“Under Grace” Christians

Romans 6:11-14
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, May 02, 2004
Copyright © 2004, P. G. Mathew

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Romans 6:11-14

In this passage, Paul tells us, “You are not under law but under grace.” Does this mean Christians have no relation to God’s law, or any law? Does it mean Christians are forgiven of all sins and therefore free to sin? We want to know what Paul means by this phrase, “under grace.”

First, though, we must note that Paul uses five imperatives in this passage. In verse 11 we encounter the first imperative used in the entire epistle to the Romans: “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” As we will see, the word “count” is very important. The second imperative appears in verse 12: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.” All desires of the body are not evil, but we are commanded here not to obey those desires that are. The next three imperatives are found in verse 13: “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness,” that is, as tools or weapons which promote wickedness, “but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.”

In verse 14 we find, not an imperative, but an indicative-a statement of what God has done for us: “For sin shall not be your master,” or we could simply translate it, “Sin is not your lord.” Why is that? Paul states the reason: “because you are not under law, but under grace.” Let us then consider what it means to be an “under grace” Christian.

Sanctification

In Romans 5:20 the apostle stated, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Although this is true, some legalists raised objections to Paul’s teaching of salvation by grace alone through faith alone. They feared that such teaching would promote antinomianism, and certainly the misapplication of this teaching has resulted in lawlessness throughout the history of the church. Yet Paul’s teaching of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, when understood correctly, promotes not lawlessness, but the exact opposite-a holy life. In other words, this truth promotes sanctification, which the Scriptures reveal as God’s eternal purpose for sinners.

Ephesians 1:4 tells us it is God’s plan that we be holy and blameless in his sight, and Ephesians 5:27 tells us Christ will present the church to himself one day as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish of sin, but holy and blameless. Thus, God’s eternal purpose will be fulfilled in us through Christ. And the God who justifies us also teaches us to live a holy life, for without holiness, no one will see God.

Professor Leon Morris says in his commentary on Romans that godly living is a necessity, not an option. Professor John Murray of Westminster Theological Seminary says in his commentary, “It is a spurious spirituality that can be indifferent to the claims of holiness as they bear upon the sanctification of our physical being” (Murray, John, The Epistle to the Romans, Vol. 1 [Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns, 1959], 227). And in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 Paul writes, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.” To claim we are justified without experiencing an ongoing sanctification is a contradiction of the apostolic doctrine. Yet that is exactly what is popular in the evangelical church today.

First Step to Sanctification: Sound Thinking

What, then, are the steps to sanctification taught in this passage? First, we need sound thinking. Anyone who refuses to exercise his mind in the word of God will fall away in due time. Today there is an idea that one can stop thinking when one goes to church. Of course, we must think when we go to school or work, but the church is seen as a place where thinking is not required. In fact, a “good” church is one where we can go to relax and be entertained, as in a theater.

That is why the word “count” in verse 11 is so important. Logizesthe is the present active imperative of logizomai, from which we get the word “logic,” meaning sound thinking. Verse 11 says, “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” So sound thinking is the first step in our sanctification, in our living a holy life.

As I said, this is the first imperative, the first command, in the entire book of Romans. Up to this point, Paul has been using indicatives to tell us what God has done for us. But now he begins to tell us to do certain things. We are exhorted here to reckon, to regard, to keep in mind always, the reality of something. Logizomai is a bookkeeping word used to deal with mathematical reality. When you ask your banker, “How much money is in my account?” he doesn’t make up a figure. As one who deals with reality, he tells you, “Your balance is $1500.25.”

This important word appears eleven times in chapter 4 of the book of Romans. For example, in Romans 4:3 we read, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him,” or counted to him, “as righteousness.” The point we must keep in mind is that this word always deals with reality, not wishful thinking. It is, as F. F. Bruce said, not a game of “Let us pretend.”

