What is the context?
The therefore applies the preceding account of death and life with Christ. Believers must not let sin reign in their mortal bodies or offer their bodily powers to wrongdoing. Instead, they are to offer themselves to God as people brought from death to life.
The body is part of that offering. Paul speaks of its parts becoming instruments of righteousness. Hands, speech, movement and the ways people act can serve the new life God gives.
The promise that sin will not be their master is connected with being under grace rather than law. Paul immediately follows it with another rejection of sin in verse 15. Grace is the setting for freedom and obedience, not a reason to return to sin’s rule.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Christians commonly read this as a call to active obedience grounded in grace. The person freed by Christ offers the whole life to God, including bodily action. Freedom from sin’s mastery does not make the choices Paul commands unnecessary.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
Romans 12:1–2 returns to this bodily offering: because of God’s mercy, believers offer their bodies as living sacrifices and are transformed through the renewal of their minds. The response involves the person’s practical life, not only a religious label.
The same letter that announces grace therefore develops worship as an embodied response to mercy. God’s rescue makes room for people to live for Him in the ordinary actions of their days.
What is our position?
What Is the True Church? draws on Romans 6:14 to explain holiness as the fruit of grace. Our position is that grace both pardons and transforms, empowering believers to turn from sin and live in obedience to Christ. Obedience grows from His work in them rather than serving as a way to earn salvation.