p. 4 | Under the Law” and “Under Grace by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 9, 1907

_“Under the Law” and “Under Grace”_

By W. A. S.

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Rom. 6:14.

How often this text is quoted to excuse disobedience of God’s law! What is it to be “under the law,” according to this text? Not to be under the law is not to be under the rule or dominion of sin. Then to be under the law is to be under the rule of sin.

“Sin is the transgression of the law.” I John 3:4. Then to be under the dominion of sin is to be transgressing the law, and this brings one “under the law.”

The text shows that being “under grace” is exactly the opposite, which means living in obedience to the law. Those under the dominion or power of the grace of Jesus are not ruled over by sin, or transgression of the law.

Some seem to think that Christ came to set men free from obeying God’s law. The grace of Christ is given expressly to set men free from disobeying it. Breaking God’s law is bondage. Keeping it is liberty. Ps. 119:45.

Who walks the streets of our cities free from the civil law against stealing—the honest man who keeps the law, or the man who breaks it? The man who steals is under the law at once. The civil law against stealing can never touch the man who obeys it. He is free from its condemnation.

Just so the believer, who through faith is made obedient to God’s law by grace, is free from the condemnation of the law. But the man who disobeys is under its condemnation. Sin, or transgression of the law, has dominion over him.

Who is “under the law”?—The one who disobeys it. Who is “under grace”?—The one who through the power of divine grace is made obedient to the law.

W. A. S.