“For sin shall
not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:14. Paul feared this verse
would be misunderstood to mean that if we are under grace we no are no longer
accountable to the law. This is why Paul continues, “What
then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God
forbid.” Romans 6:15. God forbid that we should break His commandments
under the pretense of grace. Those who are under the grace of God keep His law.
Grace does not give us
license to disobey God. Suppose you are speeding down
the highway, and a policeman catches you and stops to give you a ticket, but
you explain that you are on your way home from a long tired day at work and all
you want to do is go home and rest. The police man looks at you sympathetically
and tells you that he won’t give you the ticket; you are now under his grace.
Do you then speed off with screeching tires or do you cautiously drive within speed
limit? Being under grace means that you should take special precaution to be
obedient.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for
ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:14. To live under the law means that we should die because the
wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and all have sinned (Romans 3:23). But
Jesus paid the penalty of death for us and by His gift of love, grace, we are
alive today.
Sin has
dominion over a person who in under the law. But the person who is under grace is
not under the condemnation of the law because he is not transgressing it. God’s
people are not under the law because they are not breaking the law; therefore
not under His condemnation, but rather under His grace.
The gospel of
good news was not to be interpreted as allowing men to live in continued
rebellion against God by transgressing His just and holy law. Why
cannot those who claim to understand the Scriptures, see that God's requirement
under grace is just the same He made in
The gospel of
the New Testament is not the Old Testament standard lowered to meet the sinner
and save him in his sins. God requires of all His subjects obedience, entire
obedience to all His commandments. He demands now as ever perfect righteousness
as the only title to heaven. Christ is our hope and our refuge. His
righteousness is imputed only to the obedient. Let us accept it through faith,
that the Father shall find in us no sin. But those who have trampled on the
holy law will have no right to claim that righteousness.
