Grace and Law XV: The Dominion of the Law and Sin

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder and with me again is Steve Crampton. And we're coming to the end of our book.

And so we're coming to the end of this series. I would call it a mini -series, but it's kind of like, it's a big mini -series, capital

M. And we've been going through Ernie Reisinger's book, The Law and the

Gospel, such a critical theme for the believer, for the church, and especially for Evangelicalism and Reformed, the

Reformed branch of Evangelicalism, in part because of maybe a reaction to kind of the fundamentalism that for, you know, in the early part and middle part of the 20th century kind of ruled, conservative -minded people.

So, you know, as we are maybe more careful with scriptural doctrine, it is a temptation to kind of swing.

And we want to make sure that we are biblical and not just reactionary. And so we've been stealing a lot of help from Reisinger, and Reisinger has stolen help from the

Puritans. And the Puritans, there are some differences in the Puritan movement. It's 100 years long.

It covers multiple continents. But for the most part, you know, the general statement of the

Puritan view of the law was in line with Calvin's. There were some antinomian

Puritans, and they were responded to. So it's helpful to look at what they said.

Well, chapter 12 is called The Law and Grace, and the author makes it very clear what his intention is in this chapter.

So let me just read his opening lines. The law was given that grace might be sought.

Grace was given that the law might be fulfilled. To put it another way,

Paul, as a Pharisee, thought that people should keep the law in order to be saved.

But as a Christian, Paul saw that people must be saved in order that they might keep the law.

My purpose in this chapter is to show that a Christian is not a lawless person, and that there is a particular connection between the law and grace.

So Stevie jumps right in and says, we are not under law. Quoting from Romans 614, sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

So what's that mean? Yeah, as Reisinger points out, John, this is, at least in part, one of the most quote misquoted, misunderstood, and misapplied verses in all the

Bible. Romans 614. Because you don't often hear the sin shall not have dominion over you part, what you hear and what people love to latch onto is, you are not under the law, but under grace.

And I can attest personally to having heard that from friends who wanted to do just what they wanted to do, and still attend church and consider themselves in good standing before the

Lord. So Reisinger wants to break this down and really examine it.

Primarily, I want to start with context, because, as he points out,

Romans 614 is dealing with justification, not sanctification. And throughout this chapter in the book of Romans, not to mention even back in Romans 3 through 5, what we're looking at is

Paul responding to those very folks who would make the claim that our modern antinomians make, namely, that we're not any longer under law, we can do whatever we want, right?

He starts in verses 1 and 2, you know, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And Paul responds very firmly, by no means.

In verse 15, right after that, he repeats it again. What then? Are we to sin because we're not under law, but under grace?

By no means! So, Reisinger points out rightly, I think, that surely there is an antithesis between law and grace in respect to justification.

We've hit it again and again in this series. We are not saved by the deeds of the law.

You just can't get there. But, do you make void the law through faith, Paul asks?

Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law, as he says in Romans chapter 3.

So, Reisinger points us back, curiously, I think, in an argumentative kind of analysis to the

Heidelberg Catechism, and notes that it's organized in a fashion that you move from guilt, namely, knowledge of the law, which also then exposes our sinfulness, to grace, which you find, of course, in Christ, who has paid the penalty of the law, and then on to gratitude, and that's where we find ourselves after the cross.

Well, how do we express our gratitude to Christ for that miraculous rescue?

Well, by obeying Him, by laying down our lives for Him, becoming like Him.

Reisinger gives us four different categories how we want to become like Christ.

One, in His love to do the Father's will. How do you find the

Father's will? You look at the law, right? The moral law in particular. Second, in that deep compassion for sinners.

The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Well, the law, of course, as we're going to talk in the next few minutes, also plays that critical role in bringing sinners to Christ by exposing them and pointing them to Christ.

The third way we want to become like Christ is in His purity of heart, separate from sinners, but I would argue as well, separate from sin.

That is where the Holy God dwells, that is where we find that we can abide with Christ and in Christ.

And this may be, I'll ask you, but in my own mind I'm thinking, you know, we have that wonderful description of God removing our sins from us as far as the

East is from the West. Well, I would argue that insofar as we are living in sin, we remain as far as the

East is from the West apart from God. You can't draw near to the Holy God in sinfulness.

