Part 4 - The Application of Faith
Reckoning Grace through Christ
A fourth area of reckoning, listed by Paul the Apostle as he writes on
experiential sanctification in the sixth chapter of the book of Romans, is
the position that the believer has under the rule of Christ, a position
under grace. It is vitally important that faith be applied to this place of
separation through Christ. The believer has been taken out from a position
under the rule of the Mosaic law and placed under the rule and grace of Jesus
Christ. This aspect of the redemptive work of Christ is to be reckoned, where it is to be
accounted as so and believed upon. For fruitfulness in Christ and
deliverance from the power of sin, there is no more important element of
faith.
Not under law but under grace
Paul writes: "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not
under law but under grace" (Rom. 6:14). He previously wrote, "Therefore do
not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts"
(verse 12). The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ delivers the believer
from the dominion of the law. Sin is strengthened by the law, and through
the law sin will prevail. In redemption, Christ has taken the believer out
from under the law and placed him under His own rule of grace. Sin no longer
reigns over those in Christ. It is Jesus Christ Himself who now rules and
reigns over the believer. This position is one to be reckoned, and one to
which faith must be applied. It is only under grace where liberty from the
reign of sin is found.
These verses are not about a struggle to stop sinning, but about reckoning
who or what has the reign and dominion over oneself. The believer is to
reckon that he has been delivered from one dominion over to another, and
this through the death and resurrection of Christ. That which is to be
reckoned is this: "for you are not under the law but under grace."
Two deadly poisons
The place of living under the grace of God is entirely removed from the
realm of the law. If one were to imagine a scale, where the full rule of the
law is at one end and the total absence of law is at the other, this is all
the realm of law. At one end is full legalism and at the other is
lawlessness, or licentiousness. This realm all relates to the law,
whether it is adherence to it or the absence of it. The place of living under
the grace of God has nothing to do with this scale. It is entirely removed
from that whole realm. The place of grace is not some balance between law
and licentiousness. It is not at the opposite end of full law, neither is it
some point between law and lawlessness. Both legalism and licentiousness are
deadly poisons in regards to grace. To live somewhere between the two is in
fact to take two types of poison.
The realm of grace
The realm of grace is not a realm of degrees of law. It is a realm under
Christ, a realm that is different than the realm under the law. One realm is
the rule of the law, the other realm is the rule of Christ. One realm
entails the span from legalism to licentiousness and concerns the amount of
rule by the law; the other realm concerns the rule of God where He gives
unmerited favor to His children in drawing them unto Himself by grace.
Those in Christ are called to both righteousness and liberty. These must be
reconciled under the rule and grace of Christ. To focus only on
righteousness will lead one into legalism. To focus only on liberty will
lead one into licentiousness. But both are truths in Christ and either one
must not be diminished by the other. It is the grace of God through Christ
that establishes both of these truths in the life of the believer.
Liberty in Christ is not liberty from the law, but rather liberty from the
power of sin, and bondage to sin. Sin is strengthened by the law and so
deliverance from sin cannot come under the law. Deliverance comes from the
inward rule of Christ rather than the outward rule of the law. Christ
changes the heart and gives the freedom of doing what a changed heart
desires. By grace God's Spirit writes the law in one's heart and creates the
desire for the righteousness that it points to.
Paul further explains: "Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those
who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he
lives?" (Rom. 7:1). It takes death to remove one from the realm of the law.
Those joined to Christ are accounted by God to have died with Christ on the
cross. This death ends the dominion of the law. He goes on to say,
"Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the
body of Christ, that you may be married to another; to Him who was raised
from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God" (Rom. 7:4). A believer's
relationship to Christ is likened to a marriage relationship. The believer
who had been married to the law is now, through the death of Christ, married
to the risen Christ. To be married to both is considered an adulterous relationship
(verse 3).
Transformed through grace
Grace is God's unmerited favor. Through it God works in a person's life to
transform him into the image of Christ. It is God's help to accomplish that
which is impossible by the flesh. Grace is only made possible because Jesus
Christ has born the wrath of God toward sin. An aspect of reckoning that one
lives under grace is to reckon that God's anger toward sin is fully
propitiated through the death of Christ on the cross. One's relationship to
God through Christ is one under God's love, mercy, longsuffering, and grace.
To live under the grace of Christ is to live under the rule of Christ. In
this realm, Christ is working to conform His people into His own image.
Jesus Christ is a perfect fulfillment of the law, which is a written
specification of love toward God and love toward fellow mankind. It is
through grace that love is formed in a person. Jesus as a shepherd rules
over His flock to conform them to the love that is of God. Such a love is
not accomplished through the law. To be married to Christ and to live under
His grace is the place where one can "bear fruit to God." The believer is to
reckon this position, count it so, and believe it.
To this end Jesus Christ presents Himself as the Truth. As the "image of the invisible God," a God who
defines Himself by love, Jesus is the perfect love that the law requires. It is under His reign that
one is conformed to that image by transforming grace. To believe in Christ is to reckon the truth that He is the way to
a living relationship with God. Only in reckoning the grace-filled reign
of Christ over oneself can one find that, as Paul says, "sin shall not have
dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."
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