Under the Law

Some who object to keeping the commandments cite Paul’s words in Romans 6:14, “Ye are not under the law, but under grace.” What did the apostle mean by that phrase?

It is clear from the rest of the book that Paul believed in the obligation of Christians to keep the commandments (Romans 2:13; 3:31; 7:12; and 8:4 for example). So, what did he mean when he said, “Ye are not under the law”?

When a person robs a bank, he is arrested, handcuffed, and taken to prison. He is locked behind bars and cannot free himself. He is under the law.

Then suppose he is pardoned and released from jail. He is able to go home to his family. He is now under grace.

Is he now at liberty to go back and rob the bank again without punishment? Certainly not. In fact, because of the pardon he received, he is under even greater obligation to keep the law than before.

To be “under the law” means to be under the condemnation of the law because of our violation of it. Romans 3:19 tells us that the sentence of the law against “them who are under the law” is that they are “guilty before God.” Romans 3 emphasizes that all the world is guilty and therefore under the law, because all have sinned and transgressed the law. But Christ came “to redeem them that were under the law” (Galatians 4:5). He came to redeem us, not from the obligation of the law, but “from the curse of the law” (Galatians 3:13). Paying our penalty, He pardons our transgression, and places us under grace.

The Bible says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” It is when we are under the dominion of sin that we are under the law. In bondage to sin, we cannot free ourselves from its power. We have no means of escaping the curse pronounced by the law upon us. But when we decide to commit ourselves to Christ, take up our cross and follow Him as our Lord and Master, we are delivered from sin’s dominion. By His amazing grace we are released from the chains that held us captive to sin. This is what the apostle meant when he said, “Ye are not under the law, but under grace.” And it applies only to those who have surrendered themselves to be “led of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:18).

When Paul wanted to speak of people who recognized no obligation to obey God’s law, he did not describe them as “not under the law.” Instead, he referred to them as “without law,” and he made it clear that such persons will “perish.” Romans 2:12.

The difference between “not under the law” and “without law” is emphasized in 1 Corinthians 9:20, 21. In verse 20 Paul uses the expression “under the law” in the same way he always does. “Unto the Jews,” he says, “I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law.” Then he says, “To them that are without law, as without law,...” But at that point, to make it absolutely clear that he recognized that, as a servant of God, he was under obligation to obey God’s law, he added in parentheses, “being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.” On the question of obligation to keep the law, Paul made it clear that he was under the law.