Romans 6:14 by:

Dan Hill, PhD
Pastor, Southwood Bible Church
7655 South Sheridan Avenue
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74113
E-Mail: hill918@aol.com


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Romans 6:14


For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

Here the line is drawn, it is not drawn in sand to be changed by the whims of man, it is etched in the solid rock of the mind of Christ.

SIN is HAMARTIA and it is singular referring to the sin nature.

So it is the sin nature that shall not be master over you.

The verb is future and should read "shall not lord it over you".

The idea is one of dominion or rulership yet it is not total domination.

That would include the prefix KATA and is used that way when speaking of Satan's rule over one who is demon possessed, the rulers of the Roman Empire, and as a warning in I Peter 5:3 that the Pastor is not to rule over the flock in that manner.

So it is not despotic, absolute rule or lordship and that is because you, as a believer, have as a exercise of your will the liberty to make a decision by faith to consider yourself dead to the OSN and alive unto God.

THEN WE HAVE AN EXPLANATION of why this is a true statement:

For you are not under law, but under grace.

In the Sermon on the Mount we see two models or approaches to God and His Word and to the silence of God that determine whether the believer is on the path of Grace or the path of Law.

MODEL ONE, THE LAW: God is silent on a matter of decision.

Deuteronomy 12:32, Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.

You make the fatal assumption that you have to figure out what God thinks. So you consider this verse, that doctrine, some principle. You bring in culture and societal norms. A conclusion is then made, this is what God thinks.

This model sees the acceptance of God determined by the believers ability to come up with a right answer. Right answer, God approves. Wrong answer, God disapproves.

That conclusion becomes a law not only for self but for others. Laws are then added to the body of Scripture and more laws result in less liberty.

MODEL TWO, GRACE: God's silence on matter of life require us to make decisions.

We depend upon God the Holy Spirit to lead us. We consider the doctrine we have yet know that no specific verse, passage, doctrine, or principle directly applies to the decision we face.

We make a decision that is appropriate for us and us alone.

II Corinthians 3:17, Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Since this a conclusion we have come to we do not impose this upon the thinking of God or upon others.

God acceptance and approval of us is not based upon what we decide in the areas of life in which God has chosen to be silent.

We can then accept others even when they make a decision that is the opposite of the one we might make.

ILLUSTRATION: Do you send you kids private school, a Christian school, a Public school, or do you school them at home?

Nothing in the Word of God on this. I may go into the Word, be lead of the Spirit to make one choice and you may make another. God is silent on the matter so I cannot reject your decision or you.

WARNING: This model deals in those things in which God has chosen to be silent. Where we are given specific direction in the word of God, like with certain sins, or like with being a part of a LC, we need to, by faith, obey.

WHEN GOD IS SILENT WE also apply what we know of God: His grace, His love, His forgiveness, His acceptance.

You never will go wrong on the side of grace . . .

LET ME GIVE YOU AN EXAMPLE OF ALL THIS:

1. We have studied in the past the pressing issue of the Corinthian church, to eat or not to eat meat that had been offered to idols.

Paul begins his answer in I Corinthians 6:12, All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

Then I Corinthians 8:4, Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one.

Read I Corinthians 8:7-13

Then in I Corinthians 10:23 he repeats: All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.

Two applications:

1. In Privacy, I Corinthians 10:25-26. Eat anything that is sold in the meat market, without asking questions for conscience' sake; for the earth is the Lord's, and all it contains (from Psalm 24:1).

2. In Public: I Corinthians 10:27-29. If one of the unbelievers invites you, and you wish to go, eat anything that is set before you, without asking questions for conscience' sake. But if anyone should say to you, This is meat sacrificed to idols, do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience' sake; I mean not your own conscience, but the other man's; for why is my freedom judged by another's conscience?

PRINCIPLE: We have liberty but also must apply the laws of Love, Expediency, and sacrifice.

2. NOW PRETEND FOR A MOMENT you do not have this information. You live in Corinth, you got saved just prior to Paul leaving town. This epistle has not yet arrived.

What are you to do? God is silent . . .

Maybe some fellow believers have invited you over for steaks and you know the only place to get a steak is from the shambles, the pagan temple meat market.

3. So you begin to search the Scriptures. You have an Old Testament and you read:

Leviticus 19:4, Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods; I am the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 11:16, Beware, lest your hearts be deceived and you turn away and serve other gods and worship them.

Exodus 34:14-15, For you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God--lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they play the harlot with their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invite you to eat of his sacrifice.

Then you remember something you heard about a council in Jerusalem and how the leaders of the church said:

Acts 15:29, You are to abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well.

But was that just at the temple or did that mean at home too?

4. Now armed with this information, you make a decision. You decide that God does not want Christians to eat meat offered to idols. God was silent on this matter to this point, but now you think you know what God thinks.

So you start a crusade, you get a banner, get others to march, you picket the temple and the shambles, you chant, you sing, you light candles, you campaign against the sin of eating the idol's meat.

And remember, you have some pretty good verses to use on this matter. You can pull them out and get very dogmatic about what God thinks (or what you think He thinks).

5. Then you go to Bible Class one day and there the Pastor is reading Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. And you find out that God was silent so you could have liberty.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient.

You were wrong, especially in trying to force your decision upon others.

But you would have even been more wrong in thinking that you had to figure out what God thinks . . . that is part of the fatal assumption of the Law.

Summary:
1. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Law. Our focus is to be upon Him.

2. In Grace God has given us instructions regarding our relationship with Him.

3. These instructions are both in the area of things we are to do by faith, study His word, pray, assemble ourselves with other believers. And in the area of sins of idolatry that would distract us from our relationship with Him.

4. In His grace God has also given us instructions regarding our relationships with others.

5. These also are both positive, love one another, forgive, have compassion, be accepting of others as He is, encourage one another. And in the negative, do not slander, gossip, steal, harm, devour one another.

6. In His grace God has given us lists of sins that tell us we are sinner and in desperate need of His grace and power.

7. In His grace God has given us the power of the Word and the Spirit to guide our lives.

8. When God declares in His Word that something is right or something is wrong we can say with confidence, Thus saith the Lord.

But when God is silent let us also be silent in love for one another.

SO THEN, WHETHER GOD HAS spoken or God has been silent, it is all grace!


End of Lesson 26

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