Yeah, so I think if we take that...so you're talking about not being near God positionally.

Okay, so I'm still in His family, but yes, relationally. I mean, John deals with that in the first epistle, that God is light, in Him is no darkness at all.

So there's the character of our God. That can't be shifted. The cross doesn't shift that.

It doesn't alter that. It doesn't dim that brilliance. It doesn't make the darkness of sin less dark.

It doesn't, you know, so it doesn't turn God's brilliant moral purity into kind of a gray area and then move our rebellion into a gray area just because of grace.

So He still dwells in that glorious holiness, and it's by the work of Christ that we are able to be brought into that, but John makes it clear we cannot enjoy fellowship with person apart from His gracious enabling us to walk obediently.

Yeah. And just to finish the thought, the fourth way that we want to become like Christ is in His true humility, and it seems to me the law is a great aid for us in that context,

John, because it constantly reminds us of how completely unable, incapable we are, apart from the

Holy Spirit, of keeping that law and really abiding in that nearness to the Lord.

Yeah, again, so helpful to see the commands of God in the correct perspective.

So you're not under the law as this condemning, you know, this sword hanging over my head of justice that I wonder, when will the string break?

You know, when will I be called to give an account? It crushing me under a sense of guilt but never able to cure me?

That's life in the realm of self and sin and the old master.

Yeah, and may I throw in here, too, one last quote in this section that I thought was really helpful. Risinger says, the doctrine of grace must be jealously guarded against the distortion of justification by the works of the law.

We've discussed that. But it is equally important, and this is where I think we falter, today's

Church. Equally important that the doctrine of the law be preserved against a wrong conception of its relationship to grace.

Law is a critical component of the entire work of salvation here, and we can't ignore it.

Yeah, well, again, just with what you mentioned with walking in near communion with God.

So if John says, walk in the light, what's the light? You know, a person says, well,

I just feel really strongly that I should do this. You know, I should help this person.

I should do this. I should make this choice. I should choose this path. And, you know, their godly friends around them, maybe their parents, say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, why are you doing that?

And they say, I know it's right. I know God has told me to do it. In other words, I know this is the path in the light, and we need an objective guide for that, you know?

And so we say, well, actually, the word of God and the commands of God and the descriptions of God's, what he loves and hates, and that, you know, manifested through those moral laws, these mark out the edge of light and darkness, and that is so difficult, impossible without that law.

Otherwise, you know, our idea of following Jesus really kind of is fueled or guided, maybe determined by a sentimentalism.

You know, I just feel that this would be the best choice. The next thing he hits is the fact that because we're not under the law, we are also not under dominion or as the new

American standard says, sin shall not be master over you. That's the indicative statement.

It's not a command. It's not saying, do not let sin be master over you. Paul does talk that way, you know, in earlier verses.

He talks about presenting yourself to sin or presenting your, sorry, your members to sin or presenting yourself and your members to God.

But in verse 14, we just have a statement, sin shall not be master of you, for, and then we have the explanation, you are not under law, as Steve mentioned, but under grace.

So what is it to be not under law but under grace, and how does that affect this whole issue of sin and its mastery?

And Steve, you mentioned that this is not really talking about sanctification but justification. We could also say it this way.

This is not talking about the practice of the

Christian life. This is talking about the position of the Christian life, which becomes the foundation for a new practice.

So if we look at Romans 6 taken quickly, we would say there is a new you, the old you is dead, a new you is risen.

A new you is in a new realm, a realm of grace and not of the dominating, you know, condemning law, which the law is still perfect and pure, but it condemns you because you're not.

A new ruler, so I am not under Satan and sin's rule, I am under the rule of Jesus of Nazareth.

Now in these two realms, between these two realms, you can pass from the realm of death into that realm of life from condemning law to grace because of union with Christ, but you can never go back.

So while we can still sin, sin will not ever again be our master.

It will never have a right to us. It will never again be our owner in a sense.

It will never be our rightful monarch. It was at one time our master when we were in its land, but having died and been raised in a new realm of grace,

Christ is the master. The old master can lean over the fence, so to speak, between the two properties and can talk to us the way he used to speak to us.