1. We Are Dead to Sin
This verse is telling us we must count the fact, regard the truth, consider the truth, remember the truth, and think the truth that we are dead to the tyrant, the old king, sin. Paul is not asking us to die to sin; he is pointing us to the reality that we are already dead to it.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “This counting is not a command to us that we die to sin.” It is not saying that we must die to sin every day, nor is it telling us to reckon sin as a force that is dead in us. It is not teaching perfectionism, that some day sin will be completely eradicated from our earthly lives, nor does it mean we are immune to sin or that a believer does not sin.

Paul is telling us that what is true of Jesus is true of us by virtue of our union with him, which God has brought about. That is the argument of Romans 6:1-10. Jesus Christ died; he died to sin. We believe in Christ by God’s own supernatural enablement and died with him to sin. Therefore we are finished with sin; it has no more claim on us and no dominion over us. It is not that sin is dead, but that we are dead to it.

Romans 6:1-10 speaks about our union with Jesus Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. In fact, that idea of death appears in verses 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. We must count on this reality, that we are dead to sin because Christ died and we believe in him. What is true of Jesus Christ is true of us, because he is our representative and our mediator.

Dr. Boice says in his commentary that the first step in our growth in holiness is counting as true what is in fact true. When we were dead in trespasses and sins, God’s Holy Spirit regenerated us, made us alive, and delivered us from the realm of death and sin to the realm of life and righteousness. We are no longer under the dominion of sin! If you are under the dominion of sin, it simply means you are not united with him and your profession that you are a Christian is false. That is all there is to it.

Christians are no longer slaves under the dominion of sin, death and Satan, as we once were in our unregenerate, pre-conversion life. At that time we had no freedom but to sin. But Christ died once for all in our place for our sins. In him we died to sin; therefore, sin has no more dominion over us.

2. We Are Alive to God
So the first reality we must set before our mind is that, in union with Jesus Christ, we died to sin. But there is a second reality found in verse 11 which we must count and consider and keep in our mind daily-the reality that we are alive to God. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). In other words, we are no longer in Egypt, but in Canaan. We are no longer in the realm of sin and death; we are in the realm of the kingdom of God, the realm of life.

Verse 11 does not say that we make ourselves alive to God, but that we are alive to God in Jesus Christ. That is the reality. When Christ rose from the dead, we in him also rose from the dead; it was our spiritual resurrection. In him we are alive forevermore and shall never die spiritually again. “He who believes in me shall never die,” is the truth. Death has no claim on us. We shall never die again because Jesus Christ shall never die again, and we are in him by faith. What is true of Jesus is true of us.

It is very important to note that we are alive to God, that is, for the purpose of serving God exclusively and permanently. He is our new boss. He redeemed us and he owns us. Being alive to God also means that we are reconciled to God. Before we were enemies of God, but in Jesus Christ, we are reconciled to him. God is now our friend and heavenly Father.

We are told in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” When we are regenerated, we are changed completely. We are given the ability to fully repent and truly forsake our sin. We are given the gift of faith to trust in Jesus Christ alone for our eternal salvation. As a result, we love God’s word, which we previously hated. It is our heavenly manna, the living bread we eat for the nourishment of our souls. Our mind is renewed and we delight to do the will of God. We pray in sincerity, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We love God’s people, our new everlasting family, even more than we love our own families who do not trust in Christ. Our love for God’s people transcends our love for our physical family. Once we were ashamed of the gospel, but now we declare it boldly. Why should we be ashamed of the gospel when it alone is the power of God alone unto salvation to everyone who believes? When we are saved by Christ, all of a sudden our old interests are gone and we have new interests.

Additionally, we experience freedom from sin’s bondage. Our condition during our unregenerate, pre-conversion days was non posse non peccare, “not possible not to sin.” In other words, we could only sin. Oh, we could make resolutions or try every other means to keep from yielding to sin. But it made no difference; we just sinned because that is all we could do. Those who find themselves in such a condition should pray earnestly that God will save them.

But as regenerate people, we have freedom from the bondage to sin, and now our condition is described as posse non peccare, “possible not to sin.” We have true freedom of choice, which is not the freedom to kill an unborn infant, but the freedom not to sin. That is the freedom every Christian now enjoys.

