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, nor 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 to do 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."