Choosing Grace

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.” (Romans 12:1)

It is a question of setting our wills, then yielding — in that order. If we don’t will, then, by habit, we will yield to the wrong thing. We must stop presenting our bodies, our members, to sin. When we were still unbelievers, we did just that for a long while. But we have to stop and say, “That’s the end of that!” Once we yield our wills to God, we don’t have to yield our members to Satan.

“For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14)

The implications of this statement are far-reaching. Paul said that we are not under law but under grace. It is either one or the other — it cannot be both at the same time. If we are under law, we are not under grace. If we are under grace, we are not under law.

Moreover, Paul said that sin shall not have dominion over us, for we are not under the law. The corollary is that if we are under the law, sin will have dominion over us. That is a shocking statement to many people, but that is what the Bible consistently says.

We are not governed by a set of rules. We have become sons of God, and we obey Him because we love Him. From now on, love, not fear, is our motivation for obedience. God does not make us slaves; the Law does that. God makes us His sons and daughters. We have to choose the Law or God’s grace.