《The Biblical Illustrator – Romans (Ch. 6b~8a)》

3. Believers are not under the law. They are not under--

II. The believer is under grace.

1. He is “under” the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is a man whom the free and undeserved love of his Redeemer has chosen unto life eternal. He is placed under a dispensation in which all he has, and all he hopes to have, are freely given him, “not for works of righteousness which he has done,” but as “the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

2. He is under grace, because the grace of the Divine Spirit enters in and dwells in him. His soul is made the temple of the Holy Ghost. It is illuminated, sanctified, and comforted by that glorious inhabitant.

III. The consequence of being not under the law, but under grace. “Sin shall not have dominion over you,” because--

1. “The love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto you.” A sense of the unspeakable mercy which our Lord has shown us begets such lively feelings of gratitude and love that to delight in that which God abhors becomes a thing impossible. Our heart burns, on the other hand, with holy fervour to render our redeemed life unto the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:15).

2. You are a partaker of a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17). Sin is not indeed utterly destroyed, but it has no longer the dominion. (A. Roberts, M. A.)

Grace, not law, the motive for holiness

Wherein lies the force of the reason advanced? What is there in the covenant of grace, as set in contrast with the covenant of works, on which to rest the above declaration? At first sight we might be apt to suppose (arguing from the tendencies and susceptibilities of the human constitution) that men would be more energetic after holiness if left to earn heaven for themselves than if invited to accept it as a gift. But on second thoughts this will not be found so. Look at--

I. The covenant of works.

1. As it requires perfect obedience without containing any provision for pardon, mediation, or escape, will it not produce despair and even recklessness to fallen beings in whom there is a tendency to sin, and a decay in all the powers of resistance, and who at the best can only give an imperfect obedience, which is of no avail?

2. Such is the constitution of our nature that the prospect of success is indispensable for vigour and exertion. Place me, therefore, under a covenant of works--shut out from me all notices of a Redeemer--read me that, by keeping them, I may insure myself a blessed immortality--and I shall either fold my arms in inactivity or resign myself to my sinfulness, Why mortify imperious desires, why deny craving appetites in the face of a moral certainty that I could not come up to what the law demanded, and that, if I failed, I was irretrievably condemned? No, there must be some provision in the case of failure, else will there never be any effort to obey. There must be room for second thoughts for repentance, otherwise will the law, with all its rewards, be set at nought as unadapted to the beings on whom it is imposed.

II. The covenant of grace.

1. There is an energy of motive of the most powerful character. There is more--immeasurably more--to lead to the hatred of sin and the striving after holiness in the fact that Christ died for me than in a thousand statute books with multiplied enactments and many rewards. Only let this fact seat itself in the soul, and it must excite such love to the Being who bought us with His blood--such abhorrence of the sin which caused that blood to be shed--as will urge a man to exert every power that he may not crucify the Son of God afresh. And as he gathers all his strength to the overcoming of evil, urged by the freeness of salvation as proffered to him--every blessing reminding him of Calvary, every promise being eloquent of the great propitiation--and thus the whole Christian system exciting, in all its workings, recollections which make him shun even the appearance of evil--oh, will he not furnish the strongest practical evidence that St. Paul advanced an argument which made good his proposition when he gave, “Ye are not under the law, but under grace” as his reason for saying, “Sin shall not have dominion over you”?

2. The words are also a promise or prophecy.

Verse 15

Romans 6:15

What then?
Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?

The doctrines of grace do not lead to sin

1. Grace is the soul of the gospel: without it the gospel is dead. Grace is the music of the gospel; without it the gospel is silent as to all comfort. From the “A” to the “Z” in the heavenly alphabet everything in salvation is all of free favour, nothing of merit. “By grace are ye saved through faith,” etc.

2. No sooner is this doctrine set forth, however, than men begin to cavil at it; it is so humbling to human pride. God alone is exalted in the sovereignty of His mercy; this is not pleasant to the great minds of our philosophers and the broad phylacteries of our moralists. Straightway comes the objection that such doctrine must lead to licentiousness.

3. Now I admit that some turned the grace of God into lasciviousness; but cannot every truth be perverted? Is there not an almost infinite ingenuity in wicked men for making evil out of good? But let us act like rational men. We do not find fault with ropes because men have hanged themselves; nor do we destroy the wares of Sheffield because edged tools are the murderer’s instruments.

4. Looking back in history I see upon its pages a refutation of the oft-repeated calumny. Who were the men that held these doctrines most firmly? Men like Owen, Charnock, Manton, Howe, and Cromwell. What kind of men were these? Every historian will tell you that the greatest fault was that they were too precise for their generation, so that they were called Puritans. And if we are ever to see a godly England we must have a gospelised England. The gospel of the grace of God promotes real holiness.

