https://youtu.be/Z4rkslaueec
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans last time we started Rom 6:14; "For sin shall not rule over you..."
This means that the power of the old sin nature as the ruler of biological human life has been broken through the believer's identification with Jesus Christ in His spiritual death, physical death and burial.
However it is current positional truth that parlays positional victory into the experiential victory. The fact that we are positionally dead to good and evil does not mean that we are experientially dead to good and evil because we have to learn, think, and apply God's Word to our experience for experiential victory.
Current positional truth means that we are also identified with Christ in His resurrection, ascension and session. This emphasizes God's power in our new life that we noted in verses 4, 8, 10, 11, and 13. In verse 17 we will see more of this new life that is described as "that system of doctrinal teaching to which you were entrusted."
The new life must be a life of continuous assimilation of Bible Doctrine because that is the connection between our position and our experience because Bible Doctrine is the only source of spiritual growth for our advance to spiritual maturity.
The new life can be expressed by an equation: potential + capacity = reality of blessing in time. The primary potential is our justification from the imputation of God's righteousness at salvation.
The capacity is maximum doctrine resident and circulating in the soul that results in the reality of blessing in time. Doctrine produces maturity adjustment to God's justice and blessings in time are conveyed as the result of capacity from maturity adjustment to God's justice.
Another equation describes a secondary potential: the baptism of the Spirit, plus capacity from maximum doctrine resident and circulating in the soul results in maturity adjustment to God's justice. This creates the reality of a secure encapsulated environment.
The environment for blessing from God's justice is encapsulated so that historical disaster or any other negative historical situation has no affect on the conveyance of God's blessings to the advancing believer.
In seeking to continue the enslavement of the believer after its power is broken the old sin nature distorts the Mosaic Law into a system of human good that creates systems of legalistic religious evil.
Legalism is the tendency of reversionism to distort the Mosaic Law into a system of works and human good that creates systems called "religion" that produce satanic evil
Christianity is not a religion it is a personal individual relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Religion is the devil's greatest form of deception. Religion and legalism distort the Mosaic Law into a system of good deeds in an attempt to acquire God's approval and blessing but God never approves or blesses based on religion. God makes war with religion.
The next phrase in the verse becomes important because it emphasizes the fact that the believer is not under the authority of the Mosaic Law but comes under a new principle of blessing from God's grace. Grace is the exclusive source of our blessing in the sense that grace is the principle whereby God's justice provides blessing for every believer.
We must understand that God's justice is the source of God's grace not God's love.
Being under the authority of grace means the deployment of God's grace provision of rebound and the PMA of Bible Doctrine under GASP for victory over the power of the old sin nature and continuing to advance to spiritual maturity that is the reason why God gives us logistical grace provision.
"for you are not under law, but under grace" the postpositive particle "gar" (for) followed by the present active indicative of the verb "eimi" (are), plus the negative "ou" (not) that denies the reality of an alleged fact or an assertion of fact. Then a principle of authority, the preposition "hupo" (under) plus the accusative of "nomos" (law).
There is no definite article so it is anartharous emphasizing the quality of the law. In other words, there is nothing wrong with the law in its proper usage. Only the legalistic distortion and misapplication of law by religion becomes a problem.
The law in itself is holy, just, and good; it is from God so it is perfect but the law has limited objectives that are related to the conviction of the unbeliever and their need to believe in Jesus Christ to have their sins forgiven. The Law was given to lead unbelievers to Jesus.
Once a person becomes a believer in Jesus he is not under the authority of the law. Plus the adversative conjunction "alla" (but) emphasizing a contrast. There is a contrast of authority, and so we have a new law, the preposition "hupo" (under) plus the accusative of "charis" (grace).
Grace replaces the Law and becomes the believer's new principle of authority for blessing from God. Again, there is the absence of the definite article, emphasizing the qualitative aspect of "charis" (grace). Both the Mosaic Law and the principle of grace are from God, and when used properly both result in great blessing from God for the believer.
Expanded Translation Rom 6:14; "For the sin nature will not lord it over you: for you are not under law, but under grace."
We see here that while the Mosaic Law has a definite purpose that purpose does not include either salvation or victory over the old sin nature because the law cannot provide either salvation or victory over the sin nature.
The law only provides condemnation and believers in Jesus Christ are never under condemnation.
Rom 6:15; starts with a question regarding the distortion of grace. "What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?"
It begins with the nominative neuter singular from the interrogative pronoun "tis" ((what). Plus the inferential particle "oun" (then) forming the interrogative that sets up a principle with an interrogative and elliptical idiom that means, "What then are we to conclude?
