Not Under Law but Under Grace in Life’s Renewal
Chapter 4 - 2.3
The slave to Christ is no longer under “Law”[1] but under “grace”[2] (cf. Rom 6:14-15). One may think that the Law is bad, which would be completely wrong.[3] Sin is bad, not the Law/Torah—Decalogue. Being under grace serves as the foundation for everything. Paul writes, “Indeed, sin will not be lord of you; for you are not under Law but under grace” (Rom 6:14). To be clear, being “under Law”[4] means to be under the entirety and perfection of the Law’s demands. Falling short of the requirements of the Law is sin. Being under Law and falling short results in slavery to sin and death. God’s good and perfect Law exposes and brings knowledge of sin (cf. Rom 3:20; 7:7, 13-14; Gal 3:22). Paul Kretzmann commented on Paul’s statement of the being under grace and not the Law:
For sin will not rule over you, it will not gain the ascendancy again. And the reason is: For not are you under the Law, but under grace. The Law ever demands, but does not give the strength to perform its demands, and therefore it cannot deliver from the dominion of sin. But grace, under which we have placed ourselves in conversion, in Baptism, not only delivers us from the guilt and power of sin, but also gives us the ability to withstand sin, to shun the evil, and to do that which pleases the Lord. Thus we renounce all dependence upon our own merit and strength, accept the offer of grace, of free justification as a gift of God, and receive deliverance from sin and the power to please our heavenly Father.[5]
The Law holds captive the sinner under the condemnation of sin. The sinner under Law is not justified by the Law, and cannot live by the Law. In contrast, the slave to Christ under grace is not under the Law or justified by the Law, but through faith and Baptism into Jesus Christ. The slave to God lives under grace in Christ's righteousness (cf. Gal 2:21; 5:24).
Baptized believers live under grace as responsive slaves of God, freed and declared righteous from sin. In response to Christ's grace in the Good News, believers live as slaves to God and slaves to all. Grace is the power of God empowering slaves of Christ to serve Him and His creatures. A slave to God and righteousness is a good slavery in Christ.
Therefore, being “under grace”[6] means the slave to sin and death is now “living from the dead” (Rom 6:13), justified from sin, and living to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, the slave to Christ should not present bodily members to the unrighteousness that once ruled as lord. The slave of Christ should live in responsiveness to grace for righteousness leading to sanctification (cf. Rom 6:19).
Slavery language used by Paul is an analogous teaching according to the “weakness of your flesh” (Rom 6:19). Middendorf comments on Paul’s “speaking in human terms” in Romans 6:19:
At long last, a number of apparent contradictions, at least from a human viewpoint, need to be addressed. How is one both freed and enslaved at the same time? How can there possibly be a willing enslavement which is passively received? And how can all this possibly take place “under grace” (6:14–15)? Perhaps with some exasperation, Paul declares, “I am speaking in human terms on account of the weakness of your flesh” (6:19). On the one hand, Paul loves to use numerous earthly analogies to convey the fullness of the Good News of God in Jesus Christ. On the other hand, all metaphors fall short in some way. In this case, his use of slavery is at least potentially misunderstood and, perhaps, even scandalous to his hearers.[7]
People in Paul’s day would have comprehended the language of slavery. Slavery language is a human way of relating to God's theological truth and remains divinely inspired, God’s language revealed for His people.
The saints of God serve Jesus Christ under grace in sanctification. Sanctification does not come from observing the Law, but through faith in the promised Messiah. Sanctification comes from God in Christ through the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4-8). Christians are exhorted to be devoted to good works as saints/slaves bound to God in Christ. Pieper wrote of the Law in sanctification serving the Gospel:
The Law has its place in sanctification, it serves the Gospel . . . The Church is holy (sancta ecclesia, communion of saints), (a) because by faith in Christ all members possess the perfect righteousness of faith (iustitia fidei imputata,). Phil. 3:9: “Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith”; (b) because all members have also a true, though imperfect, righteousness of life (iustitia vitae) as a fruit of this faith. Rom 6:14: “Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the Law, but under grace.”[8]
Again, being under grace serves as the foundation for everything. The Law that condemns sin will not have dominion over the slave to God. The undeserved favor from God rules over them in Christ. Believers are slaves of righteousness under grace serving the Master and King Jesus through faith in sanctification serving one another. Slaves of righteousness engage in good and pleasing works.
The slave to God under grace should not go on sinning on account of freedom from slavery to sin. Paul continues and asks another rhetorical question: “What then? Should we sin because we are not under Law, but under grace? May it never come to be!” (Rom 6:15). Freedom from the Law means no longer being an enemy of the Law, but a friend of the Law as a slave of righteousness. Luther comments on Romans 6:14, 15, discussing a human way of Law and the theological way of understanding the Law:
Here we have Paul’s assertion of freedom from the Law. But immediately he raises an objection to himself . . . This is what he is saying here, namely, that opportunity is made for the flesh if freedom is understood in this fleshly way. We are not free from the Law (as I have said above) in a human way., by which the Law is destroyed and changed, but in a divine and theological way, by which we are changed and from enemies of the Law are made friends of the Law.[9]
Luther seems to describe that the friend of the Law should not desire to sin just because they are free from the Law’s demands. Instead, Christians serve and love through faith as a friend of the Law under grace.
