“For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” – Romans 6:14
It is not new to us that we are not under the law, but already under grace. We are somewhat brought into a mindset that the grace of God is the unlimited forgiveness that whatever we will do, we are forgiven even if we are doing it deliberately. However, we must understand that yes, we are forgiven and we are saved. Christ died for us, He died for our sins and He died unto sins. Meaning, He did not just die for us, but He really died unto sin, so that we will not be under the captivity of sin and death.
One thing we have to always remember, Christ’s death was not only for us to be saved, but to really completely take away from the dominion of sin and death. If Christ did not take us away from the dominion of these, we are always going to go back and we will not just be put under grace but we will remain under the law. However, since Christ has died unto sin too, He has defeated sin and death. Through His death and His resurrection, these enemies have no hold on us. We are saved, and not just saved, we are pardoned and freed.
Now, let us put our minds on the right track and believe in our hearts that indeed God has given us so much. His grace is even enough to last us for a lifetime and He is a promise keeper. He put us under grace instead of putting us under the law. The perfect way to show His love towards us is through His grace and He indeed never falls short. So, Paul wanted us to know and to remind us that indeed we are under grace now and under law. When we were under the law, we have been sinful, we have been unfaithful and disobedient because we thought that we can redeem ourselves through our good deeds.
Praise God that we are now under grace because we can never do anything well. What we always do is crazy and evil. We thought that we are doing good, but we are really not. So, let us praise God for our salvation is not based on our human knowledge and capability but it is merely based on the grace of God. Thus, we must always take this by heart and understand that it doesn’t mean that we are under grace, we have the license to sin. We are under grace so that we will have the strength to obey God and to resist evil.
Therefore, may we always remember that being under grace should not mean unlimited forgiveness despite our deliberate disobedience but being under grace should mean submitting ourselves to God and only desiring to do what glorifies God. We should live our lives in a response to the grace that God has given to us. Indeed just like Paul, let us declare with our mouth and hearts that we have been crucified with Christ and we no longer live but it is Him who lives in us.