He can threaten us. He can entice us and we can still act in many ways like we used to act, but we can never be his in the way that we were.

What a freeing thought that is to just contemplate that we are no longer in that bondage to sin.

I mean, Paul can't be any clearer, it seems to me, in Romans 6 about that part, and yet don't we even on our side of the cross, so to speak, find ourselves deluded into thinking that somehow we are still in bondage to that master?

Yeah, you know, the feeling that, well, in that situation, I almost had to choose that not right choice.

So that puts to death the lie that a Christian will never have to sin again.

We do sin, but it's not because we are under that master. But if you think about the realm of grace, we are under something in the realm of grace.

Not under law, but we're not free agents in a sense. Paul later calls us slaves of righteousness.

The law exists in both spheres, but in the sphere of death and condemnation, the law is, in a sense, above us condemning rightly every wrong thought, every wrong word and choice.

But in the realm of grace, the law is there as the path for the feet, as the friend to guide.

And sin exists in both spheres, but again, sin in the sphere that we were born in, under the dominion of sin, it was our master, and sin in the sphere of grace is not our master.

The difference, you know, grace now above us, that great, wonderful, mighty principle working within us, enabling us to desire and to do the will of God, to walk the path, to do

His perfect will expressed in His law. So, Reisinger then gives a list of what the law can and cannot do.

And this will maybe help us understand the difference between, the difference, you know, in these two realms.

Why is it in a realm of grace? I am not under the mastery of sin. And how does the law have any relationship to that?

And so, he gives this list. What the law can do. The law commands and demands.

It sets before all people the will of God, the only true objective standard of moral righteousness.

So, the law does that always. It doesn't alter. It shows us the demands of God.

The law pronounces the judgment of condemnation upon every lawbreaker, just like a civil law does.

If a man robs a bank, the judgment of the court is upon him because he's a lawbreaker.

The law has nothing but a curse for lawbreakers. The law exposes and convicts of sin.

The law is spiritual, we are told, and as the word of God, it is living and powerful, and it searches the thoughts and the intents of the heart.

And so, the law, you know, exposing. Well, that's what the law can do.

What is it that the law cannot do? The law cannot justify the lawbreaker. So, while the law, you can condemn, it declares you to be wrong, it cannot declare you to be right.

There's no provision in the moral law for curing the lawbreaker. So, it cannot justify the lawbreaker.

Law as law has no provision to make us right with God. There is no forgiving grace in the law.

It gives no power to fulfill its own demands. So, it cannot forgive those who trespass its commands, and it has no power to enable a person to command.

It can simply draw the lines of right and wrong. The law knows no clemency for the remission of guilt.

The law provides no righteousness to meet our iniquity. So, even if, you know, we could say, even if God could wipe the slate clean and just say,

I will forgive every past sin, the law, if we were still under the law's rule in that sense, it is not able to provide a positive righteousness.

We would soon again fail to do what's required and be back in the same boat.

You know, which is kind of why in the Roman Catholic Church in some of the, you know, some of the centuries where, you know,

Constantine, the emperor, you know, you find them waiting until the very last breath to be baptized, because that's going to wash this in away.

And then, hopefully, you'll die right then, and you won't have a chance to have a wrong attitude, wrong thought, wrong word.

So, in a sense, you know, a misunderstanding of what Christ provides. The law exerts no constraining power to restore or reclaim our waywardness.

So, the law can threaten, but it doesn't do anything to the heart to make you love righteousness. The law knows no mercy to melt our hearts in penitence and new obedience.

So, he says, though the law is just, it cannot justify sinners. Though the law is good, it cannot make sinners good or deliver them from the power of sin.

Though the law is holy, it cannot make sinners holy who have made themselves unholy.

Romans 6 14 teaches us that the law can do nothing to relieve the bondage or dominion of sin.

It is in this light that we have the apostle's wonderful expression, we are not under the law, we are not hoping in the law.

We could say we are not being rescued by the law, but grace. And that sort of tees up that next section, doesn't it?

Well, if we're not under the law, logically, doesn't that mean we're lawless, right?

