WWUTT 1247 Not Under Law but Under Grace?

So, since the Bible says you're no longer under the law but under grace, does that mean we can just sin?

Because God's grace is just going to forgive us of that sin. No, because otherwise you'd be demonstrating that you're a slave to sin instead of righteousness when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in Romans chapter 6, and picking up where we left off yesterday,

I'm going to start reading here in verse 15. We'll go through verse 19. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, What then?

Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

And then that last section of Romans 6, verses 20 through 23, we'll save for tomorrow. So this first verse that we just read here, verse 15,

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? The last verse that we looked at yesterday was verse 14.

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Now look at the over and under there in that particular passage. Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law.

Now a follow -up question that's going to arise as a result of phrasing it this way is going to be, are you therefore saying that the law is sin?

This is actually a question that Paul responds to when we get to Romans 7, 7.

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means, although that looks like what

Paul is saying here in verse 14. Sin won't have any dominion over you, since you are not under the law.

Someone who is unable to think in categories would therefore hear Paul saying, you just called the law sin.

No, no, no, that's not what I said. But here's what happens when we are presented with the law. We were already sinners before the law was presented to us.

Before we heard, you shall not do this according to the command of God. But then when we heard the law, it awakens sin in us.

Sin therefore took on the character of rebellion. Because now we heard you can't do this, and our sinful selves, we talked about the sin nature yesterday.

Our sinful selves now desire to express our independence. We want to stake a claim on our own independence, and we'll do so by deliberately disobeying the law.

And the mind that is submitted to sinful passions and desires will hear, don't do this, and go,

I don't have to listen to you, and then go and do the opposite. Paul is going to state later on in Romans that the law doesn't even have any power to save us.

Even if we had kept the law, the law itself does not save. The law is not a person.

It can't save. God saves. God saved us by giving his son.

Out of his grace, he sent his son to die for our sins as an atoning sacrifice, giving himself on the cross, shedding his blood for us.

Whoever believes in him will not perish under the judgment of God because of our sinful rebellion against him, because of our having broken his law, and then deliberately breaking his law, but rather our sins are atoned for in Christ.

So whoever believes in him, our sins are forgiven, and we have fellowship with God. Salvation is the gift of God.

It is not something that comes through the law. So the law was powerless to save anyway. What the law did, though, was it awakened sin.

It exposed our sin to us. When you heard in the law, you can't do this, then you became aware, you became knowledgeable of the fact that that's wrong.

That's a wrong thing to do, according to the word of God. But in your rebellion, you decided, well,

I don't have to listen to that. So you turn and went your own way. Either that or the spirit convicted you and you turned from sin to Christ, in which case, praise

God, because that was the work of God in your heart as well. But having disobeyed the law, we're under the law.

We're going to be judged by the law. As I mentioned yesterday, Jesus perfectly kept the law.

So if we're in Christ, we receive his righteousness. We're no longer under the law, but under grace.

So when that day of judgment comes, God is going to look at us and he's going to see not our sin that we did in transgression against the law, but he's going to see the righteousness of Christ, which he did when he kept the law and his righteousness given to us.

So we're under grace. That is all by the grace of God that we would be covered, clothed in his righteousness.

So we're not under the law anymore. We're under grace. Let's come back to this statement again in verse 14.

Sin will have no dominion over you. Now, this is not a commandment. This is not saying don't let sin have dominion over you, although there are other ways in which that has been expressed in this letter and elsewhere in the

New Testament and throughout the Bible. Don't let sin have dominion over you. Don't be a sinner.

Don't continue to obey the passions of your flesh. In this particular case, what we have is a promise.

Roman 6, 14 is a promise for sin will have no dominion over you.

You are no longer enslaved to obey its passions. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.

Back in verse 12, that was a command. Verse 14 is a promise. Sin will have no dominion over you.

You are under Christ. You are not under sin. You are under his righteousness.

You are not under the law, since you are not under law but under grace. Now, as I mentioned yesterday, people have taken this verse out of context and they have so twisted it to say that we no longer even need to pay attention to the law.

But that's not what's being said in this passage. Again, it's a promise. It's not saying unhitch from the

Old Testament. What it's saying here is that you're not going to be judged under the law because you have the grace of God that is upon you through faith in Jesus Christ.

You're not any longer enslaved to the passions of your flesh, but you have been set free from the bondage of sin and the wages of sin, which is death, that you may walk in obedience to God, which previously you could not do, but now in Christ you can do.

So you're not enslaved to sin. You are enslaved to righteousness. That's where we're going next.

The section that we've read today here in Romans chapter six, verse 15. What then are we to sin because we're not under the law, but under grace is why it was necessary to come back to verse 14 again, because this is the verse that we start with that very question following that statement, that promise that was in verse 14.

