“I don’t have to do that; I am not under the law, I am under grace”. Unfortunately, many Christians have taken the back half of Romans 6:14 as a licence for personal behaviour that God does not grant – even under grace. Paul does say, “since you are not under law but under grace”, but remember the first part of v14, “For sin will have no dominion over you”. Jesus came to set us free from sin and its consequences, not to free us from law keeping. That being said, law keeping as a Christian is fundamentally different.
The next two days will sketch out two key differences: faith and love, and the outworking of these in our lives. Today, we consider under law against under grace (Christ), and the implications. One helpful analogy Paul uses is found in Romans 7:1-6 (read these verses to get the full picture). Paul depicts a married woman who is bound to her husband while he lives, but released from the law of marriage if he dies. His point is that Christians have “died to the law through the body of Christ (v4)” so that, in Christ, we have a new husband. The law was not bad in itself (Paul calls it holy, righteous, and good later in the chapter); but it could not produce out of itself good law keeping. In Christ, we are freed to serve in the “new way of the Spirit (v6), “in order that we may bear fruit for God”, for “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor. 3:6b)”
Something to Understand:
In Christ, you are accepted by God! The Mosaic law identified and set apart God’s people, revealing to them and the world, God’s holiness and the commands by which his people were to worship him and love others. God’s law also revealed to us how unable we are to keep it, exposing our sin and thus rendering any efforts to earn God’s favour as hopeless. God intends this to compel us toward the only place favour with him may be found – in Christ.
“…you are a letter from Christ …, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God … who has made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. (from 2 Cor. 3:3-6)”