Then the question: the aorist active subjunctive from the verb "harmartano" (shall we sin)? The constantive aorist refers to a momentary action, hence an occasional act of sin. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb through either mental, verbal, or overt sin.
The subjunctive mood is used here as a rhetorical device. Rhetorical questions in the Koine Greek represent an attitude of mind. Here the rhetorical question represents a false assumption that forms a question.
We have already seen that sin does not advance God's grace. The first half of the chapter is based upon that question in verse one. God's justice can only advance God's grace because grace is the policy of God's justice. Grace is the perfection and perfect character of God Himself.
Then we have the causal use of the conjunctive particle "hoti" (because) plus the present active indicative of the verb "eimi" (we are), plus the negative "ou" (not) that rejects the reality of the allegation.
Next we have a repetition of what we had in the closing phrase of the previous verse: the preposition "hupo" (under) plus the accusative of "nomos" (law) of "under (the authority of) law."
"but under grace?" the adversative conjunction "alla" (but) setting up a contrast between the authorities then we have "hupo" (under plus "charis:" (grace). Grace is never increased and never advanced by any function of sin, human good or evil that is produced by the old sin nature.
Grace originates from God's justice. Grace is the policy of God's justice in providing blessings for mankind so grace cannot not motivate sin because grace is from God and God does not sin.
Since it is God's policy grace cannot motivate sin or carnality and grace cannot motivate human good or evil.
Therefore being under the authority of grace means using grace provision to reject and oppose the trends of the old sin nature along with its sin and especially its human good and evil.
Acceptance of human good and evil is the cause of the downfall of today's Christianity and Western Civilization at this time in human history too because much of today's "Christianity" has turned grace into licentiousness instead of an opportunity for righteousness.
The old sin nature does not sponsor grace. God is the author of grace; God is the user of grace; grace is God's policy, it is not the policy of the old sin nature. The old sin nature's counter attack comes in the form of good and evil, but grace is strictly from God.
What we have in this verse a rhetorical question that is based on false assumptions from two antithetical failures, legalism and antinomianism.
To the legalist grace always appears as a license to sin. To the antinomian grace always appears as an excuse for sin.
Neither position is correct. In fact, both legalism and antinomianism are trends of the sin nature that distort and misuse God's grace.
These distortions can only be corrected through accurate understanding of the doctrines we have noted regarding God's imputations and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Neither legalism nor antinomianism can break away from the ruling power of the old sin nature over life because both are misapplications.
Only God's provision through His logistical grace support can parlay His positional victory over the old sin nature into experiential victory over the old sin nature.
The question demands an answer, and in this verse there is the negative answer. The positive answer is given in a separate paragraph, beginning in verse 16. Our answer is a very strong negative that is translated "May it never be," that is made up from two Greek words which are an idiom: "mh" (not) plus "genoito" (to become) that is the aorist active optative from the verb ginomai.
The literal translation of the idiom is "Let it not be so." The negative "mh" (not) is a qualified negative used in the prohibitive sense in an independent clause to express a negative desire. While the negative "ou" (not) rejects the fact, the negative "mh" (not) in our context rejects the idea.
The aorist tense of ginomai is a gnomic aorist that is used for the certainty of refuting a false allegation. In other words, the idiom is telling us that this is false, it is wrong; it is out of line and it an evil assumption.
The active voice: the false conclusion produces the action and is being rejected by the idiom. The optative mood e expresses a negative desire. This is a very strong negative idiom that deprecates the erroneous assumption stated by the debater's rhetorical question.
Translation: "Emphatically not." Grace always emphasizes the function of God's justice, not God's love.
The negative idiom rejects the allegation that even occasional sin, human good, or the function of evil in the believer increases grace.
God's grace only increases in direct proportion to the development of the believer's capacity for blessing from maximum doctrine resident in the soul.
Expanded Translation Rom 6:15; "What then are we to conclude? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Definitely not."
We see from this verse that maximum doctrinal inculcation results in increased grace. We must recognize that grace is related to our PMA of doctrine, not our failures and disasters. Grace is the policy of God's justice in providing blessing for the believer in time as well as in eternity.
God's integrity does not depend on man's sinfulness or the production of human good, or the function of evil. God's integrity is not sponsored by the function of the old sin nature or its trends.
Committing personal sin does not increase grace blessing from God's justice. Sin, human good, and evil actually increases discipline and punishment from God's justice.
Being under the authority of God's grace does not encourage us to perform acts of personal sin it motivates us to press on to maturity through the consistent intake of God's Word of Truth.