So since we are not under the law anymore, since we're not going to be judged by the law, can we just sin?

We can just go sin and the grace of God is going to cover that since we're not under the law.

We're under grace. Let's just go sin. Are we to sin because of grace?

No, no, no, no, no, by no means. Again, it's that, it's that statement in Greek.

My good. No, it is the strongest statement of disapproval that Paul could possibly make in the

Greek language. No, we haven't translated in English by no means. Maybe you're reading another translation that comes about that another way.

No, no, a thousand times. No, that's the way I've heard Steve Lawson put it. That's that's how we can read by no means.

Do you not know that if you present yourself to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey either of sin, which leads to death or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

Once again, the statement I made yesterday, everybody's got to serve somebody. You are enslaved to someone or something.

I've said this to many, a group that I have shared the gospel with. You are either children of Satan or your children of God.

And that's not just something I'm making up to preach a fire and brimstone sermon. Jesus said that in John chapter eight, rebuking the

Jews and saying, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

They were trying to claim, hey, we are children of Abraham. No, if you were children of Abraham, you would know who I am,

Jesus says. But because you seek to kill me, you are of your father, the devil.

So you're either children of Satan or your children of God. Paul talks about this again in Ephesians chapter two, where he says that all of us were at one point children of wrath like the rest of mankind, meaning that as children of Satan following the prince of the power of the world, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, we were children of Satan being led to destruction.

When we read in Matthew chapter 25, when we read in the book of Revelation of God, judging

Satan and the demons and casting them into the lake of fire, all those who were children of Satan, who followed after his ways, the ways of the liar, they will likewise perish with him in hell.

They will follow him right down into the pit. But we who are in Christ Jesus have been born again.

We're no longer children of Satan, but we have received a new birth. We are reborn and adopted as children of God through faith in the son,

Jesus Christ, by his blood, adoption by his blood that we have received.

So we're no longer enslaved to the passions that we had under our father,

Satan. But we now have new passions that have been given to us by our father,

God, through the spirit of him that has been put within us, the Holy Spirit of God that is within every

Christian who is a follower and a worshiper of Jesus Christ. We no longer are obedient to Satan.

We're obedient to God. Satan is not our father. God is. We are sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

The beautiful doctrine of adoption, never overlook that wonderful doctrine.

Sometimes we talk about, you know, justification and sanctification and glorification, but we forget adoption, adopted into the family of God through our elder brother, as he's described in Romans 8, 29,

Jesus Christ. He is the firstborn of many brothers, meaning that there are many others who are going to be brought into this family of God through him.

We are all sons and daughters of God if we're followers of Jesus Christ. Don't follow the whole

Oprah teaching of about how every single human being is a child of God.

That isn't true. Every single human being is made in the image of God. That's absolutely true.

But then every single person desecrated that image with our sin, and we have become worthless, as Paul argued previously in Romans 3, 10 through 12.

We are fit for destruction. We're ready to be thrown into the lake of fire. And if God had not intervened, that's exactly where we would go.

But by his grace and his mercy, someone preached the gospel to us. And we turn from sin and we believe in the gospel.

And so we live. This is that wonderful doctrine of regeneration.

Don't forget that doctrine either. Justification, sanctification, adoption, glorification for any of this to come about.

We have that beautiful doctrine of regeneration, the Holy Spirit transforming our hearts that we're no longer resistant against the word of God, the law of God.

But when we hear it, we're cut to the heart and we are grieved over our sin and we turn from it to Christ.

And so live by the hearing and the power of the gospel, which has the power to save. Remember back again to Romans 1, 16.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

So we're no longer obedient to sin now that we are in Christ. Now that we're part of a new family, we demonstrate that we're part of that family by becoming obedient to righteousness.

We don't want to do the sinful, wicked thing that's going to bring us to destruction. We're going to follow in righteousness, which leads to eternal life, as Paul goes on to say here.

So verse 17, thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.

Now, be careful about that phrase, because that doesn't mean that you made a decision that you were going to become obedient to the teaching.

You probably didn't know what the teaching was that you were being committed to. Rather, it wasn't your decision to be committed to that teaching.

It was God who committed you to that teaching. You have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.

God committed you to that teaching. You didn't commit yourself. God committed you.

Listen to what he said through the prophet Ezekiel 36, chapter 36, verse 25.

I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols.

I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.

I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, a soft heart.

Instead of being stony and hard against the word of God, you have now become softened of heart to receive and obey the word of God.

Going on to verse 27. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

In 2nd Corinthians 514, the apostle Paul says, for the love of Christ controls us.

