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I have many examples that absolutely prove that I’m not the smartest guy who ever lived. One occurred when I moved to Ohio permanently after college. I was an intern at Grace Fellowship Church. My father died while I was in college, and part of my inheritance was his 1976 Ford Granada. All white vinyl interior. All white exterior. A blue dashboard. 2-door. This my father had inherited from his mother. Not one of the greatest heirlooms ever, but there you are.
Well, moving to Ohio I needed to transfer my license and car registration to Ohio. Went to the DMV, did my thing. Got my license plate, went back on the road. Some months later a cop pulled me over because I didn’t have a front license plate. “What do you mean, they didn’t give me one.” He looked incredulous, but basically said, “Fix it.”
Well, at some point it dawned on me what happened. I got a screwdriver and went to my back license plate. What do you know! There were two license plates stuck together. And I had them both on the back. One more piece of evidence that I’m not the smartest guy who ever lived.
In Georgia, you didn’t have a front license plate, just a back one. But you see, that didn’t matter: I was under the laws of Ohio. I was NOT under the laws of Georgia. I had moved from one state to another, so I was absolutely NOT under the laws of the state I had left. And I was absolutely UNDER the laws of the state where I now lived. I had moved—absolutely and completely—from one state to another and the laws had all changed. State laws, of course.
In our verses, Rom. 6:14–15, Paul is telling us we’ve made a similar change. We’ve moved from one place to another. And the laws have all changed. It’s a new realm with a new government. Not George to Ohio. But “under law” to “under grace.” We’re absolutely NOT “under law” any longer. We absolutely ARE “under grace.” There are a lot of ways to mess up what Paul’s talking about, so we want to spend some time on it in this sermon.
We’re now into the thick of Romans 6. Part of our series in Romans 6–8: Walking in Newness of Life. Romans 1–5 showed us how we get from being under the wrath of God and powerless against sin and temptation...to being reconciled with God and righteous by faith.
But now in Romans 6–8 we learn what it looks like to live the Christian life, to walk in obedience, to please God with our behavior. Not to earn our salvation or to keep from losing our salvation. But it’s how to walk in newness of life and closeness to God.
In Romans 6 you have two basic halves: Rom. 6:1–11 and Rom. 6:12–23. The first half explains what it means that we are united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. The second half of the chapter begins with that “therefore” in Rom. 6:12. When it says, “Therefore,” always ask, What’s that “therefore” there for? Here it tells us Paul is switching to the “so what?” If we’ve been united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, what now?
The answer is Rom. 6:12–23 and all those imperatives:
As he explains this new way of living—living by presenting the members of our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness—he also reminds us of things true that connect to what he’s already said. Rom. 6:14–15 is building on an idea he’s already stated. We’ll see that in a few minutes.
What does it mean that we’re (1) “not under law” and what does it mean that we’re (2) “under grace”? Those are two points in the sermon.
Romans 6:14 (ESV) — For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Already in this passage he’s spoken of sin’s power to reign. In Rom. 6:12 he said, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.” “Reign” is related to the word for “king.” Don’t let sin act as “king” in your life.
And now in Rom. 6:14 he says, “sin will have no dominion over you.” The word “dominion” is related to the word for “lord.” Sin isn’t to be “lord” of your life. Why is the “dominion” of sin broken in our lives? Because we’re “not under law but under grace.”
Like I went from Georgia to Ohio and now a new set of laws was in effect, so I have gone from one place to another. The place where I lived previously is called “under law.” But now the place I live is called “under grace.”
Because I live in this new place called “under grace,” something profound has changed for you if you are a Christian, and the result of that is that the dominion of sin, the lordship of sin, the reign of sin, has been broken.
Earlier in the chapter he had said not “to continue in sin” because we are those “who died to sin” (Rom 6:1–2). If we’ve died to it, how can we live to it. Now in Rom. 6:14 he explains it in a different way: we’re in a new realm.
But we need to figure out this place, this realm, called “under law.” What exactly is it?
Usually when Paul speaks of “law,” he means the Law of Moses. Some commentators think that’s what Paul means here, but I don’t think that’s right. One reason is because when Paul is writing Romans, Christ has already come and the Law of Moses has been replaced by a new covenant.
