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The Freedom of God's Grace
 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace (Romans 6:14). If we're no longer under the law but under grace, are we now free to sin and disregard the Ten Commandments? Paul says, "By no means." When we were under the law, sin was our master - the law does not justify us or help us overcome sin. But now that we are bound to Christ, he is our Master, and he gives us power "moment-by-moment-by grace" to do good rather than evil. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. (Philippians 2:13)
Anyone who is ruled by sin is living in disobedience. Sin and disobedience are virtually synonymous. Grace is the path of deliverance from disobedience. "For you are not under law but under grace." Sin is transgression of the law of God. The law can call us to the holy standards of God, but the law cannot help us to obey those perfect standards. "For the law made nothing perfect" (Hebrews 7:19). Grace is God's resource for forgiveness of sin (thus rescuing us from the dominating penalty of sin): "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7). Grace is also God's strength for daily living in victory over sin (thereby rescuing us from the dominating influence of sin): "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 2:1).
Romans 8:4 indicates the connection between obedience and grace. The opening words address a primary reason why Christ died on the cross: "that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us." It is God's desire that the holy demands of the law be increasingly lived out in our lives. This would amount to a life of obedience. The law itself could never produce this. "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3). What God's law could not do (because of man's inability to live up to it), God did through His Son. Now, by means of all that Christ has provided for us, we can live obediently. Who is it that walks in obedience? It is those who "do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Christians who face each day by the flesh only access the carnal resources of natural man. On the other hand, those who depend daily upon the Spirit draw from the grace resources of a supernatural God.
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ ... I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. (Ephesians 1:3; Galatians 2:21)
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