by Stephen Forister
We live in an age where sin seems to be gaining the upper hand in the church. In too many of us, spiritual darkness has taken the beachhead, stormed and secured the high ground, and progressively infiltrated every corner of our hearts. The worldview and the lifestyle habits of many Christians are often indistinguishable from those of unbelievers. Countless people struggle daily against, and perpetually give in to, temptation. Even well-intentioned, service-oriented saints suffer silently from the neglect of those disciplines that would cultivate a heart like Mary’s in the midst of a calendar like Martha’s.
What can be done? To what strategy should we appeal? Many simply surrender and stop trying to live differently. The rest, more determined, surround themselves with a hedge of thorns, a strict policy of “don’ts” that governs all they do. But are either of these the best Christian response? Where in them does one find the abundant life Jesus promised? Can they deliver true joy and the power to live a life pleasing to Him?
Thankfully, the Scriptures reveal these approaches for the bankrupt solutions they are – fatally flawed mechanisms which perpetually fail us in our confrontation with sin. The one is called antinomianism, an abandonment of any attempt to obey the commandments of God, and the other is legalism, the propensity of people to heap upon themselves and others endless laws never authorized by God. We must reject them both.
The biblical writers are unequivocal and unanimous in their answer, and no one gives clearer teaching on the matter than Paul. The great apostle teaches that holy living before God is absolutely required, and that holy living does not consist of slavish bondage to legalism. He energetically contends that grace – not licentiousness, not law, but grace – empowers us for a life of joyful obedience. The work of grace, he argues, does not suddenly end with our salvation. Grace keeps working! (Study Titus 2:11-14 for yourself and witness just how efficacious is this grace.)
To understand the work of grace in the Christian’s life, you must understand the pivotal verse, Romans 6:14 (a summary of Romans 6 – 8). “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” You need not be a slave to your own lusts, your own habitual sin. You are free, dear believer, free to obey, to adore, and to abide in your true Master. This freedom does not come from wanton pursuit of sinful pleasures, Paul says to antinomians in Romans 6. Nor does it come from the crushing gravity of unrelenting, oppressive regulations, he declares to legalists in Romans 7.
Romans 8, at last, is his answer. Here he explains what he means when he says we are “under grace.” To be under grace is to be under the new law, the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2). The grace of God is manifest to us through the Spirit of God. In this chapter, and elsewhere in Paul’s writings, we are urged to be led by the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, and to walk in this Spirit.
In the coming issues, this article will explore what the Bible says about walking in the Spirit, the only way to engage sin and defeat it. Meanwhile, take some time in the coming months to drink deeply of Romans 6, 7, and 8.