BELIEVERS FREE FROM THE DOMINION OF SIN – Charles Spurgeon
Believers Free from the Dominion of Sin
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:14.
Introduction to the Believer’s Freedom
Our constant hearers will remember that a Sabbath or so ago, we spoke on the topic, “Submit yourselves unto God.” It is both the way to peace and the way of peace to submit one’s whole self unto God. Nor is it an irksome task to a true believer, but the desire of his heart and the pleasure of his life. He shudders at the idea of yielding his members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. However, according to the language of the verse that precedes our text, he yields himself unto God as one who has been made alive from the dead and his members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Complete consecration of every faculty of mind and body unto the Lord is our soul’s deepest wish.
We can sing most sincerely that sweet consecration hymn:
“Take my hands and let them move,
At the impulse of Your love.
Take my feet and let them be,
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King!
Take my lips and let them be,
Filled with messages from Thee.
Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my intellect, and use
Every power as You shall choose.
So that all my powers combine,
To adore Your grace divine,
Heart and soul a living flame,
Glorifying Your great name.”
The Struggle Against Sin
But, beloved, we find another law in our members warring against the law of our mind. To the full yielding up of all our members, we find a hindrance in the sin which dwells in us—sin that finds its haunt and hiding place in our mortal bodies, in the desires, passions, and appetites of our animal nature. These, within proper limits, are right enough; it is right that we eat and drink, and so forth. But our natural instincts are apt to demand indulgence and thus become lusts. Our mortal bodies, in their natural desires, afford dens for the foxes of sin.
The carnal mind also readily leans toward the indulgence of the body, and thus, a powerful opposition to the work of grace is presented. Every true child of God must be conscious of the presence of the rebellious power and principle of sin within him. We strive to keep it under, to subdue and conquer it, and we hope to see it utterly exterminated at the last. For our case is like that of Israel with the Canaanites, and we long for the day when, “There shall no more be the Canaanite in the house of the land.”
Sin as a Dominant Force
Sin is a domineering force. A man cannot sin up to a fixed point and then say to sin, “Up to here shall you come, but no farther.” It is an imperious power, and where it dwells, it is hungry for mastery. Just as our Lord, when He enters the soul, will never be content with a divided dominion, so it is with sin. It labors to bring our entire manhood under subjection. Therefore, we are compelled to strive daily against this ambitious principle.
According to the working of the Spirit of God in us, we wrestle against sin so that it may not have dominion over us. It has unquestioned dominion over multitudes of human hearts, and in some, it has set up its horrid throne on high, keeping its seat with the force of arms, so that its empire is undisturbed. In others, the throne is disputed, for conscience mutinies, but yet the tyrant is not dethroned.
The Tyranny of Sin in the World
Over the whole world, sin exercises a dreadful tyranny. It would hold us in the same bondage were it not for one who is stronger than sin, who has undertaken to deliver us out of its hand and will certainly perform the redeeming work. Here is the charter of our liberty, the security of our safety—“Sin shall not have dominion over you.” It reigns over those who abide in unbelief, but it shall not have dominion over you. “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” The whole world lies in the wicked one, but “you are not of the world,” and therefore “sin shall not have dominion over you.”
The Assurance of Believers
If we are distressed by the fear that sin will ultimately get the mastery over us, let us be comforted by our text. Holy jealousy leads us to fear that though we have for many years been enabled to maintain a spotless character before men, we may, in some unguarded hour, make shipwreck of faith and end our life voyage as castaways upon the rocks of shame. The flesh is frail, and our strength is perfect weakness. Therefore, we dread lest we should make some terrible fall and bring dishonor upon the holy name by which we are called. Under such feelings, we may fly for comfort to the rich assurance of the text, “Sin shall not have dominion over you.”
The Peculiar Position of Believers
Three things will demand our consideration and afford us consolation this morning. The first is the peculiar position of believers—“You are not under the law, but under grace.” All men are under the law by nature and consequently, they are condemned by it because they have broken its commandments. Apart from our Lord Jesus, men are only reprieved criminals, respited from day to day, but still under sentence and waiting for the appointed hour when the warrant shall be solemnly executed upon them.
But believers are regarded as having died in Christ, and by that death, they have escaped from under the law. They are clean delivered from the law because their Redeemer endured the penalty of the law on their behalf, and at the same time honored the law by rendering perfect obedience to it. Thus, in a two-fold manner, He met all the law’s requirements so that it has no more demands upon His people.