Paul speaks of this freedom in Ephesians 4:28: “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.” What amazing freedom from the bondage of sin! Being alive to God means we have new goals. Before, we wanted just to get things for ourselves, or to be powerful and famous, because that was all we knew. Now that heaven has opened to us, we have new interests and goals. We understand the kingdom of God; we understand God, heaven, and eternal life; and our blessed hope is the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Second Step to Sanctification: Do Not Let Sin Reign

The second step in our sanctification is also the second imperative in the book of Romans: “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (v. 12). John Murray once said that to say to the unemancipated slave, “Do not behave as a slave” is to mock his condition of slavery; but to say to an emancipated slave, “Do not think or act anymore like a slave” is meaningful and necessary. For Christians, there has been a change of kings; sin is no longer our lord. We confessed with our mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and we are saved. Jesus is our only Lord, the only Basileus, the only King, and we are his subjects; now we obey him, not the tyrant lord from whose control we were emancipated.

But our old boss, sin, tries to usurp the authority of God in our lives and demand obedience to him. It is as if he lives next door, and he is yelling at us, “Come here! Do this! Do that!” That is why we must exercise our minds. We must know the reality of our status in Christ. We must tell sin, “I am no longer under your control; I have been set free! You can yell all you want, but I will not obey you. I refuse to think and act as your slave. You have no right over my life. I have a new owner, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now we have a choice that we did not have before. Yes, the sin that still dwells in our body will be with us until we die, and it will demand obedience through our evil desires. But we have been freed; therefore, we can say “No” to sin’s demands effectively because of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we can say with Paul, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). as those who are posse non peccare, we should glory in this great freedom Jesus Christ has given us. If the Son has set us free, we are free indeed! And if we listen to the demands of our evil desires, we must say “No!” defying sin, Satan, and death. The Bible says we can resist the devil and he shall flee from us. The superhuman devil will flee from us who believe in Christ, because he who is in us is greater than sin and Satan. We are united with Christ, the only Sovereign. We are in him and he is in us. His Holy Spirit dwells in us, enabling us to do all things that please him.

Third Step to Sanctification: Offer Our Bodies to God

The third imperative, found in verse 13, begins with a negative command: “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness.” In other words, we refuse to put our members at sin’s disposal. In our unregenerate, pre-conversion days, when we were united with Adam in his sin and death, we were slaves of sin. As I already said, we were dead in sins and could only sin. At that time we put all the members of our body-all our faculties and all our possessions-at the disposal of sin. We had no freedom; rather, we were tools in the hands of Satan, who worked for the cause of his kingdom and promoted evil in the world. But now we are told, “Do not offer” our bodies that way.

Verse 13 then continues with a positive imperative: “But rather offer yourselves to God . . . and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” How can we do this? Because now we are regenerate, united with Christ and set free from sin. What is true of Jesus is true of us. By our union with him, we have a new Lord. We are to put all the members of our body and all our capacities-our mind, will, emotions, eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet, and all our money-at the disposal of God for the promotion of righteousness in the world. And if we do not do that, it simply means we are not saved. We may have uttered some words, but no supernatural redemption took place in our life.

1. Our Minds
First of all, we have to put our minds at the disposal of God. Do you know that we have no right to do what we want with our bodies? Our bodies were bought by the blood of Christ; he owns them, and they should be used for his purposes. In Romans 12:1-2 the apostle tells us, “Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy,” that is, in view of God’s salvation, “to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It is in the church, not the world, where we must use our minds maximally to understand who God is and what he has done.

We must renew our minds, especially and particularly by understanding the truth of God’s revelation. Psalm 1 describes the regenerate man: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” We must study God’s word so that we can have the new philosophy of God in our minds. The psalmist continues, “Whatever he does prospers.” Thinking comes first; actions follow. “As [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). By looking at what we do, a person can tell what we think, because our deeds manifest our thoughts.

In Philippians 4:8-9 Paul tells us specifically how to renew our minds: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” We are to think and act biblically. Why? Because we have been redeemed.

