“14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace. 15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not! 16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey — either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?”
In verse 14, Paul declares that for those in Christ, sin will no longer rule over us. We have been given a new master to serve; One that is loving and who graciously provides for us the way of salvation. The end of verse 14 highlights that our new Master has saved us not because of anything we have done, but by grace alone. We have already established that if we are saved by our adherence to the law, no one would be capable of saving themselves. Everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Instead, we are saved by God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ. (See devotional on Romans 3:23-24) That being the case, the law, which is only capable of bringing condemnation and judgment of sin, is no longer allowed to rule over us. For those who are saved in Jesus, our sins have been removed and we have been given Christ’s righteousness, and so, the law and sin no longer have any claim over us.
“But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.” — Romans 7:6
Paul detects that his words from verse 14 could be misused as a license to sin. When under the law of grace, it’s easy to become desensitized to sin and its consequences. Praise God that He is quick to forgive our transgressions through His Son Jesus Christ. We must, however, be careful not to misuse God’s kindness and mercy. Paul answers this objection quite simply. He explains that anyone or anything that you are obedient to, meaning anything you use your talent, body, money, time, etc. to serve, you are slaves of that thing! If that thing is not God and the works of righteousness, then you are slaves to something else. You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise. You are either slaves of sin, which leads to death, or slaves of obedience to God, which leads to righteousness. (v. 16)
“Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.” — John 8:34
If we truly have been saved, we should fight to free ourselves from every sin. When we do sin, we submit ourselves as slaves to things other than to God and we drag God’s holy name and Christ’s perfect righteousness down with us.
“Don’t you know that your bodies are a part of Christ’s body? So should I take a part of Christ’s body and make it part of a prostitute? Absolutely not!” — 1 Corinthians 6:15
It’s at this point in Romans that Paul will draw the Christian’s attention to sin in their own lives. While it is undeniably true that we are saved by grace, through faith in Christ, we must desire to systematically remove all sinful thoughts and behaviors from our lives and be righteous, as Christ is righteous. As Christians, there is work to do. Not work that will attain salvation, but work that will be pleasing to God and result in our own spiritual growth.
“Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown.” — 1 Corinthians 9:24-25
As Christians, we also must remain vigilant. Those who dwell in sin would love nothing more than to bring us down with them. Look at this warning given by Peter to his readers about the ungodly:
“They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them. For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, ‘A washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.’” — 2 Peter 2:19-22