“Not under the law,” means that we are not trying to be saved by obedience to the law. We do not pretend to earn eternal life by merit, nor hope to claim anything of the Lord as due to us for good works. The principle that rules our life is not mercenary. We do not expect to earn a reward; neither are we flogged to duty by dread of punishment. We are under grace—that is to say, we are treated on the principle of mercy and love, not on that of justice and desert.
The Privileges of Grace
Freely, of His own undeserved favor, God has forgiven us for Christ’s sake. He has regarded us wIth favor, not because we deserved it, but simply because He willed to do so, according to that ancient declaration, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” The Lord did not choose us because of any goodness in us, but He has saved us and called us according to the purpose of His own will.
Moreover, our continuance in a state of salvation depends upon the same grace that first placed us there. We do not stand or fall according to our personal merit, but because Jesus lives, we live. Because Jesus is accepted, we are accepted. Because Jesus is beloved, we are beloved. In a word, our standing is not based upon merit, but upon mercy; not upon our changeable character, but upon the immutable mercy of God. Grace is the tenure upon which we hold our position before the Lord.
Freedom from the Curse of the Law
Let us endeavor to recount the privileges of this position by mentioning the evils from which it releases us. First, we no longer dread the curse of the law. Those who are under the law may well be horribly afraid because of the penalties which are due through their many failures and transgressions. They have broken the law and are therefore in constant danger of judgment and condemnation.
The careless try to shake off the thought as much as possible by putting off the evil day, by forgetting death, and by pretending to disbelieve in judgment and eternal wrath. But still more or less, this thought disturbs them, and a dreadful sound is in their ears. When men are once awakened, the dread of punishment for sin haunts them day and night and fills them with terror.
Now, believers have no fear as to the punishment of their sin, for our sin was by the Lord Himself laid upon Jesus, and the penalty was borne by Him. “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes, we are healed.” “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: as it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.”
The Believer’s Assurance of Freedom
Substitution clears the Christian from all debt to justice, and he dares to challenge the law itself with the question—who is he that condemns, since Christ has died? Yes, He goes further and challenges an accusation—who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect, since God has justified? No penalty do we dread, for we are forgiven, and God will not pardon and then punish.
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Will God punish those from whom He has removed transgression, or cast those into hell whose sins He has cast behind His back? Impossible. Therefore, when we see the stern array of the judgment seat and hear the threats of vengeance, we who are believers rejoice to feel that these terrors have nothing to do with us.
No Fear of Judgment
The Great Surety has secured His people from all risk of wrath. The undying worm is not for them, the unquenchable fire is not for them, neither shall the pit shut her mouth upon them, for they are not under the law.
Then the believer no longer drudges in unwilling obedience, seeking to reach a certain point of merit. The man under the law, who is awakened and very frequently, tries to keep the commands in order to attain, at any rate, a fair measure of goodness.
Living Under Grace
The believer is under no such drudgery. Christ has fulfilled the law for him, and he rests in that finished work. He does not aim at high attainments in order to win the favor of God. He has that favor. It has come to him freely and undeserved, and he rejoices in it.
The Power of Grace
A high ambition moves him, but it is not that of saving himself by his own works. He obeys out of love. He delights in the law after the inner man and confesses with Paul, “The law is holy, and just, and good.” He wishes that he could live without sin, but he never dreams that even then he could make atonement for the past, nor does he fancy that by his own merit he is to obtain salvation for the future.
The Finished Work of Christ
The work through which he is saved is complete. It is not his own work, but the work of Jesus, and therefore, when he sees his own shortcomings and iniquities, he does not doubt his salvation but continues to rest in Jesus. He is no longer a slave, flogged with the whip of fear and made to labor for his very life and gather nothing for his pains. But he is free from the principle of law and works from a principle of love, not to secure divine favor, but because that favor has been freely manifested towards him.
Confidence in Christ’s Righteousness
The Christian man is now no longer uncertain as to the continuance of divine love. Under the law, no man’s standing can be secure, since by a single sin, he may forfeit his position. If a legalist should be able to persuade himself that he has reached a sufficient point of merit and is safe, yet he cannot be sure of continuing in his exalted position, for like the flower of the grass, all human comeliness withers away.
However meritorious a man may conceive himself to be, yet he may fall short of the standard even now. And if not, in the future he may spoil it all. The learned Bellarmine, one of the great antagonists of Martin Luther, once gave utterance to language which I cannot verbally remember, but which was to the following effect. Of course, being a Papist, he believed in justification by works, but yet he observed that, “nevertheless, seeing that even in the best of men good works are usually marred by sin, and seeing that no man can know when he has performed quite enough good works to save him, it is upon the whole, safest to trust only in the merits of Jesus Christ.”