2. Our Eyes and Ears
Joshua 7 illustrates what happens when our eyes are not consecrated to God. Achan was told not to steal God’s property, but he disobeyed. When confronted with his sin, he confessed, “When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them” (v. 21). How different it would have been if he had offered his eyes to the service of God!

Job was a man who saw the truth of this statement. In Job 31:1 he says, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.” Have you made a covenant with your eyes? Or are you watching so much secular television or reading so many secular books that you have begun to do secular things? Recall the story of David in 2 Samuel 11. Instead of going out to war, as was expected, he stayed home, looked at a naked girl, and committed horrible sin. He failed to consecrate his eyes to the service of God.

Jesus said if you look at a girl lustfully in your heart, you have committed adultery. As Christians, we have the freedom to do it, but we also have the freedom not to do it. As Christians, we are to offer ourselves and our members as instruments to promote righteousness in the world, not evil. Every time we sin, we promote the evil interests of the kingdom of Satan. We are to promote the interests of the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of the evil one. If we saturate ourselves with secularism, we are promoting the cause of secularism instead of exercising our freedom to serve God.

3. Our Tongues
How many Christians continue to use their tongues to gossip, slander, boast, and curse, as they did before their conversion? As servants of Christ, we are to use our tongues for the glory of God, putting them at his disposal to proclaim the gospel and to sing his praises. When we come to church and sing, we are putting the tongue to its best use. When we give godly counsel, when we pray, and when we bless someone, then we are using the tongue properly.

So we are to offer ourselves and the members of our body as tools, as weapons, as instruments to promote righteousness. Simply put, we must obey God.

Sanctification Is Work

Sanctification is not a feeling; it is activity for God. Additionally, sanctification is not a gift, although some people teach such foolishness. It is not something we receive in answer to prayer so that we can put it in our pocket, declare that we are sanctified, and then go about pretending to be perfect. Sanctification requires a joint effort between the Sovereign God and the believer. It requires our personal obedience to God as God’s Spirit works in us.

The classic passage that teaches this is Philippians 2:12-13: “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed . . .” Here we notice that obedience is biblical. Nowadays people hate words such as “authority” and “obedience.” This is due to the influence of secularism creeping into the church. But Paul says, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. . . .” This requires effort. But that is not the end of it. As I said, sanctification is a joint venture. So we are told, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” The Spirit of God works in us to will and to do God’s good pleasure, and we work out our salvation by his strength. We do so joyfully, under the motivation of love. Suppose you loved a person in another city. What would you do? You would drive from here all the way to there, with no complaints of weariness, misery and inconvenience. Why would you do it? The power of love motivates you.

And so we love God, for he redeemed us from bondage to sin and death. God saved us and gave us freedom. Now his Holy Spirit is dwelling in us, and he works in us to will and to do his good pleasure. In fact, our effort is not all that great; we merely work out what is being worked into us. It is a joint venture.

There is no neutrality in life. Either we stand with sin, Satan, and death, or we stand with Jesus Christ. Either we serve exclusively and permanently king Sin, or exclusively and permanently the King of kings, our Lord Jesus Christ. Either we are slaves to sin or slaves to Christ. As believers, we are the slaves of Jesus Christ, who gives us the glorious freedom to serve him.

But obedience is work. Living a holy life requires effort on our part. Consider the command: “He who stole, let him steal no longer.” How will we eat? We have to go and find a job. That is effort. We have to get up every day, go to work for a little money, and pay our bills. (PGM) Not only that, we give to other people who need it. That is Christianity. It is not sitting around and saying, “Let God do it.” It is effort for us, but God also works in us both to will and to do his good pleasure.

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-26 Paul says: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run. . . .” That itself tells us something about effort. Running a race entails sweat, purpose, goal, determination, consecration, regimen, rule. Paul continues, “but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” This is speaking about the Christian life. To think that the Christian life is without any effort, without any purpose, without any consecration, without any discipline, without any rules, is nonsense. “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.” Notice the effort! “They do it to get a crown that will not last”-a leafy thing that faded away-“but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.” I have purpose, I have concentration, I have a goal, I have discipline, I come under the rules of the game.