I. The salvation which it beings is salvation from the power of sin. What we mean by salvation is deliverance from the love of habit and desire of sin. Now if that boon is the gift of Divine grace, in what way will it produce sin? The worse men are the more gladly would we see them embracing this truth, for they most need it.

II. Its principle of love has been found to possess very great power over men. In the infancy of history nations dream that crime can be put down by severity, but experience corrects the error. Our forefathers dreaded forgery, and made it a capital offence. Yet the constant use of the gallows was never sufficient to stamp out the crime. But some offences have almost ceased when the penalty has been lightened.

1. Love makes sin infamous. If one should rob another it would be sufficiently bad; but suppose a man robbed a friend who had helped him often when he was in need, everyone would say that his crime was most disgraceful.

2. Love has a great constraining power towards the highest form of virtue. Deeds to which a man could not be compelled on the ground of law, men have cheerfully done because of love. Would our brave seamen man the lifeboat to obey an Act of Parliament? Remember Romans 5:7-8. Goodness wins the heart, and one is ready to die for the kind and generous. Look how men have thrown away their lives for great leaders. The wounded French soldier, when the surgeon, searching for the bullet cut deeply, cried out, “A little lower and you will touch the Emperor.” Love to Jesus creates a heroism of which law knows nothing. All Church history is a proof of this.

3. Love, too, has often changed the most unworthy. We have often heard of the soldier who had been flogged and imprisoned, and yet would get drunk and misbehave himself. At last the commanding officer said, “I have tried almost everything, I will try one thing more. You seem incorrigible, but I will freely forgive you.” The man was greatly moved by this, and became a good soldier. A man woke up one morning from his drunken sleep and saw his only child getting his breakfast. Coming to his senses he said to her, “Millie, why do you stay with me?” She answered, “Because you are my father, and I love you.” He looked at himself, and saw what a ragged, good-for-nothing creature he was, and he answered her, “Millie, do you really love me?” The child cried, “Yes, father, and I will never leave you, because when mother died she said, ‘Millie, stick to your father, and always pray for him, and one of these days he will give up drink and be a good father to you’; so I will never leave you.” Is it wonderful that Millie’s father became a Christian? According to our moralists she should have said, “You are a horrible wretch f I have stuck to you long enough; I must now leave you, or else I shall be encouraging other fathers to get drunk.” Under such dealing I fear Millie’s father would have drank himself into perdition. But the power of love made a better man of him. Hear another story. There lived in Cheapside one who feared God and attended the secret meetings of the saints; and near him there dwelt a poor cobbler, whose wants were often relieved by the merchant; but the man, from hope of reward, laid an information against his kind friend on the score of religion. This accusation would have brought the merchant to death by burning if he had not found a means of escape. Returning, the injured man behaved more liberally than ever. The cobbler, however, avoided him, but one day was obliged to meet him, and the Christian man asked him gently, “Why do you shun me? I know all that you did to injure me, but I never had an angry thought against you. Let us be friends.” Do you marvel that they clasped hands and that ere long the poor man was found at the Lollards’ meeting? The Lord knows that bad as men are the key of their hearts hangs on the nail of love.

III. Its operations are connected with a special revelation of the evil of sin. Iniquity is made to be exceeding bitter before or when it is forgiven. A burnt child dreads the fire. By the operations of grace we are made weary of sin; we loathe both it and its imaginary pleasures. It is a thing accursed, even as Amalek was to Israel.

IV. It makes a man a new creature in Christ Jesus. His ignorance is removed, his affections are changed, his understanding is enlightened, his will is subdued, his desires are refined, his life is changed--in fact, he is as one newborn, to whom all things have become new. All beings live according to their nature, and the regenerated man works out the holy instincts of his renewed mind. A new heart makes all the difference. Given a new nature, and then all the propensities run in a different way.

V. It provides cleansing through atonement. The blood of Jesus sanctifies as well as pardons. The sinner learns that his free pardon cost the life of his best Friend. What! live in the sin which slew Jesus? Impossible! Thus you see that the gifts of free grace, when handed down by a pierced hand, are never likely to suggest self-indulgence in sin, but the very reverse.

VI. It secures daily helps from God’s Holy Spirit. Who deigns to dwell in every man whom God has saved by His grace.

1. He leads believers to be much in prayer, and what a power for holiness is found in this.

2. The renewed man is also quickened in conscience; so that things which heretofore did not strike him as sinful are seen in a clearer light, and are consequently condemned.

3. The good Spirit leads us into high and hallowed intercourse with God, and I defy a man to live upon the mount with God and then come down to transgress like men of the world. Thou art of another race; “thy speech betrayeth thee.” The perfume of the ivory palaces will be about thee, and men will know that thou hast been in other haunts than theirs.