And Reisinger makes, I think, a pretty compelling argument here, of course not. And that's his main point in this whole section, the

Christian is not lawless or without a standard of righteousness. And he says, yeah, well, there's a lot of passages we could use.

We're going to just look at one, 1 Corinthians 9 20 to 21, and then compare that with Romans 6 14.

1 Corinthians 9 verse 20, to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win

Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law.

To those who are without law, as without law. But then he adds, not being without law toward God, but under the law toward Christ, that I might win those who are without law.

And that's not the clearest, I think, in English to consider, but what you draw from that is, again, as Reisinger started here, the

Christian is not lawless. We are bound in the law to Christ. That is, again, as you said, kind of as a friend with us.

We recognize and honor, and of course the law of Christ, the Son, can be no different from the law of God, the

Father. They are one, and it is perfect in all its holiness, in all its righteousness, in all its facets.

So when we refer to being under the law to Christ, I think that is

Paul's way of saying we are in Christ, we are freed, as we've just looked at, from the kind of severity and the punishment of the law, but we look to that law as our method, our path, to return to the side of our

Savior and to walk in His footsteps. So you've got the...we

already talked on the law of Christ versus the law of God, it's the same thing. Remember too, as we looked for some different sessions here, at Christ's teaching in the

Sermon on the Mount, referring back to the Ten Commandments, and those teachings are, of course, in perfect harmony.

Never did Christ contradict, never did Christ offer, no, here's a whole new law, you know,

I'm the new lawgiver kind of thing. No, he just expounded, explained, and helped us to understand, as you read a moment ago, the law is spiritual.

There's these centuries, millennia, really, of built -up misunderstandings of the law, and Christ frees us from those misunderstandings and brings us back.

So this passage, and Romans 6 14, is meant for that assurance, as you articulated just a moment ago, that sin shall not have dominion over us any longer.

We're under grace, but grace, properly understood, brings us right alongside the law as our friend, not as our accuser.

In the next section of the chapter, he goes back to Romans 6 14, in that wonderful statement, for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

And what he points out is that there's these two connecting words, the little word for, and you know, for gives us an explanation.

He says something in verse 12 and in verse 13, and the things he says in these preceding verses, they need some explanation, and we find that in verse 14.

So now he's going to take us back to verse 12. We're going to back up a little bit and kind of get a running start, and maybe we will be able to appreciate the undeniable facts of verse 14 in our new position, united to Christ.

We'll understand that better as we look at the commands that precede it. So if you're familiar with Romans, and particularly if you've read

Lloyd -Jones on chapter 6, which is just Lloyd -Jones, Romans 6, in his series on Romans, his commentary there is just worth its weight in gold.

Lloyd -Jones just carefully, slowly plods through, logically showing the connections here, and he does a great job.

Of course, in our chapter today, we're taking it at a much quicker pace, but you can go back and look at Lloyd -Jones, but Lloyd -Jones points out something

I never noticed before, and that is there is no imperative in the book of Romans until chapter 6, verse 11, that you have six and a half chapters in, you know, arguably

Paul's greatest book, and it's not until... you have six and a half chapters with not one command.

The first command, the first imperative verb is found in verse 11, consider, and even this is a command of the brain.

So I've given you until chapter 6, verse 11, so I've given you five and a half chapters, actually, of facts about Christ and you, and faith, and union with Christ.

Now here's the first command, think differently. Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Then we have another command, verse 12, therefore, because you understand these great realities, and as you're thinking differently, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

So let's kind of hit those quickly. Verse 12, do not let sin reign in your mortal body.

Okay, so sin can occur in this Christian life, but because it is not our master, we can, by grace, not let it reign in us, in this body, we can not, we can refuse to obey its lusts.

Verse 13, same kind of picture, but kind of filled out more, do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.

So now that you're Christ, now that you're free from the condemning of sin, and you're under the rule of grace and the provision of grace for obedience, you don't have to present the members of your body as instruments, as tools for unrighteous living.

And then he flips it and says, well, what can you do, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as members, as instruments of righteousness to God.

Lloyd Jones points out on this, that this is not a perfect parallel. Verse 13 is not parallel, it's lopsided.