We agree with the cardinal and accept the safest way as good enough for us. Safest, indeed, it is to us, for it is the only way which we can tread, since all the good works we have ever done are defiled and polluted either in motive beforehand or in the spirit in which they were done, or by proud reflections afterwards. We dare not trust even in our prayers and devotions and almsgivings or repentances, but must rest only upon the merits of Christ.
Resting on Christ’s Finished Work
The merits of Christ are always a constant and abiding quantity. If therefore, we rest thereon, our foundation is as secure at one time as it is today. The merits of Jesus will be throughout eternity sweet before God on our behalf. Is He not “the same yesterday, today, and forever”? Therefore, the confidence of the believer rests upon a foundation which will no more be shaken in the future than it is today.
Glory be to God, He does not cast away His people whom He did foreknow. He does not love today and hate tomorrow, nor favor with His grace the child whom He has adopted and afterwards disown him. “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” We are clear from the bondage of the law, since we are no longer under the covenant of works but have come under the covenant of grace, which is founded upon promises which nothing can disannul.
The Confidence of the Believer
In consequence of this, the believer is no longer afraid of the last great day. Shall all our sins be read and published before an assembled universe? “If so,” says the man who is under the law, “it will go hard with me.” Judgment is a terrible word to those who are hoping to save themselves, for if their doings are to be put into the balances, they will surely be found wanting. But judgment has no terror in it to a believer. He can sing with our poet—
“Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who anything to my charge shall lay?
While through Your blood absolved I am
From sin’s tremendous curse and shame.”
Freedom from Sin’s Dominion
Will the sins of believers be published at the last day? If it is to the glory of forgiving love, let them be. Who among us need be afraid since at the end of the whole list there shall be written, “And all these were blotted out for Jesus Christ’s sake.” And if not published at all because all our sins were cast behind Jehovah’s back, and if instead thereof, the Judge shall only proclaim the good works of His people and say, “I was hungry and you gave Me meat, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; and inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these, My brethren, you have done it unto Me,” then we may well welcome the last judgment and cry, “Welcome, welcome, Son of God.”
The Assurance of Grace
If the book of record shall be opened which might justly condemn us, yet it is written, “And another book was opened, which was the book of life.” If our names are there we have nothing to fear. One word may be added here, namely, that the believer, being no longer under the law, has no slavish dread of God. As long as I am at enmity with God, guilty of breaking His law and liable to His righteous wrath, I dread His name and shrink from His presence. The soul under the law stands as the Israelites did, far off from the mountain, with a barrier set between themselves and the glory of God. Distance and separation are the natural condition of all who are under the law.
The Grace of Access
Not so the believer, for his heart and his flesh cry out for the Lord and he pants to come and appear before God. We have access with boldness to the throne of the heavenly grace and we delight to avail ourselves of it. Through the Mediator, we have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has made us long to be brought nearer and nearer to our divine Father. Our God is a consuming fire, but that consuming fire has no terror for us since it will only melt the alloy from the gold and remove the dross from the silver.
The law could only say to us, “Depart, you cursed,” but grace says, “Come, you blessed.” The law said, “Draw not near here: put off your shoes from off your feet,” but grace cries with a voice of pity, “Whoever is thirsty, come and whoever will, let him come.” We have accepted the call of grace and now we know the Lord and love Him. Perfect love has cast out fear, for fear has torment. We are not under the law, but we have “known and believed the love that God has to us.”
Conclusion
Now I speak to you Christian people, even to you who believe in Christ, and I beg you to understand this freedom from the law and then to hold it fast. For there are some of you who return, in a measure, to the legal yoke, whereas the Apostle says, “Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Do you feel helpless, cold and heavy? Do you, therefore, conclude that you are not saved? Are you not coming under the law and measuring the power of the grace of God by your own merits or excellences?
Standing in the Grace of God
If you judge your standing before God by anything except your faith in His promise, you will bring yourself into bondage. You can walk by faith, but you will stumble if you try any other way. There is but one deliverance for me when I question my own state, and that is to fly to simple faith in Jesus. When Satan says, “You are no saint,” do not argue with him, for he is too subtle for a poor soul like you. Yield the point and say, “It may be I am no saint, nor are you either.”