VII. It elevates the entire man.

1. What do men most think about? Bread and butter, house rent, and clothes, and are as children playing with little sand heaps on the seashore; but the believer in free grace walks among hills and mountains, and his mental stature rises with his surroundings, and he becomes a thoughtful being, communing with sublimities. The man has now obtained a different view of himself. He says, “I am one of God’s chosen, joint heir with Jesus Christ, and as such I cannot be godless, nor live for the common objects of life.”

2. He rises in the object of his pursuit. He feels that he is born for Divine purposes, and he feels that God has loved him that His love may flow forth to others. God’s choice of any one man has a bearing upon all the rest. We are each one as a lamp kindled that we may shine in the dark and light up other lamps.

3. New hopes come crowding on him. His immortal spirit enjoys glimpses of the endless. As God has loved him in time he believes that the like love will bless him in eternity. Conclusion: A profligate son had been a grief to his father; he had robbed and disgraced him, and at last brought his grey hairs in sorrow to the grave. He attended his father’s funeral and stayed to hear the will read, having fully made up his mind that he was cut off with a shilling; and he meant to make it very unpleasant for the rest of the family. To his great astonishment the will ran something like this: “As for my son Richard, though he has wasted my substance and grieved my heart, I would have him know that I consider him still to be my own dear child, and, in token of my undying love, I leave him the same share as the rest of his brothers.” He left the room mastered by the surprising love of his father. Said he to the executor, “You surely did not read correctly?” “Yes, I did: there it stands.” “Then I feel ready to curse myself that I ever grieved my dear old father. Oh, that I could fetch him back again!” Love was born in that base heart by an unexpected display of love. May not your case be similar? Our Lord Jesus Christ is dead, but He has left it in His will that the chief of sinners are objects of His choicest mercy. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Verses 16-18

Romans 6:16-18

Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey.

The service of sin and the service of righteousness

I. The criterion of both--obedience. A disobedient servant is a contradiction in terms. Disobedience vitiates service and ensures formal dismissal from it. By obedience to the behests of sin sinners are to be distinguished. Sin’s code is the ten commandments with the “nots” omitted; and the world swarms with men and women who yield the most constant and earnest obedience to each. From these the servants of righteousness are distinguished not by their profession, garb, postures, ritual, and shibboleth of righteousness, but by their obedience to the commands of righteousness. Many will present themselves before the Great Tribunal on other grounds, but the King of Righteousness will judge them exclusively by this criterion. “Not everyone that said unto the Lord, Lord,” etc.

II. The characteristics of the two services.

1. The service of sin is--

2. The service of righteousness is

III. The change from one service to the other.

1. All men are servants. Man was not made, and will never become independent. Servitude is the law of his nature, and of the two masters he must serve one.

2. All men have been the servants of sin. They are born in it and continue in it; some all their lives, others up to a certain point.

3. All men may become servants of righteousness.

Master or servant

One day a Mr. Charles was about to start from home to fulfil a preaching appointment, when rough weather set in, and he hesitated whether he ought to brave the storm. He consulted a Mr. John Evans on the point. “Tell Mr. Charles,” was the message returned, “that if he is a master he may stay at home, but if a servant he ought to keep his appointment.” (Christian Journal.)

Obedience to Christ

Come to Him. “I do not know what it is to come,” says one. Well, coming to Christ is simply the trusting Him. You are guilty, trust Him to save you. “But if I do that,” says one, “may I then go on and live as I did before?” No, that you cannot. If a ship at sea needed to be brought into harbour, and they took a pilot on board, he would say to the captain, “Captain, if you trust me I will get you into the harbour all right; let that sail be taken down.” But they do not reef it. “Here,” says he, “attend to the tiller and steer as I bid you.” But they did not attend. “Well,” says the pilot, “I thought you said you trusted me.” “Yes,” says the captain, “and you said that if we trusted you you would get into port and we are not into port.” “No, but I understood if you trusted me you would do as I bade you. It cannot be a true trust that is disobedient to my command.” If then you trust Christ you must do as He bid you, take up His cross and follow Him, and then that trust of yours shall surely have its reward. You shall be saved now, and saved forever.

The devil’s slaves

If a pirate, or, worse, the master of a slave ship, has made a good thing of his unlawful traffic, I do not see why he should reluctate about going into a lawful traffic on the ocean, because he does not know what the ocean will do to him. If a man is safe in sailing against God’s laws and everything that is good, how much more will God prosper him if he applies to legitimate commerce the same skill and enterprise and industry that he is now applying to that which is illegitimate. I have seen men work ten times as hard to be villains as they would have been obliged to work to be honest men. The greatest slaves I know anything about are those whom the devil has got the upper hand of, and whom he is compelling to dodge between the supreme law of God and their worldly prosperity. They may secure some sort of prosperity, but, you may depend upon it, they work hard for it. (H. W. Beecher.)