And Lloyd Jones, who loves, I think because he, like Paul, was a logician, he loves

Paul's logical balancing. So it bothers him. Why does verse 13 say this?

On the negative side, don't present your members, this body, this mind, these thoughts, you know, these appetites, don't hand them back to sin to be servants of sin again.

Don't ever let them rule you again. Okay, that's clear. But present this body, this bodily life, this corporeal life, this mind, this body, these appetites, present them to God as instruments of righteousness.

But that's not what Paul says. He adds something. He says, in verse 13, he says, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and then your members as instruments of righteousness.

So what we have on the negative side is don't present your body as a tool of unrighteousness. On the positive side, you have two things.

Present yourself as a person alive from the dead to God, and present your body as instrument of righteousness.

So Lloyd -Jones calls attention to this because there's imbalance, and he points out that Paul cannot be balanced here because there's an impossibility.

You cannot present yourself back to the old master. You can't walk back into the old country ruled by the old master and say,

I'm yours. It's impossible because Christ has purchased you. Christ has brought you into his.

You can say to the old master, maybe I'll do what you say again, and you can present this body as an instrument of sin's influence, but you cannot give yourself back.

You can wake up and give yourself daily to your true King. So you use the image of kind of a fence there.

You cannot cross back across the fence. You can reach your hands across, as it were, but you cannot take your entire body back.

Wonderful. Yeah, so with those two commands of the presenting of your whole self to God and all of this bodily existence in this life, handing it over to become tools or instruments of right living, then we come to the verse 14.

Four, because sin will not be master over you. Okay, I understand that part, but how can you say that when

I can still be tempted by sin? Then we come to that second four. Four, or because you're not under the law but under grace.

So now when we think of the under again, let's think of it in a little bit different way. We tend to think of under the law as the under the condemning of the law, but think of it this way.

Think of a person looking up in the old realm of self and sin and Satan's lies and the laws condemning.

He looks up to the law for help. Save me. Fix me. How am

I supposed to live? I don't want to be this kind of man anymore. I don't want to be a slave to that old sin anymore.

It's humiliating. I don't want to ruin my marriage anymore. I don't want to hurt my children anymore. I want to be the right kind of a guy, you know, and he looks up to the law, but all the law can give him is condemnation.

In the realm of grace, united to Christ, having handed his life over to the Savior and having embraced

Christ and that great transaction of conversion occurring on God's terms, not ours,

God makes him alive in Christ, unites him to Christ. And having done that, the man sees in himself still an ability to be tempted, but he looks up.

Now it's not the law that he's hoping will fix him. It's the King. And he looks to the King and this mighty work of grace from the

King does rescue. It does transform him. The law is there under his feet.

It's the path. The law is the light shining on the path. The law is the friend who comes alongside of him, but he's never again looking to law.

Fix me. He's looking to the King. So very different dynamic. So, rising or thou brings this all kind of home to a point, and it really,

I think, is a wonderful opportunity for us to consider. Does the verse,

Romans 6 14, and the truths that we've just discussed describe your life? Are you living under the law of sin, or can you say that you really have been freed from sin's dominion?

I mean, it's a real test for us, as Risinger points out. Romans 6 14 gives us first a test, then a promise, and finally an encouragement and assurance.

So first, that test. Does sin, in fact, have dominion over you? You can answer that question directly.

Only you and God know the answer to that question. And as you've already pointed out, we're not talking here about asking whether you ever sin.

Sin does remain in us to some degree, right? As John the

Apostle says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

So the question is not whether you obey perfectly, but whether you maintain that desire to obey and have, as it were, declared war on the sin within you.

It's a wonderful way of putting it here. A Christian has an earnest desire to be delivered from the power of sin as much as he desires to be delivered from the guilt and penalty of sin.

So are we really in that camp? Second, a promise.

Romans 6 14, when you put it in that context, it's just wonderful. It is a guarantee, as it were.

Sin shall not have dominion over you. Not that it won't dwell in you, but no more dominion.

Forever settled. Wonderful thing. I think we can take such comfort from that, and we'll move right there into the encouragement and assurance.

But before we get there, I mean, remember, for instance, Philippians 1 6, he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

It is a done deal in heaven. So the power that we now have is in grace.

