For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourself to someone to obey them as slaves, you are slaves to the one to whom you obey- whether you are slaves to sin which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Romans 6: 15-18, NIV.
Merciful God, we are grateful to You for Your everlasting mercy and grace. Please draw near, and lead us in the study of Your Holy Word, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
Our Scripture for today begins with a question. A very valid one. In order to answer this question, we will go back to the principle, on how to study Scripture: “… For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line, upon line, here a little, there a little” (Isaiah 28: 9, 10, NKJV). What is the question, that the apostle is asking here, according to the principle laid down for studying Scripture? Let us try to find out by looking at other texts that are related to the subject.
1) “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5: 13).
2) “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13: 8-10, emphasis provided).
3) For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do; by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8: 3,4, emphasis provided).
4) “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit… But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you as I warned you before, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. There is no law against such things” (Galatians 5: 16-23, NRSV, emphasis provided).
5) “You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘You shall not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty” (James 2: 8-12, emphasis provided).
It appears to me, that what the apostle is saying, is that those who are walking, according to the Spirit, are not under the condemnation of the law. We will continue our conversation tomorrow!
NOTE: The devotional for February 1, had a Scripture change from Ezekiel 28: 9, 10 to Isaiah 28: 9, 10.