Question about being "under the law"

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Christoffer

Puritan Board Sophomore
I've a question about Romans 6:14

"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace"

I've have always found this verse puzzling since it seems to imply that the law causes sin to dominate us. In other words, grace changes us for the better while law changes us for the worst.

But recently I got this explanation: this verse should be seen in light of rom 1:18-32 where hardening is explained. In other words, the law changes us for the worse since it incurs guilt and condemnation and hardening as a result. So the longer we are under law, the longer we sin and the more hardening we incur. --> the impulses of the flesh more and more begin to dominate us until finally they have complete dominion.

Is this an accurate exegesis, you think?

br
Chris
 
Law and grace are being set forth here as contrary principles, as essential the essential basis of two different covenants. Paul's entire argument is an unfolding whole, so whether Rom.1 specifically is in interpretively helpful, all is relevant to everything Paul continues to unfold.

Law/Works vs. Promise/Grace. Believers in Christ are not "under [divine] law" as the instrument defining the relationship between them and their God. Instead, they are "under grace," a radically different arrangement defining the relationship.

The divine-human relationship defined by law eventuates inevitably in the rule (dominion) of sin over fallen man (which clearly reveals the relationship to be characterized by rebellion). The fault isn't in the law, but in the creature. But given the nature of both law and sinner, the law in this relationship always increases the trespass.

When the divine-human relationship is defined by grace or forgiveness, rule or dominion is by love according to the heart. Sin shall not have dominion because under grace an internal (rather than law-external) change has been effected. Sin, the breaking of the law, is still a fact and reality. But because the relationship is no longer defined by the instrument of the law, and because the sinner has received forgiveness and a restored nature (in principle in toto, and progressively in history), the trespass cannot increase indefinitely under these objective conditions--in fact it will decrease (whether overtly or imperceptibly) until in glory it is eradicated.

Law does continue to serve the believer with a convicting function (the trespass will feel like it increases). However, it does not increase the condemnation, a necessary effect previous to the new relation.
 
If a true believer continues to think of himself as under law rather than under grace, to a large or small extent, it will severely affect his assurance and growth in grace.
 
Our salvation and sanctification as Gods elect is not a matter of the law but of grace - always has been. Yet that does not mean we as God's covenant people are no longer under the law (moral) or that the law somehow transforms us into something we are not. The law has always had and still has manifold purposes. For example, the law demonstrates grace and mercy in the old and new testaments in the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant.
 
Mr. Buchanan is giving his usual clarity to an issue! May I also add, that for those living in grace, the law becomes a delight? God does not leave us wondering what is good and right in his sight. And the law helps us to conform to our savior who kept the law so perfectly. In this perspective, Chris, law hardly changes us for the worse.
 
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