“No,” he says, “you are deceived, you are a hypocrite.” Reply to him, “If I am not a saint, I am a sinner. And being a sinner, I find it written that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I put myself in that list, O Satan, and even you cannot deny that I am such. I believe in Jesus and believing in Him I am justified before God by the righteousness of my Lord, and I have peace with God through Jesus Christ.”
Beloved, this is safe standing. If we are indeed saved by the righteousness of another, why do we question the power of that righteousness to save us because of our own conscious feebleness, for we are not saved by our own strength or feebleness, but by the power of the Lord Jesus. If we are standing with one foot on the rock of Christ’s finished work and the other upon the sand of our own doings, then we may well stand or totter according to which foot we are trusting at the moment. But if we set both feet upon the rock, then we may stand fast though the sea roars and the floods sweep the sand away.
A Finished Salvation
Mind you, do not try the double foundation, for it will never hold. No, our great Redeemer cried, “It is finished,” and it is finished, and those who rest on Him have a finished salvation, for they are not under the law, but under grace.
Sin Shall Not Have Dominion Over You
Mark how Paul puts it—“What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” He flings away the inference with horror and detestation, crying, “God forbid!”
The Law vs. Grace
Let me just show you why being under the law is not helpful to holiness, while being under grace is the great means of it. Those who are under the law will always be under the dominion of sin, and it cannot be otherwise. First, because the law puts a man under the dominion of sin, by pronouncing sentence of condemnation upon him as soon as he has transgressed. What does the law say to him? “From this point on you are guilty and I condemn you. He that offends in one point is guilty of all.” Thus, the law shuts a man up to being a sinner and offers him no space for repentance. It accuses, condemns, and sentences, but affords no hope and offers no encouragement.
Grace Offers Hope and Forgiveness
It is not so with those who are under grace. To them, grace says, “You are sinners, but you are freely forgiven. Your iniquity is pardoned; your transgression is put away. Go, and sin no more.” Thus relieved, the penitent lifts up his head and cries, “Enable me to praise You, and grant that I may be upheld by grace in the way of uprightness.” The amazing love of God, when shed abroad in the heart, creates a desire for better things and what the law could not do, grace accomplishes.
The Law Drives Despair
A man under the law is, by the law, driven to despair. “What?” he asks, “Am I to keep this law in order to be saved? Alas, I have already broken it, and if I had not, it is too high and holy for me to rise to its full height.” Therefore, he resolves that he will not attempt the task and he sinks into indifference, or, in some cases, he thinks of the old proverb that you may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, and he resolves that he will take his fill of sin. Because there is no hope, he will plunge into iniquity. He vows that if hell must be his portion forever, he might as well enjoy the sweetness there is in sin while he may.
The Effect of the Law on the Human Heart
So, the law, because of the evil heart it has to deal with, excites such a condition of heart that sin is confirmed in its dominion. Being threatened, the rebellious heart hardens itself and defies the Lord. And then, concluding that peace is impossible, it continues more and more to fight against the Lord.
The Role of Grace in Breaking Sin’s Dominion
Not so the child of God, he says, “God, for Christ’s sake, has cast my sins behind His back, and I am saved. Now, for the love I bear His name, I will serve Him with all my might, because of all that He has done for me.” Thus, the grace of our Lord Jesus, by its freeness and richness, breaks the dominion of sin, which the law only served to establish and confirm. Not that the law is evil, God forbid, but because we are evil and rebel against the holy law.
The Law’s Ineffectiveness Against Sin
A man under the law does not escape from the dominion of sin because the law wakes the opposition of the human heart. There are many things that people never wish to do, nor think of doing, until they are forbidden. Lock up a closet in your house and say to your wife and children, “You must never enter that closet, nor even look into the keyhole.” Perhaps they have never wanted to look into the dingy old corner before, but now they pine to inspect it. A number of bylaws have lately been posted up as to the use of Clapham Common, and I am half afraid to read them for fear I should want to break them. I dare say that many things which I never desired to do are now strictly prohibited, and I shall feel vexed with the commissioners for lessening my liberty.
The Law’s Effect of Creating Sin
Law, by reason of our unruly nature, excites opposition and creates sin, for what a man may not do, he immediately wants to do. He who is under the law will never escape from the dominion of sin, for sin comes by the law by reason of the iniquity of our hearts. But when we are not under the law, but under grace, we love God for His love to us and labor to please Him in all things.
