Step 8: Under Grace Sin in No Longer Master
For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace Romans 6:14
Paul is emphatic that God’s grace not only forgives sin but actually delivers the Christian from sinning. Grace does more than justify; it also sanctifies. It unites us to Christ (6:1-14) and brings us into slavery to righteousness (6:15-23).
Paul presents eight steps to explain his position as we come to the final step:
Step 1: we died to sin (6:2)
Step 2: how we died to sin was through our being united with Christ in
His death as portrayed in our baptism (6:3)
Step 3: having shared in Christ’s death, we now also share in His
resurrection (6:4,5)
Step 4: our former self was crucified with Christ so that we might be
freed from sin’s slavery (6:6,7)
Step 5: both the death and resurrection of Christ were decisive events:
He died to sin once for all and lives continually before God (6:8-10)
Step 6: we are now what Christ is: ‘dead to sin but alive to God’ (6:11)
Step 7: being alive from death we must now offer our bodies to God as
instruments of righteousness (6:12,13)
Step 8: sin shall not be our master because our position has radically
changed from being ‘under law’ to being ‘under grace.’ Grace
does not encourage sin; it outlaws it (6:14)
Step 8: sin shall not be our master because our position has radically
changed from being ‘under law’ to being ‘under grace.’ Grace
does not encourage sin; it outlaws it (6:14)
‘For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace’ (6:14). When Paul writes ‘sin shall no longer be your master,’ he is stating an assurance and a promise. Our freedom from sin’s power is a continuing state that we can look forward to enjoying forever.
Law and grace are the opposing principles of the old and new orders, of Adam and of Christ. To be ‘under law’ is to accept the obligation to keep the law along with its curse and condemnation. Paul is talking about the law of Moses and not any law or ‘law’ in general. He is not saying Christians have no commandments they should keep. Believers no longer live under the domination of the Mosaic law. Because we stand under the new covenant, the law of the old covenant no longer has direct control over us. The Mosaic law dominates the old regime from which we have been set free in Christ. Grace dominates the new regime inaugurated by Christ.
To be ‘under grace’ is to declare our dependence on Christ for the work of salvation, and so to be justified and not condemned. The Mosaic law dominates the old regime from which we have been set free in Christ; grace dominates the new regime inaugurated by Jesus.
The same basic contrast was made by John ‘For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ’ (John 1:17). Paul has presented the law as a power that leads to sinning (Romans 5:20). For believers to be set free from the dominion of sin (6:14), they need also to be set free from the dominion of the law of Moses.