Notice the language in verse 27: “No, I beat my body and make it my slave. . . .” Paul is here saying, “I am not going to be the slave of my body through which evil desires demand my obedience!” Now, we have all experienced this: “Eat this, eat that, eat again. Watch that movie. Do this activity. Abuse your body. Don’t pray; just lie down and rest.” But Paul says, “No deal. I am not going to do what my body tells me, if it is evil. I beat my body and made it my slave. So when I tell my body what to do, my body obeys me. If I tell my body to get up and pray, I get up and pray. I tell my body to do this and do that, because the body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body.

“I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” I am running with purpose. This means fasting and praying and serving and studying and doing the will of God-in order that I may receive a crown that will never fade.

Some Scriptures on Sanctification

Why do people hate the true preaching of the gospel, especially the doctrine of sanctification? Because it tells us how to live. We are Americans; nobody tells us how to live! So today people hate this teaching. We are happy to receive justification from God, but we do not want sanctification. We say to God, “It is none of your business how I live. It is none of the business of my parents, of the church, or of the state. I am going to live the way I want to live.”

Let us find out what the Bible says about that idea. Second Corinthians 5:14 says, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.” That is what we read in Romans 6:11: “Count yourselves dead to sin.” Christ died, he died to sin, and we believe in Christ; therefore, we died to sin. Then 2 Corinthians 5:15 says, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves. . . .” This is speaking about sanctification; it tells us how we should live. To “live for themselves” is speaking about our unregenerate, pre-conversion life. We were doing our own thing. We lived for our own glory. We did whatever we wanted, whenever and however we wanted to do it. We did all things to please ourselves. And we wanted our parents to do all things to please us. We wanted God to do all things to please us. We wanted everybody to do everything to please us.

But that is not the Christian life, the life of a regenerate, converted person, one who is born of God. We were just told that we should no longer live for ourselves. That is the negative aspect. Our sinful life is over and done with. But there is also a positive aspect. Second Corinthians 5:15, in its entirety, says, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” This is the doctrine of sanctification, that we live every moment of every day to please Jesus Christ, the one who died for us, and to please God. No longer are we to live the old way! From henceforth, we live for him who died for us and was raised again. What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

There was a slogan in ancient Corinth: “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food.” The idea is that it does not matter what we do with our body. There were cults in the history of the church that said the spirit is saved, so what we do with the body does not matter. So in 1Corinthians 6:13 we read, “‘Food for the stomach and the stomach for food’-but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord,” that is, for the service of the Lord.

As we said, there is no neutrality. We were slaves of sin; now we are slaves of Christ. Our condition is now posse non peccare-possible not to sin. Now we have real choice, real freedom. Yet we are slaves of Christ, for we serve him alone, exclusively and permanently. The body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body. The Lord supplies food and everything else that our body needs. Not only that, one day the Lord will raise our physical body up from death. The Lord is the Savior of the body, so it is important that we not put our body in the service of sin any longer.

First Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” Every part of your physical body, including your mind, your will, and your emotions, belongs to God and is for the glory of God. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. The greatest reality in a Christian’s life is that the Third Person of the Trinity dwells in him. What amazing condescension on the part of God! In the temple in Jerusalem, God was pleased to put his name in the Holy of Holies, above the mercy seat, between the cherubim. But now you and I are the temple of God, individually and corporately, and God is dwelling in our midst.

“You are not your own; you are bought at a price.” And we know the price of redemption-not silver or gold, but the precious blood of Christ. That was the purpose of the incarnation. Christ died to redeem us. He owns us. We are his slaves. “You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.”

When we baptize young people, we teach them that they have no authority to abuse their bodies and use them for activities that do not honor God. For example, we cannot eat everything we crave. The body belongs to God; therefore, we must control and discipline it. Then we will be fit to serve and honor God-fit in mind, fit in body, and in every other way.