Moral slavery

James II, on his death bed, thus addressed his son, “There is no slavery like sin and no liberty like God’s service.” Was not the dethroned monarch right? What think you of the fetters of bad habits? What think you of the chains of indulged lust? The drunkard who cannot resist the craving for the wine--know you a more thorough captive? The covetous man who toils night and day for wealth--what is he but a slave? The sensual man, the ambitious man, the worldly man, those who, in spite of the remonstrances of conscience, cannot break away from enthralment--what are they, if not the subjects of a tyranny than which there is none sterner, and none more degrading? (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine.--

The apostolical form of doctrine

I. What is it?

II. How should it be received?

III. What is its effect?

IV. What feelings ought this result to inspire? (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Obedience to the form of doctrine

1. The question, Whose servants are ye? resolves itself into a matter of fact. The apostle, on looking to his disciples, pronounces them by the test of obedience to have become the servants of righteousness. And he not only affirms this change, but he assigns the cause of it. They obeyed from the heart. There might have been the form of a yielding; but some latent duplicity brought a flaw unto it by which it was invalidated, Now God be thanked, says the apostle, this is not the way with you. I look at your fruit, and I find it the fruit of holiness. I look at your life, and I find it to be the life of the servants of God.

2. But what is it that they are said here to obey from the heart? The term “doctrine” in the original may signify the thing taught, or the process of teaching--a process which may embrace many items, and consist of several distinct parts, to obey which from the heart is just to take them all in with the simplicity and good faith in which a child believingly reads its task book. This last view is very much confirmed by the import of the Greek equivalent for “form,” viz., a mould that impresses its own shape to the yielding substance whereunto it is applied. And it would be still more accordant with the original if we render the whole sentence. The mould or model of doctrine “into which ye have been delivered.” Christian truth, in its various parts and various prominences, is likened unto a mould, into which the heart or soul of man is cast that it may come out a precise transcript.

3. It should be obedient to every touch, and yield itself to every character that is graven thereupon. It should feel the impression, not from one of its truths only, but from all of them, else, like the cast which is in contact with the mould bat at a single point, it will shake and fluctuate, and be altogether wanting in settled conformity to that with the likeness of which it ought to be everywhere encompassed. You know how difficult it is to poise one body upon another when it has only got one narrow place to stand upon, and that, to secure a position of stability, there must at least be three points of support provided. There is something akin to this ere the mind of an inquirer is rightly grounded and settled on the basis of God’s revealed testimony. How it veers and fluctuates, when holding only by one article and fails of a sufficiently extended grasp on the truths of Christianity! How those who talk, e.g., of the bare fact of faith vacillate and give way in the hour of temptation. How those who admit both the righteousness of Christ and the regeneration of their own characters to be alike indispensable, have nevertheless been brought to shipwreck; and that just because, though adhering in words to these two generalities, they have never spread them abroad over their whole history in the living applications of prayer and watchfulness. They need the filling up of their lives and hearts with the whole transcript of revelation. One doctrine does not suffice for this, for God in His wisdom has thought fit that there shall be a form or scheme of doctrine. The obedience of the heart unto the faith is obedience unto all that God proposes for the belief and acceptance of those who have entered on the scholarship of eternity; and for this purpose there must be not a mere assent of the understanding to any given number of articles, but a broad coalescence of the mind with the whole expanse and magnitude of the book of God’s testimony.

4. A scheme of doctrine, then, implies more truths than one; and St. Paul has now gone beyond the announcement of his one individual item. He was very full on Christ as the propitiation for sin, and on the righteousness of Christ as the plea of acceptance for sinners; and then, when he came to the question, Shall they who are partakers of this benefit continue in sin that they may get still more of the benefit? he pronounces a negative. Here there was not one truth, but a compound of truths; a mould graven on both sides of it with certain various characters, and the softened metal that is poured therein yields to it all round and takes the varied impression from it. And so of him who obeys from the heart the form of doctrine into which he is delivered. He does not yield to one article and present a side of hardness and of resistance to another article. He is thoroughly softened and humbled under a sense of sinfulness, and most willingly takes the salvation of the gospel on the terms of the gospel. He does not, like the sturdy controversialist, cull out from the Word his own favourite position; but, like the little child, he follows on to know the Lord, just as the revealed things offer themselves to his docility and notice on that inscribed tablet which the Lord hath placed before him.