don’t believe me, read Romans 6:12 slowly, it says, “to make you obey their passions.” When we are tempted and try to overcome those desires which cry out to be fulfilled, we don’t need to ask or look to see how we can overcome the temptation, but we need to look at who is reigning in the heart. Is it sin? Or is it our Savior?

We may have to dethrone the ruler of our heart. The fight of sin begins with a question, “who is ruling today?” When fear calls, who is ruling? When pride calls, who is ruling? When lust calls, who is ruling? When greed calls, who is ruling? How we answer these questions will determine how or if we fight. In Romans 6:11 we are told to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive in God. We may need to remind the ruler of our heart that they are no longer in charge. An impeachment process needs to be considered. If not, then we will continue in our failing and falling to overcome sin.  We will just continue to wear ourselves out with knocking down the bad fruit from the tree of our lives. Or we can remove the false rulers who reign and command our passions by digging up the root. We tend to fight the wrong battles and look to the wrong problems. We fight a spiritual war in a physical manner. We look to the symptoms and wage war in the physical realm, while the rulers of the heart stay enthroned and in command. Our eyes see the effects of the fight, but the Spirit points to the heart as the battlefield; this is where the true war is fought. We need to dig two holes, one to dig up the root, the other, to dig the deceptive ruler’s a grave. We have only one Ruler, and that is Christ. “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” (1 Peter 3:15a NIV) So who is ruling our heart today, is it your sin, or is it your Savior?