We can only obey that law through the Holy Spirit, but nevertheless, the law has become our friend and not our accuser.

And so finally, the encouragement and assurance. Some Christians are weak.

That's just a fact. Weak Christian, take encouragement, take comfort in the fact that sin shall not any longer have dominion over you.

Some of us are fighting with sins, great sins, but if you are a real

Christian, your battle is not in vain. Sin shall not have dominion over you.

Victory is yours in Christ. So we have here two principles, ultimately.

One, the principle of law and duty. And the other, the principle of grace and faith.

And I would say, in the end, they rather meet at the cross. And so we can really bank on this verse that has been so abused over the years and twisted into this antinomian falsehood, and when we rightly understand it,

I think it is a tremendous comfort for us, John. Reisinger ends the chapter by asking, well, what about indwelling sin?

Because the things you mentioned, Steve, a person might say, well, I would like to take encouragement from Romans 6 -14, but I still find sin, and I find it so often with me, this unwanted companion dogging my every step, no matter how fast

I run, self is there to meet me. And so maybe

I'm not even a Christian at all. The existence of sin, the prevalence of it sometimes because of our carelessness, if you're not careful, you can look in the mirror and say, well,

I can't be a Christian. So he deals with the issue of indwelling sin, that is sin that still, you know, the remnants of the old nature, the old habits, the old ruts, that if you're not depending on Christ, if you're not being careful to walk according to his word, you know, to use the

Old Testament picture from the Song of Solomon, not leaning on the beloved and coming up out of the wilderness, then you find that, you know, it's kind of natural with like a rut on a dirt road, you know, the bicycle tire goes right back into the rut, you know, it takes a lot to stay out of the rut, you go back into it.

Paul talks somewhat about this issue in verse 6 of Romans 6. He says this, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him.

All right, now there's the old you, okay, your old identity. The old you is dead with Christ because of union with him by faith.

So what he did affects you. In order that, but there's a purpose, in order that our body of sin, now this is a different thing

Paul is referring to, the old self is the old identity, the body of sin we would say, simply put, is the old sin nature.

Our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. So let's look at that verse carefully.

The old you is gone. We're told in verses preceding and following that, there's a new you alive now, you've been raised with Christ.

Okay, so you are a new person in Christ with an old nature. I remember when

Andrew Davis came to the church years ago, we asked him, as a group of guys, we got together and we said, what's like your,

I don't know, you know, you don't know how to ask this question. Well, what's your favorite Christian book? You know, it's outside the scripture, maybe one or two or three, you could give us your top three.

And he thought for a moment, he said, well, certainly Lloyd -Jones on Roman six would be there. And none of us had read it.

And so we took that to heart and we read it. But when he talked a little bit more about that, at that first sitting down, he said, it's in Lloyd -Jones where I learned that I was not an old man with a new nature.

I was a new man with an old nature. And when he said that, I wasn't sure I agreed with him. I thought, I don't know.

I don't know if I agree with that. You know, do we have the old nature, et cetera. The more

I thought about it and the more I read Lloyd -Jones, I felt that was such a really transitional truth.

And it was what the scripture taught. And it was so fundamental to holiness. So while Roman six is talking about justification, your new position and what that means, it has so many applications to sanctification, which is why we think that Roman six is about holy living.

Really it's about a new position that will lead to the holy living. So in verse five, the old you's gone, there's a new you, but what about this body of sin?

What about this sin nature? Well, it says that the old you's gone in order that the body of sin might be done away with.

The Greek word done away with is a word that we would translate it this way, a fatal blow.

All right. So the old nature has been struck this fatal blow. It's still there.

There's still a remnant. It's still clings. It's still pesters. It's still haunts our thoughts and choices, but it no longer has that terrible power it used to have over me.

It is not my master and it is in the process of dying. And, you know, just a few more steps in the journey of the

Christian life and we will be face to face with our King and that old nature will be dead.

So there has been a deadly blow has been struck against the old nature and a new you lives.

So while sin can still plague us, it can never again be our master. And we shouldn't let that confuse us and make us say, well, it's impossible for a person like me to claim to be a

Christian. Next week, we're going to look at our final chapter, and that is the right and wrong uses of the law.