Romans 6.11-14

[11] Thus also you should consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. [12] Therefore let not sin reign in your moral body, so that you obey its desires, [13] and do not present your members to sin as tools of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as those alive from the dead and (present) your members to God as tools of righteousness. [14] For sin will not master you, for you are not under Torah but under grace.

Verses 11-14 function as an implication from what Paul says in vv. 9-10. In verses 9-10 Paul talks about how Jesus has died to death and that he has been made alive, and that what he lives he lives to God. Because of Paul connection earlier regarding the inclusion of the individual into Jesus, and thus into the effects of Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paul begins to work out some of the implications for the one who is in Christ.

Thus Paul begins in verse 11 by stating how the Christian should consider himself. The Christian is dead to sin, just as Jesus is dead to sin (v. 10b). Thus, the Christian must see himself this way. No longer is the Christian alive to sin. Rather, the Christian is alive to God. A great reversal has taken place here. As we know from Romans 5.12 everyone in the lineage of Adam is born into death. But now, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the one who follows after Jesus is no longer in death, but is alive to God. Because of this, Paul continues that the Christian is not to let sin reign in his mortal body. Though are bodies are still connected to death and sin (for they are not yet resurrected, see chapter 8), we are not to let sin reign in our body, so that we obey its desires. Instead of ruling over creation as God intended at the beginning, rebellion has made us slaves to the very things we were to rule. But in the second Adam, we are no longer mastered by our desires, and thus, we are to bring them into self-control by the power of the second Adam. Also, the Christian is no longer to give the parts of our body to unrighteousness. This is the old way, the way of Adam, the way of sin, the way of death and slavery. Instead of all of this we are to give to God what is God’s. That is, we are to give our body over to God, to present it to him, to use the body we have been given for righteousness and not unrighteousness. In this we see, it seems, what you mentioned regarding 5.19, that is one day just as many were made sinner in Adam, many will be made righteous in the second Adam. Because of this, future reality, the Christian is to be presenting himself to God as tools of righteousness. That is the future reality (eschatology) determines Paul’s instruction regarding present living. Because one day we will be righteous, we are to be living for righteousness now. Paul grounds this, then in the fact that sin will not master the Christian any longer, because the Christian is no longer under Torah, but under grace. As Paul has already intimated in chapters 1 and 2, and will be more fully discussed in chapter 7, Torah did not bring freedom from sin. Instead, Torah brought more sin. But Paul is stating here, those who are in Christ are no longer under Torah, but under grace, and this makes all the difference in the world. A difference that Paul will go on to explain with great care, precision, and punch.