So it is by the grace of God that we have been committed. He has committed us to his teaching.

Now, again, it may not be that when you became a Christian, you understood what that teaching was.

But the spirit of God had been poured into your heart, regenerated your heart. Instead of being one who is rebellious against the word of God, you have now been transformed into someone who wants the word of God, who loves it and desires to keep it.

And you will demonstrate that that change has happened within you when you show yourself as one who is controlled by the love of God, who is compelled to keep the standard of teaching that he committed you to even before you knew what it was.

And this was all by the grace of God. Then as a Christian, when you grew in a knowledge and an understanding of the commandments of God, what the word of God says, what the

Bible says, then you were all the more compelled to follow it. But it is

God who committed you to this teaching and is growing you in it as well. It is the word of God that sanctifies us.

Verse 19. And having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness, no longer enslaved to the passions of your flesh to follow those passions.

But you are enslaved to righteousness and your passion is to do what is right, what is pleasing to God.

Now, notice here in verse 19, the Apostle Paul says, I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.

Some of us really have a problem with that concept of being enslaved to something, especially when it comes to grace or righteousness or Christ.

I mean, isn't the verbiage that we use, the wording that we use to describe our salvation in Christ, don't we want to say that we've been set free?

After all, Jesus says in John 836, if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Why are we going back and using a language of slavery? Well, once again, Paul makes the point that you are enslaved to whatever masters you.

So what is your master? Are you is your master, Adam, your flesh, your own desires like like your desires have mastery over you.

Every time you have that desire, you feel like you just have to give in to it. And there's nothing seems like there's nothing you can do about it.

Then you write an email to when we understand the text or any other Q &A sort of ministry and saying, hey, you know, give me some relief here because you say that I'm no longer mastered by my sin, but I'm still doing my sin.

Look, you're still going to have the thought that takes a little more effort to gain mastery over, but you have control over whether or not you follow through with that thought.

If you're following through with the thought and you're just going along with it, there is any second in there when you can turn away from it and not follow after it anymore.

But if you're still going after the thoughts, you might need to really consider that your sin still has mastery over you.

And I hope you're convicted over that because sin is rotten. It will destroy you. You have got to gain control over that and you can't do it on your own.

You must commit yourself to Christ. But but do not let sin, as we looked at yesterday, let not sin reign in your more in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.

If you are made to obey the sin, then you're still enslaved to the sin. Understand, Jesus says, well, through his apostle, but first Corinthians 10, 13, no temptation has overtaken you.

That is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

So there are still going to be temptations. But by the power of the spirit of God in you, you should be turning away from those temptations and desiring to do the righteous thing rather than pursuing and obeying the passions of your flesh.

If you're still doing that, you're enslaved to sin. But if you have such a mastery over that by the power of the spirit of God in you, that though you may have the thought, you don't follow through with it and you turn instead to do the righteous thing, then you are enslaved to righteousness.

Your master is Christ. Your master is not Satan. Yes, you have been set free.

You've been set free from the bonds of sin, the chains, the slavery that you had to sin and therefore to death.

You've been set free in Christ to do righteousness, to live according to his way unto eternal life.

This is your reward. But Paul says here that I speak in human terms because of your natural limitations.

Yes, indeed. In Christ, we've been set free. But we must understand this language of slavery because of how limited we are in our human understanding.

There's something there's something divinely mysterious going on here. There's something wonderful and beautiful and gracious by the gift of God.

But Paul explains this in terms of slave because we're obedient to something.

You're either obedient to sin or you're obedient to righteousness. And the righteousness of God is revealed in his perfect characters we read about in his law.

So if you follow God, if you have been transformed in Christ to be obedient to the word of God, you are going to obey his law.

You will do what he says for you to do. Again, you're not judged by that law, but you have been given a new heart that you may be obedient to that law.

Going back to the statement that Paul made in Romans three thirty one, do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law and it's by the spirit of God that has been poured into us that we desire to submit to that law and keep it.

I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations for just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness.

So now you've been set free from that pattern. That trajectory present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

You're going the other way. Before you were in sin, you were obedient to sin. You were getting worse and worse, leading to death.

But now you're obedient to righteousness and lawfulness that is leading to sanctification, your holiness, as you begin to reflect the holy character of Christ in your obedience to his word.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word that we have today. And may we understand what it means that we're no longer under the law, but we are under grace.

And so, therefore, by the grace of God, we've been set free from sin to obey righteousness.

And let it be our delight to be fully obedient unto God, walking in your every way according to your word.

We pray and ask these things in Jesus name. Forgive us our sins. Lead us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues.

You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .tt .com. Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.