Another reason “not under law” doesn’t mean “not under the law of Moses” is that we never were under it. We’re Gentiles, not Jews. Gentiles were never under the covenant with Moses in the way that Jews were. Here he’s not talking to Jews only but all Christians. In Romans 7 he’ll begin the chapter talking to Jews directly, but not here.
He opens Romans 7:1 by stating clearly, “I am speaking to those who know the law.” I.e., the law of Moses. But not here in Romans 6.
A Gentile converted after the crucifixion was never “under the law of Moses,” so it doesn’t make sense to say they were freed from that law.
Another problem with saying Paul means we were freed “from the law of Moses” is the situation with Old Testament believers who were “under the law of Moses” but were also “alive to God” just like us. People like Moses, Ruth, Hannah, Samuel, Isaiah, Daniel. All of them were “under the law of Moses,” but they were also alive to God and also “under grace.”
They experienced the blessings of those who are saved, and those blessings include what we’re talking about in Romans 6. They lived “under grace” like us. Not all of the blessings we experience, since we’re alive after the Day of Pentecost and the giving of the Spirit. But they did experience the blessings that belong to those who are righteous by faith. That’s what Hebrews 11 teaches us. Their faith is our faith. Their righteousness by faith is just like our righteousness by faith.
So, if “law” here does not mean “law of Moses,” what kind of “law” is Paul talking about? What “law” have we been freed from so that we are freed from the dominion of sin and “under grace”? The answer is what we might call “the law of God.” Remember Romans 1 and 2.
Romans 1:32 (ESV) — Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Romans 2:14–16 (ESV) — For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
These don’t refer to the law of Moses but the moral law of God. “God’s righteous decrees” are the moral laws of God that teach us what is required of us to love God and love our neighbor. Even if we don’t have it written on tablets like the law of Moses, it’s on our hearts.
We are bound by God to obey these laws. This is God’s universe, and he governs it as the rightful King and Lord. He is the Lawgiver and Judge. He communicates his laws to us on hearts and consciences and in his Word.
But here’s the problem: Sin! Because of sin, before I came to Christ I was under law the God but powerless to obey it.
Romans 3:10–12 (ESV) — as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
You see our situation, then. We were under God’s law and yet not even one of us was obedient to that law. And the problem with disobedience to God’s law, is that he knows it and will absolutely punish that disobedience. Those “under law” apart from Christ are under God’s wrath (Rom 1:18).
This is what it looks like to be “under the dominion of sin.” We gave ourselves to sin knowing it was wrong and “those who practice such things deserve to die.” But this didn’t make us stop sinning.
The law of God to us before we came to Christ was not life-giving. It was crushing.
The law of God before we came to Christ was the basis of God’s judgment against us. It was the prosecuting attorney telling the Judge all the reasons why we deserve to be punished.
And the law of God before we came to Christ offered no help to us. It never reached out a hand to us. It never lowered its standards to make it a little easier for us.
Sin and the law work together like a drug dealer working with an addict. The drug dealer feeds the addict, the addict feeds the drug dealer, with the addict on a path to destruction.
Sin isn’t helped by the law, it grows. You can see that in Romans 7. Paul says I wouldn’t have known about coveting without the law. The law commanded me, “You shall not covet.”
Knowing that law, though, made him covet more, not less. Like passing a street sign we think irrational. We’re tempted to BREAK THE LAW, not obey it.
God’s law is not bad or evil. Far from it! God’s law is “holy and righteous and good” (Rom 7:12). It’s our sin that’s the problem.
But God’s law is law. So it’s uncompromising and unchanging.
When God’s law comes to us as raw law apart from Christ, it comes to us with no grace to help us. No forgiveness to pardon us when we fail.
Before Christ, we were like Adam in the Garden of Eden. He was given a law to obey. If he broke that law, he would be punished without compromise. Life in paradise would end for him.
And that’s exactly what happened. The lawbreaker was judged by the Lawgiver, and Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden. Now they also received grace! The story doesn’t end with their lawbreaking.
But their story is our story. And it shows us the reality of being “under law” and being a lawbreaker.
Something had to change for us to have any hope. We had to move to a different realm. We needed to leave the realm of “under law” and go to the new realm, “under grace.”
Romans 6:14 (ESV) — For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
We were under the dominion of sin while we were “under law,” in that realm. But now Paul says, we’re in a new realm called “under grace.”
