For sin shall not have dominion over *you*, for ye are not under law but under grace.
Paul has just called believers to give themselves to God as people brought from death to life. Now he gives the reason such a life is possible, and it raises an old question: does taking a believer out from under law make him safer from sin, or more dangerous?
Dominion means rule. One writer connects the promise to the meaning of the name Jesus:
The very first page of the New Testament tells us there is something more than the forgiveness of our sins. It says, "You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." He saves not only from the penalty of our sins, but from our sins themselves. "Sin shall not have dominion over you." Literally this is, "Sin shall not lord it over you."
The promise is not that sin disappears from the believer. One writer draws the line between now and later:
We speak of the power of sin, not of its presence. Let the reader carefully note this. On the question of sin, there is a real difference between a Christian now and a Christian in the life to come. Now he is set free only from the power of sin. Later he will be free from its presence. In his present condition sin lives in him, but it is not to reign. One day it will not even live in him. The reign of sin is over and gone. The reign of grace has begun.
That leaves room for real struggle. It also ties our freedom to how well we know grace:
There may be sudden temptation — yes, failure — but sin shall not have dominion — it shall not reign. But why shall sin not reign? "For you are not under law but under grace." … The more the free favour of God in Christ Jesus is known and enjoyed, the greater our deliverance from the slavery of sin, and the more we can live a holy life.
The reason the verse gives is surprising: law itself leaves a person under sin's mastery. One commentator lists what law fails to supply:
Being under law leaves me under the dominion of sin. What we want is a free life, free from bondage to sin; for he who commits sin, says the Lord, is the slave of sin. Law gives no life, no freedom, no strength, and not even an object to turn our hearts elsewhere. It rightly forbids sins, as it must, but it gives no life and no power. But under grace we have power. Life is given, strength is given, and an object is given; none of which, as we have seen, law gives. So, under grace, sin has no dominion over me. Under law it does.
These two phrases mark two positions, each with its own history:
"Under law" simply means a position where law has authority. Israel was in that position from Mount Sinai until the cross of Christ. "Under grace" means a position where grace rules. The contrast is drawn clearly and completely. The two things cannot be mixed. "Under grace" is our position, and it comes from the blessed cross of Christ. "Under law" was a position that supposed no cross and no salvation from bondage.
Some fear that grace makes people careless about sin:
Sin, then, is not to have dominion over us, for the very reason that we are not under law but under grace. Some say that if we tell people they are no longer under the rule of law, they are sure to plunge into sin. Here is God's answer to them. The fact is that nothing so subdues the heart and promotes holiness as the grace of God.
Elsewhere the same writer shows how grace does this:
In Christianity grace not only saves but teaches, and what an effective teacher it is! It does not fill our heads with cold rules and regulations. Instead it brings our hearts under the subduing influence of the love of God. We learn what pleases Him, as shown to us in Jesus. And because we have the Spirit, we begin to live the sober, righteous, and godly life.
- Dominion — sin will not lord it over you. Christ saves not only from sin's penalty but from sins themselves.
- Dwelling, not reigning — now you are free from sin's power, later from its presence. Failure may come, but rule may not.
- Law's poverty — law forbids sin but gives no life, freedom, strength, or object for the heart. So it leaves sin in charge.
- Grace's supply — grace gives life, strength and an object for the heart. That is why sin no longer rules you.
- Grace's schooling — grace is not permission but a teacher. Nothing subdues the heart and promotes holiness like the grace of God.
What then? should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Far be the thought.
Paul has just told believers they live under grace, not under law. He raises the obvious objection himself — if law no longer rules us, are we free to sin? — and rejects it outright.
This is the second challenge in the chapter, and it is not a repeat of the first. One writer keeps them apart:
Two questions in this chapter are worth noticing, for people often confuse the second with the first. The first is in verse 1: "Are we to continue in sin?" The second is in verse 15: "Are we to sin?" The first asks about the moral sphere a person lives in, and so the chapter contrasts being "in sin" with being "in Christ Jesus." The second asks about acts or practice, and so it contrasts yielding yourself to serve sin with becoming servants to God. These are two deeply important lines of thought: the first developed in verses 1-14, the last in verses 15-23.
Paul is not inventing an unlikely opponent. He is answering the mind that hears God's kindness and calculates an advantage from it.
This further truth of practical righteousness comes in with the question, "Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?" Here the Apostle answers in advance the reasoning of the flesh. The flesh is always ready to abuse the goodness of God and pervert the word of God. If God says, "You are not under law but under grace", the flesh says, Then we are set free to do what we like.
Some fear that telling people they are not under law will send them straight into sin. That fear misreads what grace does:
Sin, then, is not to have dominion over us, for the very reason that we are not under the law but under grace. Some tell us that if we tell people they are no longer under the rule of law, they are sure to plunge into sin. Here is the divine answer to them. The fact is that nothing so subdues the heart and promotes holiness as the grace of God.
Another writer calls this question, and the one in verse 1, the natural doubts of unbelief. To let sin run free "would be thorough despising of grace rather than understanding and appreciation of it." (L. M. Grant)
The objection assumes that law is what keeps sin down. In fact law does the opposite:
The law is the strength of sin; for by its restraint and prohibition it can only provoke the flesh. It never gives power for holiness, any more than it gives life. Grace, not law, gives life, saves, and strengthens. If believers could be under law, sin must have dominion over them.
Paul's reply is not a rule but a question about ownership. There is no neutral space where a person sins without belonging to sin.
He proves that the question shows entire ignorance of the terrible result of yielding to sin. "Do you not know", says the Apostle, "that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey?" Yield to sin and we become the slaves of sin. Every fresh act of sin forges another link in the chain that holds us in bondage. This is an intensely solemn thought, whether for a sinner living in sin or for a saint who turns aside to trifle with sin.
Freedom is not release to do as we please. It is service under a new Master, and that changes what "doing right" means:
But grace uses this liberty to make us all the more His slaves, free from sin to serve the Lord Christ… The Christian's righteousness is never doing things because they are right — that is pride, independence, or making a god of self. We do them because they are God's will for us. We must obey to have practical righteousness.
Those who raise this objection reveal what they have never known:
No doubt, dear young believer, many will tell you that such teaching will lead you to sin as your old nature likes… Those who talk like that have never known what the grace of God is. They have never known what true liberty is — not liberty to sin, but liberty from sin… God has given you a new life, and that His free gift. He has now placed you in His own unchanging, boundless grace.
- Two questions. Verse 1 asks about the sphere you live in. Verse 15 asks about the acts you do. The chapter answers the first in verses 1-14 and the second in verses 15-23.
- Flesh's logic. The objection is the reasoning of the flesh, always ready to hear "not under law" as permission to do as it likes.
- Grace's power. Nothing subdues the heart and leads to holiness like grace. Law only stirs up the flesh and gives no power to be holy.
- Sin's chain. Whoever you obey owns you. Every act of sin forges another link in the chain — a solemn warning to anyone living in sin, and to any Christian playing with it.
- True liberty. Grace does not free you to sin; it frees you from sin, into obedience that does right because it is God's will.