To honor God means to do God’s will with our bodies. In 1 Corinthians 9:27 Paul says, “I beat my body.” He is not saying we should abuse our bodies; rather, he is teaching us that we must say “No” to them when they demand that which is evil. When our bodies want us to serve them, we say “No,” and discipline them so they may serve God’s interests. That is why it is good to fast and to experience the discipline of exercise. It is good to get up early to read the word of God and seek to understand it. When our soul says, “Get up and pray,” and our body says, “I don’t want to get up,” we must tell our body, “I command you to get up! You will get up and pray and seek the Lord!”

As we already mentioned, Philippians 2:12-13 is the classic verse which tells us very clearly that sanctification is not a gift, but a joint effort between the Sovereign God and ourselves. Regeneration is not a joint venture, for dead people can only be raised by the miraculous, divine unilateral work of God. We do nothing for our regeneration. Of course, we must repent and believe, but we do so only because God is regenerating us and giving us the gift of repentance and faith. We do nothing to regenerate ourselves, just like we did nothing to be born.

But sanctification is a joint venture. We work out what God is working in us. Sanctification is not a funny feeling of piety; it is activity. There is sweat, effort, and hard work involved. If you cook a meal for somebody who is in need, you are experiencing sanctification. If you get up and exercise, you are experiencing sanctification.

God’s Encouragement for Our Sanctification

1. We Are Not under Law
God is asking us to participate in this joint work of sanctification based on what he has already done for us. These are called divine indicatives, or divine realities.

The first reality is that we died to sin. God is not asking us to die to sin when he says, “Count yourselves dead to sin.” We are dead to sin by faith in the death of Jesus Christ.

The second reality is that we live to God. God is not asking us to make ourselves alive; we are alive. Why? Because Christ lives, and he said, “Because I live, you live also.” We died with him, were buried with him, and were raised with him, never to die again. We live to God in service to God. That is reality number two.

The third reality is found in the first part of verse 14: “For sin shall not be your master.” In other words, sin is not our lord. That is what it says. It is an indicative, a statement of fact.

That brings us to the fourth divine reality, which is found in verse 14: We are not under law. What does this mean? It means the law is not a means of salvation. Keeping the Mosaic law will never save us.

To be “under law” means to be under the authority and government of the law. It also means to be under its curse and condemnation. The law demands and commands, but the law is impotent to save. It only condemns and curses. The law gives knowledge of sin, but it cannot give forgiveness of sin.

Not only that, law actually incites us to sin, not because the law is bad, but because of the flesh, the evil that is within us. Have you ever experienced such incitement? I have. Suppose I see a sign that says, “Don’t spit here.” Though I did not have a problem before, all of a sudden, I experience a great desire to spit. It is true the law is holy, spiritual, and good; yet, because of our sinfulness, the law incites us and increases our sin.

In fact, the Bible says the law is the strength of sin; it strengthens sin. The Bible also says the law is weak. The law itself will tell us, “I cannot save you; go to Christ.” That is why we are not under law.

But someone was under the law, as we read in Galatians 4:4-5: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law. . . .” As we have mentioned, “under law” means under the authority of law. That means you have to keep the law. But a sinner is incapable of keeping the law. Man is born a sinner and he practices sin daily, so there was no one to keep the law. Therefore God sent his own Son, who took on human nature, yet without sin. He came and he kept the law both actively and passively. He redeemed us from the dominion of the law and brought us into the realm of grace.

2. We Are under Grace
The fifth divine reality is that we are under grace. What does it mean to be an “under grace” Christian? It does not mean that we can sin and do whatever we want; it means we are under the authority, power and government of grace. Christians are indeed people of grace, for we depend not on our good works of lawkeeping for our salvation, but on the merits of Christ’s work of lawkeeping in our behalf. We are under the grace that flows to us from Christ.

What is grace? The Greek word for grace, charis, is related to another word, chara, which means joy. So we can define grace as that which makes us truly joyful and happy. The truth is, nobody is going to be happy and joyful without grace.

