Romans 6:13 : "Neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present your-selves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." This language shows plainly that when we sin, the members of our body are mere instruments through which the inner man accomplishes its purposes. The instrument used in committing a crime cannot be blamed for the crime. God gave the human being certain appetites and passions for his own preservation and for the perpetuity of the human race; but the purpose to hold them in check, or the plans to gratify them either in a lawful or unlawful way, are formed in the heart. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23). Obedience is from the heart. The spirit expresses itself through the body. Not one thing can be done in service to God without the use of the body. Hence, we are commanded to present our "members as instruments of righteousness unto God." And so also does the spirit sin through the instrumentality of the body. Though committed through the instrumentality of the body, sin comes from the heart. "For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness: all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man (Mark 7:21-23). As all sins come from the heart, or spirit, of man, it is absurd in the extreme for anyone to claim, as some do, that the body of a regenerated man may sin, but his spirit remains pure and sinless. Certainly the body, being merely an instrument, is not responsible for the sin and if the spirit of the regenerate is not responsible for the sin, it would seem that a regenerate man is not in any sense responsible for any wrong that he does!