Yet We are Responsible

Yet We are Responsible

"What then?  Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?  By no means!" (Romans 6:15)

But this freedom from the penalty of the law does not remove us from the obligation of holiness.  The work of Christ takes us out from under the curse of the law but it also plants within us a new life that makes it possible for the holiness which the law demands to be brought into our lives.  In the eighth chapter of Romans there is a final statement concerning Christ and the law where we read, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).  This is the freedom from the penalty of the law of which we have just spoken.  The passage then goes on to explain this freedom which believers know, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8: 2-4).  We now are able to see the perfect working out of God’s plan and the place of the law in that plan.

Man had sinned, but was not willing to admit his lost condition.  God gave the law from Mount Sinai, amplifying it in the Sermon on the Mount, which shows the perfection of His demands.  The sinfulness of man makes it impossible that any individual should ever live up to these demands.  God knew this in advance, and His purpose in giving the law was to bring man to a sense of his need that he might abandon the way of self–effort and turn to God’s grace.  Christ came and died on the cross, taking the stroke of God’s justice, thus condemning the sinfulness of man and paying the penalty.  Now, the risen Lord Jesus Christ can come dwell in the life of the man who accepts Him as Savior.  He is able to accomplish within us that holiness which the law demanded but which the flesh was never able to attain.  In the measure that we yield to this new life of Christ, the new law operates, the law of the Spirit of life of the risen Christ, and makes it possible for God to bring righteousness to fruition in our daily lives.

Dr. Barnhouse reminds us that while free from the law we are not free to live as we want.  We are set free to live righteously not corruptly according to our sin nature.  Are you living this way?

Further Reading: Romans 6:15-23