Grace Offers What the Law Cannot
The law, moreover, affords a man no actual help. All it does is to say, “You shall” and “You shall not.” It can do no more. But grace gives us what the law requires of us. The law says, “Make a new heart.” Grace replies, “A new heart also, will I give you, and a right spirit will I put within you.” The law says, “Keep My commandments.” And grace answers, “You shall keep My commandments and do them.” Grace brings the Holy Spirit into the soul to work in us holy affections and a hatred of sin, and therefore, what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, grace accomplishes for us by its own almighty power.
The Law Inspires No Love
Further, the law inspires no sentiment of love, and love, after all, is the fulfilling of the law. If you are told you shall and you shall not, there is nothing in this to inspire love to the lawgiver. Law is hard and cold, like the two tables of Moses. Law does not change the heart or remove enmity. It tends rather the other way. Law never excites enthusiasm for that which is right. It is too stern and chill to touch the heart.
The Legalist’s Righteousness
Mere law does not even raise in a man’s heart a high ideal of what he ought to be. Look at the legalist, the man who hopes for salvation by the law; he looks upon religion as a task in which he has no delight. He is a bond slave and nothing more. He does as much or as little as he is forced to do, but his heart is not in it. The men who think they have kept the law of God are evidently very far from understanding its meaning. They have a very poor idea of the mind of God, or they would not have thought that they had fulfilled the will of God with such a poor, miserable, hypocritical righteousness as theirs.
The Pharisee’s False Righteousness
The Pharisee thought he had kept the law, for he fasted twice a week and paid tithes of all he possessed. Yet the same man could go and swallow a widow’s house behind the door and do all sorts of abominable actions. It is clear that he had formed a shockingly low notion of true holiness. In fact, he had degraded the law into a mere external ordinance, which took note of the outside of the cup and platter and left the inside full of filthiness.
The Power of Grace to Inspire Holiness
But see what grace does. It fires a man with enthusiasm and sets before him a lofty idea of excellence. It causes him to love the Lord, and then it gives him a high idea of purity and holiness. Though he rises many grades beyond the Pharisee, yet the believer cries, “I am not what I should be.” And if he becomes the most zealous, consecrated man that ever lived, the law is still beyond him, and he still asks that he may be able to rise to greater heights of holiness and virtue. This grace does, but this the law can never do.
The True Heart Service
The most pleasing service in the world is that which is done from motives of affection and not for wages. The servant who only does his work for his pay is not valued like the old attached domestic who nursed you when you were a boy and waited on your father before you. No money can purchase such service as he renders; it is so thoroughly hearty and prompt. If you could not afford to pay his wages, he would still stay with you. And if anything goes awry, he puts up with it because he loves you. You prize such a man above rubies.
Heart Service in God’s Kingdom
So it is with the child of God. The mere legalist does what he ought, or at least thinks he does so. But as for heartiness and zeal, he knows nothing of such things. The child of God, with all his feebleness and his blunders, is far more accepted, for he does all he can out of pure love and then cries, “I am an unprofitable servant. I have done no more than was my duty to have done. Lord, help me to do more.”
Grace Produces True Service
God accepts heart service, but heart service the law never did produce and never will. The only true heart service in the world comes from those who are not under the law, but under grace, and therefore, sin shall not have dominion over those who are not under the law.
The Spirit of the World vs. the Grace of God
The spirit of the world is legal, and its wise men tell us that we must preach to people that they must be virtuous or they will go to hell, and we must hold out heaven as the reward of morality. They believe in the principle of chain and whip. But what comes of such doctrine? The more you preach it, the less virtue, the less obedience there is in the world.
The Power of Preaching Grace
But when you preach love, the effect is very different—“Come,” says God, “I forgive you freely. Trust My Son and I will save you outright, though in you there is nothing to merit My esteem. Accept My free favor and I will receive you graciously and love you freely.” This looks at first sight as if it gave a license to sin, but how does it turn out? Why, this wondrous grace taking possession of the human heart breeds love in return, which love becomes the fountain of purity and holiness, and such as receive it endeavor to perfect holiness in the fear of God.
Live Under Grace, Not Under the Law
Beloved, do not get under the law, do not yield to legal threats or legal hopes, but live under the free grace gospel. Let the note that peals on your ear be no longer the thunder of Sinai, “Do and live,” but let it be the sweet song of free grace and dying love. Ah, ring those charming bells from morn till eve. Let us hear their liquid music again and again. Live and do, not do and live—not work for salvation, but being saved, work. Being already delivered, go forth and prove, by your grateful affections and zealous actions, what the grace of God has done for you.
Conclusion
“Whoever believes in Jesus Christ has everlasting life.” “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believes not shall be damned.” Amen.