“Ye are not under law, but under grace.” These words, recorded in Romans 6:14, are an exhortation from the apostle to Roman brethren to remember that they have become free from the law by Christ’s death. The passage is often abused by some who insist that Christians are not under any law. Such a conclusion is contrary to scripture as the very next passage explains: “What then, shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid” (Romans 6:15). It would be impossible to sin if we were under no law for “sin is the transgression of law” (1 John 3:4). The apostle simply tells us we are not under the Law of Moses; we are under grace — a contrast in terms between the Law which Moses gave and the law which was given by Christ. John wrote, “The law came by Moses; grace and truth through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). He is not to be understood as saying there was no grace nor truth under the Law any more he was saying there was no law in the gospel. Certainly, there was both grace and truth in the Law but the emphasis in the Law was upon keeping the Law: “He that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby” (Romans 10:5). But, while there certainly “is law” in the gospel (Galatians 6:2; James 1:25), the greater emphasis is upon the grace available to us therein.
The apostle showed that “to whom ye present yourselves servants unto obedience, his servant ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness” (Romans 6:16). Then the apostle adds, “But, thanks be to God that whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart unto that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:17-18).
Notice that the apostle showed how these Romans had become “servants of righteousness.” First, they were “servants of sin,” and being servants of sin, they were destined to suffer sin’s consequence: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). But that destiny changed for them when they “obeyed from the heart that form of teaching (doctrine) whereunto they were delivered.” What was that doctrine and the form of it? The doctrine was the gospel which is “God’s power unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” And what is the gospel? “I make know unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you…for I delivered unto you first that which I also received that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). That is “the teaching,” that is “the doctrine.”
Next, what was the “form of teaching” or “form of doctrine” whereunto they were delivered? He has shown us that in vv. 3-4: “Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death that like as Christ was raised form the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.” Baptism is the “form of teaching” or “form of doctrine.” In baptism we picture the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
In 6:17, Paul gives thanks to God that while these Romans had been servants of sin, they had “obeyed … from the heart that form of doctrine” — they had been baptized. And the result? “Being (then, KJV) made free from sin, they became servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:18). What more needed to be said than what the apostle had already said? These Romans had heard the teaching — the death of Christ for our sins, His burial in a borrowed tomb, and His resurrection on the third day was the means through which God provided grace which would free man from the guilt of sin. These Romans had believed that teaching, and from their heart they obeyed that “form” of teaching: in baptism they had died to sin, they had been buried into the death of Christ, and they had been raised to walk in newness of life.
Why baptism? Who is man to question God? God alone has the power to forgive and blot out sin. And having that sole right, He also has the sovereign right to dictate the terms by which man can benefit from the death and resurrection of Jesus. Who is man to question why He gave the conditions He gave? Surely a hopeless soul apart from the blood of Jesus should greatly appreciate the precious gift our loving Father desires to give us, that He will, without question, do whatever He commands him to do!
Jim McDonald