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For Sin Will Have No Dominion Over You

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.  (Romans 6:14)

Christian, you have been freed.  Through the Person and Work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you have been set free from the guilt and corruption of sin.  The Fall has been reversed.  

The guilt of sin no longer has dominion over you.  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1).  No one, not even the accuser, can bring an accusation against God's elect (Rom 8:33).  Satan has no right to your body or your soul.  Resist him; he will flee (James 4:7). 

The power of sin no longer has dominion over you.  "For one who has died has been set free from sin," Paul says (Rom 6:7).  "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom 6:11).  We have been given the gift of true freedom--not freedom from restraint, but freedom from slavery to sin.  We are freed not from obedience, but to obedience.  "Having been set free from sin," we "have become slaves of righteousness" (Rom 6:18).  

Yet, we live with the effects of sin.  Undeniably so.  We are still capable of sinning.  More than that, with the Apostle we find ourselves doing what we hate and not doing what we love (Rom 7:15).  There is conflict within us.  The remnants of sin remain, and so we struggle to live into our identity as those who have been raised with Christ.  Nevertheless, Paul wants us to know that we are empowered.  We are victorious.  We are more than conquerors (Rom 8:33)!  

This is the Christian life.  We progressively learn to follow our Lord as we walk in the way of the Spirit.  It is the Spirit who enables us to choose the good and to reject the evil to which our fallen flesh is prone.  It is the Spirit who empowers us to exchange the shackles of sin for the easy yoke (Matt 11:30).  As we walk in the Spirit, we will look more like our Savior.  We will find victory!  We will live with resurrection power (Rom 6:5)!  We will bear the fruit of the Vine (John 15:5)! 

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  (2 Cor 3:17)

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