ROMANS UNWRAPPED 111

"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law but under grace."  Romans 6v14. 

This is the language of victory; this is the power of grace.   The Holy Spirit as He inspired the bible delights to project us forward to the end of all things, and this is a declaration of where God is going with us, sin shall not have dominion over us.   There is no doubt that sin will trouble us, will follow us, will try to bring us down.      We still have mortal bodies, which are vulnerable, and you only need to read in Romans chapter 7 that Paul had his own struggles, particularly early on.   He ends chapter 7 with the triumphant cry  " I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord ."   It was not Paul's victory it was God's victory with Paul co-operating with the power of grace within, and God set him free.  

In Revelation chapter 2 & 3 Christ spoke to the seven churches and He ended His message with a promise to the overcomers.   If you read the details of these promises, you will conclude as I have done, that they refer to all believers.      In Romans chapter 8 Paul ends the chapter with the victorious declaration " in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."   Left to ourselves we would fail but it does not depend on us only, it is a merging together of the power of God and the human will as stated in the previous verse.   " Sin shall not have dominion over you " is the victory cry at the end of this section.   This language is sprinkled throughout the New Testament: "work out your own salvation in fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."    Philippians 2v12-13    Again, in the same letter, Paul writes to the Philippian believers "He which hath begun a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ."   Philippians 1v6   When Jesus spoke of building His church, He said in Matthew chapter 16  "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."   All hell may be unleashed against the Christian, but all heaven is at our disposal and there is only one outcome.

The reason Paul gives that we will not fail is because we are not under law but under grace.   We have already seen that law works through human effort alone, but grace works through Divine power.   The power of grace is greater than the power of sin and every Christian will live to prove it.   The law could only condemn me, grace saves me and empowers me.   In the words of the Scottish ditty, " do this and live the law commands but gave me neither feet nor hands; a better word the gospel brings, it bids me fly and gives me wings."   This sums up perfectly what Paul is saying here.  

We are not under law, under rules, we do not live under human rules (and there are many in so called Christian circles trying to bring the people of God under their rules); God does not operate that way, neither should we.   We are under grace, and grace allows us to fail but overcomes and takes us through; the realm and rule of grace is one of sweet victory.   Grace is the only power which liberates us from sin.   It is not the RESTRAINTS of law, that achieve victory over sin, it is the CONSTRAINTS of grace.   It is not the power of Mount Sinai, it is the power of Mount Calvary!

Tomorrow d.v. the folly of dabbling in sin.