Grace forgives all our sins. Grace justifies us. Grace regenerated us. Grace gave us faith to trust in Jesus. Grace supplies us with the will and the power to obey God. Grace took us from the kingdom of Satan and placed us in the kingdom of his dear Son. The fountain of grace is Jesus Christ, so to be under grace means to be under the authority and power of Jesus Christ. It is grace that causes the fruit of the Spirit to come in our life. Grace reigns supreme. Grace is greater than all our sins. The reign of grace promotes godliness. To say, “Being under grace means we can sin all the more” is a total misunderstanding of grace. How can Christ, who died to sin, promote sin? Grace is king. Grace is authority, power, and government. Grace trains us in godliness. Grace opposes sin and promotes godliness.

If you reject the Bible’s teaching on sanctification, it is proof that you are not born again and you have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11-13 says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” This is speaking about the incarnation of Jesus Christ. “[This grace] teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions.” So to say that “under law means I have to keep the law; under grace means I can do whatever I want” is totally false. Grace trains us “to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” Notice, this is speaking about our lives in the here and now, not in heaven. In heaven our status will be non posse peccare, meaning not possible to sin. Heaven is without sin. But we have to become holy to get to heaven, because without holiness nobody will see God. “Be ye holy because I am holy,” he said.

So the grace of God “teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

“Under grace” means to live under the rule of Jesus, from whose fullness we receive grace upon grace to live for the glory of God. Grace opens all the blessings of redemption to us. Grace means everything is given to us free, but only because someone else worked for it. Grace means unmerited favor, but that only tells part of the story. Grace means to give heaven to us who merited hell, and it is all because of the work of Jesus Christ in our behalf.

So grace opens all blessings of redemption to us because, as branches, we are united to the author of all grace. That is why we say, “I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengtheneth me.”

You may say, “Pastor, what about temptation? Is it not true that we are tempted?” Yes, absolutely! But does that mean that we must sin? No! The classic passage every Christian should study and memorize is 1 Corinthians 10:13, because it tells us how to deal with temptation: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.” Oh, we all want to tell everybody our situation is unusual, but this verse disappoints us, for it tells us that every situation we find ourselves in is common to man. But, notice, it also gives us a divine guarantee: “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out,” so that you do not have to sin.

Romans 5:17 speaks of an amazing truth: “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life.” Who are the recipients of grace? We are, the people of God! Grace reigns, and we reign in life.

Remember Who You Are

What is sanctification? It is a call to be what we are. As Professor Murray said, to tell an unemancipated slave, “Don’t behave like a slave,” is cruelty. But to say the same thing to an emancipated slave is both meaningful and necessary. It is simply saying, “Be what you are. You are no longer a slave. Live as a free man.” We are called to live as free people because we have been set free by Christ. We are called to behave as God’s children because we have been made God’s children.

When Edward VIII, later the Duke of Windsor, was a boy, his father, King George V, who was a strict disciplinarian, told him, “My dear boy, you must always remember who you are.” But the truth is, Edwards did not pay attention to that directive; he became a shame to his family by abdicating his throne. His father was telling him, in essence, “Behave like a prince because you are a prince.” I heard similar directives from my parents when I was growing up. They would tell me, “Remember who you are. Your behavior matters. You should never bring shame to our family.” Even so, our heavenly Father is telling us, “My dear child, always remember who you are. Behave like a king’s child, because you are the King’s child.” In other words, our sanctification is based on the indicative, the reality, of our salvation.

Consider what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:8: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” Sanctification is based on indicatives; as Christians, we must be what we are, and God will give us all grace to live that way.

If someone is professing falsely that he is a Christian and has never experienced the divine miracle of regeneration, then he will find the doctrine of sanctification difficult. The reason is, that person does not have the realities, the foundation of the indicatives. He is not truly a son of God.

But if you are a born-again Christian, you are a child of God, and you can live in such a way that you will never bring shame to your heavenly Father. God’s Holy Spirit indwells you, causing you always to be able to do that which is pleasing in his sight. Therefore, I urge you, honor God with your body. Amen.