Life’s Renewal is Newness of Life in Sanctification
God brings sanctification to the righteous through Baptism and faith. Sanctification means “to make holy.”[10] Sanctification and purification are given to sinners through faith and Baptism. Romans 6:4 explains that Christians are buried with Christ in Baptism into His death and raised from the dead to walk to live in “life’s renewal.” Sanctified living is a gift and response to being declared righteous from sin and bound to Christ. The slave to righteousness has been buried and raised with Christ and, as a result, walks in life’s renewal, in Christ’s life through faith.
Christians are, therefore, exhorted to present their bodily members to God as resurrected from the dead with Christ. Paul exhorts the slave of Christ, “Present yourselves to God as living from [the] dead and your bodily members to God [as] instruments of righteousness” (Rom 6:13). The slave of Christ is “responsiveness to God leading to righteousness” (Rom 6:16) and is to “present your bodily members [as] slavish to righteousness leading to sanctification” (Rom 6:19).
This slavery to God and righteousness looks like a “good” spiritual slavery.[11] The slave to God presents “bodily members” (Rom 6:19) as enslaved to righteousness. Paul writes, “For just as you presented your bodily members [as] slavish to impurity and to a lawless mindset leading to lawless behavior, thus now present your bodily members [as] slavish to righteousness leading to sanctification” (Rom 6:19). In short, slavery to righteousness looks like Christ.
Martin Luther’s explanation of alien righteousness, cited above, leads to proper righteousness. He draws from Paul’s imperative exhortations to believer to present themselves as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
The second kind of righteousness is our proper righteousness, not because we alone work it, but because we work with that first and alien righteousness . . . We read in Rom. 6 [:19] that his righteousness is set opposite our own actual sin: “For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.”[12]
Luther's recognition of proper righteousness looks like Paul’s imperatives. Yet this “proper righteousness” works from the indicative first––alien righteousness, and is a response to grace.
[1] Law––“νόμος-nomos, that which is assigned, hence usage, law: — Law.” NASEC, G355; See BDAG, 677- 78.
[2] Grace––“χάρις-charis, a prim. word; grace, kindness: — blessing,“ NASEC, G5485; “χάριν . . . ③ practical application of goodwill, (a sign of) favor, gracious deed/gift, benefaction . . . ⓑ on the part of God and Christ; the context will show whether the emphasis is upon the possession of divine favor as a source of blessings for the believer, or upon a store of favor that is dispensed, or a favored status (i.e. standing in God’s favor) that is brought about, or a gracious deed wrought by God in Christ, or a gracious work that grows fr. more to more (so in contrast to the old covenant Mel., P. 3, 16 al.) . . . Christians stand ὑπὸ χάριν under God’s gracious will as expressed in their release from legal constraint Ro 6:14f, or they come ὑπὸ τὸν ζυγὸν τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ 1 Cl 16:17 (ζυγός 1).” BDAG, 1079, 1080.
[3] Cf. Todd Wilkon, “Is the Law Bad,” Issues Etc. (2016): 5-17, accessed 05/09/2022, https://podcast.issuesetc.org/winter2016.pdf.
[4] Under Law––“ὑπὸ νόμον.” Being under Law is not Gospel and being under grace, for the sinner is under Law condemned by the Law because of transgressions since the payment of sin and death, and the Law exposes sin.
[5] Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible, 32.
[6] Under grace––“ὑπὸ χάριν;” Being under grace in Christ is the Gospel through faith and Baptism and a slave to God in Christ and slave to righteousness in the Gospel of Christ.
[7] Middendorf, Romans 1–8, 502–503.
[8] Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, vol. 3, 18, 410.
[9] “Lectures on Galatians Chapters 1-6” (1519), AE 27:347; Luther writes “In line with this thought 1 Peter 2:16 also says: ‘ As free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil, but as servants [slaves] of God.’” Ibid.
[10] Elwell, 1051-54; More precisely, “sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit of making people holy.” Steven P. Mueller, Called to Believe, Teach, and Confess: An Introduction to Doctrinal Theology, 528.
[11] As a result of being delivered from evil or bad spiritual slavery––slavery to sin and death.
[12] “Two Kinds of Righteousness” (1519), AE 31:300; Luther explains, “Therefore, through the first righteousness arises the voice of the bridegroom who says to the soul, ‘I am yours,’ but through the second comes the voice of the bride who answers, ‘I am yours.’ Then the marriage is consummated; it becomes strong and complete in accordance with the Song of Solomon [2:16]: ‘My beloved is mine and I am his.’ Then the soul no longer seeks to be righteous in and for itself, but it has Christ as its righteousness and therefore seeks only the welfare of others.” AE 31:300.