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Our apostle having, in the foregoing verses, exhorted them to take care that sin get not any dominion over them by obeying its motions, yielding to its inclinations, and employing the faculties of the soul, and any of the members of the body in the service of sin; in this verse he gives them an encouraging promise, that though sin may rebel, yet is shall reign no more in a regenerate person: And that if they did pray and watch against it, strive and contend with it, though it would have a being and existence in them, yet it should not have a regency and dominion over them; because they were not under the law, or covenant of works, which gave the knowledge of sin, and required exact and perfect obedience, but gave no strength to perform it; but under grace, under a gospel-covenant, which administers strength to resist sin, and to overcome it: Shall sin not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Here observe, 1. The privilege of every regenerate and gracious person; Sin shall not have dominion over him.
Learn hence, That sin should not, and shall not reign over those who are in a state of grace, and under the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit of Christ: De jure, it should not; de facto; it shall not reign.
Sin shall not reign in us, nor have dominion over us.
1. Because of the mischievous influences of it, it plucks the sceptre out of God's hands, and puts it into Satan's. The throne of the heart is never empty, 'tis the design of sin to dethrone God and set up itself. And no less mischievous is sin to ourselves; for its servitude is base and burthensome, painful and shameful; the devil is a sure but a sad paymaster; he plagues them most, who have done him most service.
2. Because of the unsuitableness of sin to our renewed state we are not our own, but Christ's; his by purchase, his by conquest, his by convenant: Now if after such engagements we suffer sin to reign and have dominion over us, we rescind our baptismal vow, ratified by our personal consent.
3. The reason of the foregoing privilege, why sin shall not have dominion over us, because we are not under the law, but under grace.
Question, 1. But are not believers now under the law, though they live under the gospel?
Ans. Yes: They are under the rule and direction of the law, but not under the curse and malediction of the law: they are not under the law as a covenant of life, but they are under it as an eternal rule of living.
The law of God now binds the believer to the observation of it, as strictly as it did Adam in paradise; but upon the unwilling violation of it, he doth not incur the curse, Christ having redeemed us from the curse of the law, by being made a curse for us.
Quest. 2. But were not those that lived under the law of old, in a sort, under grace as well as we?
Ans. Yes, they were, but not in the same degree; good men then had help and assistance in the course of holiness and obedience, when they lived under the law; but they had it not by the law, but by the gospel, which was preached by them as well unto us, Heb_4:2. This administers stength to subdue sin, and power to overcome it.
Learn hence, That the gospel is a manifestation of the Spirit, and furnishes believers with sufficient helps against the power of sin, and with well grounded hopes of obtaining victory over it.
The grace of the gospel gives hopes of victory over sin several ways:
1. Because it was the end of Christ's death to slay sin.
2. Because of the new nature put into us, which is to help us against sin.
3. By assuring us of the Spirit's help, which is to assist us in the mortifying and subduing of sin; it inspires the Spirit's operation that we begin, carry on, and accomplish the work of mortification.
4. Because the gospel furnishes us with promises, and thereby gives us assurance of success: So then, if from all these encouragements we bid a confident defiance unto, and make a courageous resistance against sin, it shall never have a final and full dominion over us, because we are not under the law, but under grace.