2. Then Paul presents again the question raised by the obstinate
world when it encounters this doctrine. "What then?" he asks, "shall
we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?" It is the
perversity of the world that, when we preach about forgiveness of
sins by pure grace and without merit of man, it should either say we
forbid good works, or else try to draw the conclusion that man may
continue to live in sin and follow his own pleasure; when the fact
is, we should particularly strive to live a life the very reverse of
sinful, that our doctrine may draw people to good works, unto the
praise and honor and glory of God. Our doctrine, rightly apprehended,
does not influence to pride and vice, but to humility and obedience.
3. In affairs of temporal government, whether domestic or civil,
judge or ruler, it is understood that he who asks for pardon
confesses himself guilty, acknowledges his error and promises to
reform--to transgress no more. For instance, when the judge extends
mercy and pardon to the thief deserving of the gallows, the law is
canceled by grace. Suppose now the thief continues in wrong-doing and
boasts, "Now that I am under grace I may do as I please, I have no
law to fear"; who would tolerate him? For though the law is indeed
canceled for him and he receives not merited punishment, though grace
delivers him from the rope and the sword, life is not granted him
that he may continue to steal, to murder; rather he is supposed to
become honest and virtuous. If he does not, the law will again
overtake him and punish him as he deserves. In short, where grace
fulfills the law, no one is for that reason given license to continue
in wrong-doing; on the contrary, he is under increased obligation to
avoid occasions of falling under condemnation of the law.
4. Everyone can readily comprehend this principle in temporal things;
no one is stupid enough to tolerate the idea of grace being granted
to extend opportunity to do wrong. It is only the Gospel doctrine
concerning God's grace and the forgiveness of sin that must suffer
the slanderous misrepresentation that makes it abolish good works or
give occasion for sin. We are told how God, in his unfathomable
grace, has canceled the sentence of eternal death and hell fire
which, according to the Law and divine judgment, we deserved, and has
given us instead the freedom of life eternal; thus our life is purely
of grace. Yet certainly we are not pardoned that we may live as
before when, under condemnation and wrath, we incurred death. Rather,
forgiveness is bestowed that we in appreciation of the sublimity and
sanctity of God's unspeakably great blessing which delivers us from
death unto life, should henceforth take heed that we lose it not;
that we fall not from grace to pass again under judgment and the
sentence of eternal death. We are to conduct ourselves as men made
alive and saved.
5. So Paul says in verse 16, "Know ye not, that to whom ye present
yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye
obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?"
Meaning, Since you now have, under grace, obtained forgiveness of sin
and are become righteous, you owe it to God to live in obedience to
his will. Necessarily your life must be obedient to some master.
Either you obey sin, to continue in the service of which brings death
and God's wrath, or you obey God, in grace, unto a new manner of
life. So, then, you are no more to obey sin, having been freed from
its dominion and power. Paul continues the topic in this Sunday's
epistle text, saying: