The Apostle Paul wrote this in Romans Chapter 6 but what does it mean?
We know what law is in biblical context and it’s the Law’s that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai and then afterward to show them how to obey the law in their day-to-day circumstances, God generated another 600 plus specific circumstantial laws.
Is Paul now saying that we are free from these laws when we receive God’s Grace?
Well, in a way. Let me explain.
Breaking or transgressing God’s Laws are what we know to be sin and sinning leads to God’s wrath and then death and eternal separation from Him.
So, what is now different about this when we receive God’s Grace. In verse 14 Paul writes:
“For sin will not have authority over you; because
you are not under law but under grace”.
What is the “authority of sin”? Is it not God’s wrath leading to death?
When we trusted in Jesus’ obedient faith to His father will, God reached down and “Righteoused” us and we are no longer subject to God’s wrath and because this is true, the fate we once had due to sin in our lives no longer applies to us.
Another way to look at being under the law is that if we obeyed it in every way from the time we were born, we would be righteous in God’s eyes and the law would have brought us our righteousness. But, because no one could obey the law and no one is righteous, the result is that we all deserve to experience God’s wrath and death and eternal separation. That’s what God’s Justice demands and because God is Righteous, He can do nothing but this.
In order for anyone to become righteous and avoid God’s wrath, God had to find another way and that way was through his Son Jesus and what he did on our behalf which led to God’s Grace.
So, we can go on sinning as we did before we were saved?
We are to stop practicing sin or in other words, making sin a practice in our lives and continuing to do the sins that previously dominated over our lives. I have no need to list them because we all know what they are and what we had to do to remove them from our lives when we came to trust in Jesus. Some of them are so strong that it took years to put them behind us even after we’ve trusted in Him. We may even have a few that we’re still working to remove completely.
Does that mean we stop sinning altogether. Yes, if it was possible and it’s our goal but we can’t because we are still living in this fleshly body with its evil inclinations lurking just under the surface. If we make ourselves aware of them (lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life) then when we notice one of them percolating up into our minds (where sin formulates), we can consciously short-circuit them thus controlling them but some inclinations are just so intense (such as vengeance) that we have no time to stop them initially.
The Law of Moses remains in effect for Believers, but through God’s grace we are saved from the condemnation of what happens when we break any of those laws (we sin). So since that is the case then what happens to Believers who refuse to obey the Law of Moses? Christ says that whether we obey or don’t, we are still members of the Kingdom of Heaven; that is, we remain saved (although in other passages Paul makes it clear that this is true only to a point).
However, the Kingdom of Heaven is a real Kingdom; it will have a real King (Jesus), it will have real rules and laws, and it will have real citizens whose status will be arranged in a real hierarchy (the Church often refers to this Heavenly hierarchy as jewels placed in our crowns). Jesus says that those Believers who strive to obey The Law of Moses will be given the greatest status in the Kingdom of Heaven. But those Believers who say they see no need to obey the Law of Moses will be given the least status in the Kingdom of Heaven.