Romans 6:14 – “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
This scripture deals with how we, Believers, must behave in our new life, i.e. after we are born again in Christ. We must intentionally change our whole attitude to sin. Often times this comes naturally to us, especially in our initial zeal of coming to Christ. We abhor sin and don’t want any part in it. It is as years go by, when we weaken in our resolve and take our life in Christ for granted, that we can tend to slip. Perhaps we will say, “what’s wrong if we don’t pray today since we are very tired?” To add to this, we may use our body to sin. We may use our eyes to look at things that don’t glorify God; it doesn’t only have to be something entirely perverse like pornography, because there is no grading of sins as bad sin and worst sin. Sin is sin. Looking at a person, a video that glorifies idol worship, a song with people gyrating, etc. are all candidates towards this. These things don’t add any value to us, nor do they help us glorify God with our God-given eyes. Likewise, we may listen to bad talk with our ears: perhaps a joke, gossip, or songs with vulgar language. Our mouth could possible say things that hurt other people’s minds. Our hands could work in bad ways. Our feet could take us to places that we should avoid. We should never use our bodies as tools to serve sin because it will only glorify Satan and his deeds. Instead, use every part of our body to serve God; do what God wants us to do and what is pleasing to Hour Father, our Maker; go where God wants us to go. In this way, sin will not be our master. The law ‘orders’ us to obey God but through God’s grace we ‘feel the desire and power’ to obey Him.
Spurgeon said that these words of Scripture give us a test, a promise, and an encouragement. It is a test of our claim to be Christians, for example, do we let anger, murmuring, complaining, covetousness, laziness have dominion over us? If sin has dominion over us, we should seriously ask if we are really converted.
It is a promise of victory. It doesn’t say that “sin will not be present in us” because we will have no sin only when we are resurrected in glory; but that “sin will not have dominion over us” because of the great work Jesus did in us when we were born again.
It is an encouragement for hope and strength in the battle against sin. God hasn’t condemned us under the dominion of sin – He has set us free in Jesus. This should encourage those struggling against sin, the new Christian, and the backslider.
We can be free of this dominion of sin not by our works. Law clearly defines God’s standard, and shows us where we fall short of it, so it cannot give the freedom from sin that only the grace of God provides. God’s grace reigns because of His righteous nature. This Grace of God provides us the freedom and the power to live over sin. Grace is never a license to sin. If we live truly under grace, we will have a righteous life. When we are saved, which means when our sins are forgiven and God’s grace is extended to us, we change radically. A state of sin is only temporary because we know we can go to God in repentance and have our sins removed. Repentance also means to truly try not to do the sin again. God changes us as we receive His grace. We may not see all our changes at once, or even see them in each area of our life at the same time, but change will happen, will be real, and will increase in time. God sets us free of the dominion of sin and equips us to live righteously before Him. Our thinking changes such that we cannot sin because we love God. We no longer find the pleasures of the world enticing. What can be a stronger motive against sin than the love of Christ?
Think about this: Are we ok to sin against so much goodness, and such love?
