Mandates for Willing Subordination throughout the New Testament; Misuse of Grace: Believers Submit to either the Sin Nature or the Word, Rom 6:12-13
 
23.	In Colossians 3:20 we find Paul using the word hupakouō, the verb form, which means to willingly subordinate oneself to legitimate and accepted authority. 
24.	Details about this aspect of the word’s definition are important to our study and an excellent synopsis is provided by:
Spicq, Ceslas.  Theological Lexicon of the New Testament.  Translated by James D. Ernest.  (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 3:424-26:
Øpot£ssw [hupotassō].  It may be said that this verb is peculiar to the language of the New Testament, and that “submission” is a major virtue in the Christian pastoral writings, expressing the relations of subordination in the cosmic and religious order.
God has placed everything in submission to Christ (Eph 1:22), to whom the angels are subordinate (1 Pet 3:22); the church is in submission to the Lord (Eph 5:24a); Christians submit to God, to his law and his training (Rom 8:7; 10:3; Heb 12:9; Jas 4:7), but also to one another to cooperate (1 Cor 16:16 [1 Pet 5:5b]).  Woman is subordinate to man, the wife to the husband (Eph 5:22-24; Col 3:18; Titus 2:5; 1 Pet 3:1, 5), the children to the parents (1 Tim 3:4), the young to the old (1 Pet 5:5a), slaves and servants to their master [employees to employers] (Eph 6:5; Titus 2:9; 1 Pet 2:18) subjects to their sovereign (Rom 13:1, 5; Titus 3:1).  (pp. 424-25)
It is clear that hupotassō does not have the same range in these differing communal relationships; but it is always reverent submission, seen as a self-offering.  It means first of all accepting the exact place God has assigned, keeping to one’s rank in this or that society, accepting a dependent status, especially toward God (Jas 4:7), like children who are submissive to a father’s discipline (Heb 12:9), after the fashion of the child Jesus (Luke 2:51).  This religious subjection is made up of an obedient spirit, humaneness of heart, respect, and willingness to serve.  To submit is to accept directives that are given, to honor conditions that are imposed, to please one’s superior (Titus 2:9) or honor him by the homage that is obedience, to repudiate egotism and aloofness.  (pp. 425-26)
All of this is absolutely new and has no secular parallel. (p. 426)
25.	The proper relationship between the believer and God is clearly brought out by hupotassō.  Subordination to God, His mandates, His plan, and His doctrines is a voluntary decision that occurs when a believer honors and reveres God through reciprocal love.
26.	The provision of human freedom and the possession of free will provide the believer the option to accept or reject divine authority.
27.	However, when a believer refuses to willingly submit to divine authority and policy, then he does so based on arrogance motivated by a refusal to demote self.
28.	Many believers are comfortable with learning about the Bible and become academically well-rounded in its various doctrines.  Yet when it comes to application of divine policy they are more comfortable with submitting to their own will.
29.	PRINCIPLE: Grace does not imply that it is legalistic to orient and adjust to divine mandates.
30.	Many, in a conscientious effort to overcome a legalistic background, continue to engage in sinful behaviors under the assumption that grace grants permission. Not so!  Paul address this attitude in Romans 6:12-18:
Romans 6:12 -	Stop permitting [ present imperative of oân basileÚw, oun basileuō ] the sin nature to continue having ruling authority over your body that you should obey [ ØpakoÚw, hupakouō ] its lust patterns.
1)	This verse verifies that believers can revert back under the tyrannical authority of their own bodies, however the imperative of prohibition of basileuō indicates he has a problem-solving device available, i.e., rebound.
Romans 6:13 -	Stop placing your members [ the brain ] as weapons of wickedness [ facilitated wheel-tracks of wickedness ] under orders to the sin nature; but place yourself under orders to God as those who are alive from deaths, and your members [ the brain ] as weapons of righteousness [ facilitated wheel-tracks of righteousness ] to God.
2)	The fact that a believer’s free will determines the status quo of his soul is indicated by the two imperatives found in the verse.  First, the negative particle mhdš, mēde plus the present active imperative of the verb parist£nw, paristanō: “stop placing,” followed later by the alternative conjunction ¢ll£, alla plus the aorist active imperative of parist£nw, paristanō: “but place.”  The former indicates the current status quo is carnality while the second advocates rebound in order to reestablish status quo spirituality.