What is life like in this new realm?
Well, don’t miss the obvious. Don’t miss the name of this new realm. Names can be significant. They can tell us the history or nature of something.
My middle name is “Joseph.” In my case, it connects me to my father, “Joseph Brooke Baker,” and my grandfather, “Joseph Edward Baker.”
Here the name of this realm is “grace,” so why is that important? Well, it tells us that if you want one single word to define more than anything what our new life in Christ is like it’s the word “Grace.”
“Grace” is the Greek word charis. It can mean “grace” or “favor” and also “gift.”
Charis was major word in the ancient world. The Greco-Roman culture had elaborate ideas about gift-giving and charis.
John Barclay wrote a book recently1 with an excellent analysis of the various ways “grace” worked in the ancient world and showed how the New Testament sees grace in similar ways—especially in Romans and Galatians.
Three ideas really connect to our passage here.
Barclay mentions “priority,” the idea that God’s grace comes to us first. God makes the first move. He reaches down to us before we ever reach up to him.
Romans 5:8 (ESV) — but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
What does it mean to live in this realm of “grace”? It means that God gives us all that we need in Christ even before we’re aware we need it!
A second idea Barclay mentions is “incongruity,” the idea that what God gives us to us is so infinitely greater than anything we could possibly give to him. It’s so far from being a relationship of equals. He is the greater, the better, the more glorious one. And yet, he lavishes all his goodness on to us. God holds back nothing.
What does it mean to live in this realm of “grace”? It means he gives us so infinitely beyond what we deserve or expect. In a hundred-thousand years we’ll still be living in the goodness of his grace and still experiencing the grace he’s given us. Never reaching the bottom of it or end of it.
Romans 8:32 (ESV) — He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
But then a third idea also fills in the picture. Barclay calls it “superabundance.”
A superabundant gift is perfected in scale, significance, or duration: it is huge, lavish, unceasing, long-lasting.
— John Barclay, Paul & the Power of Grace2
This idea is all over Paul’s writings on grace. What does it mean to live in this realm of grace? It means to have received “a superabundant gift.” It is “huge” and “unceasing.”
2 Corinthians 9:15 (ESV) — Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!
It is “inexpressibly” great! “Inexpressibly” lavish! “Inexpressibly” superabundant.
He gives to us:
And all this to people who deserved the opposite: We deserve judgment, death, and hell.
That infinite difference between what we deserve and what we’ve received is why we say “GRACE” is the name of this new realm in which we live!
Some people want to say that since we’re under grace, we’re not under any laws, because we’re in Christ. We’re saved by grace, and we live by grace, not laws!”
That’s missing what the New Testament is talking about. To be “under grace” doesn’t mean we’re “law-less.” As Christians there are laws in the Old and New Testament we are to obey. We’re under those moral laws still. We aren’t law-less.
You can hear that in 1 Corinthians 9:21:
1 Corinthians 9:21 (ESV) — To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
We’re “under the law of Christ.” Again, we aren’t law-less as Christians. This will be very clear in Romans 12–15, chapters where he unpacks how we are to live as Christians. At many points he’s going to quote laws from the Old Testament and then say we should obey them.
Heresies and bad theology happen when you elevate a verse too highly and miss other verses that are speaking to the same issue.
We’re under grace, but we’re not law-less. To be law-less is not to be free. It’s to be like an addict who gets out of rehab and goes right back to his addiction. That’s not freedom, that’s bondage.
But being “under grace” means that even when we fall back into old sins and sin patterns, our standing with God is unchanged.
Grace is given in a permanent, unchangeable way. Saving grace is also sanctifying grace. And saving grace is a one-way gift. It’s given by God to us and never one he takes back.
We’re not under law but under grace. As Christians we’ve moved from the kingdom of “under law” to the realm of “under grace.”
But a few things as we close.
First, do you need a “change-of-address”? Do you need to go from “under law” and without Christ to “under grace” in Christ?
Are you still in the realm of “under law”? Jesus Christ is the way you go from “under law” to “under grace.”
The apostle Peter in Acts preaches,
Acts 4:12 (ESV) — And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
For those of us who have already experienced this “change-of-address”:
Let it affect your assurance.
Put yourself in a position to receive it. It’s yours. It’s given. It’s available. But you have to actively appropriate it.
Here are some other recent messages.
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