“We Are Not Under The Law”

Romans 6:15

In the past few weeks I have been asked repeatedly, “What place does the law have in the believer’s life?” When I answer, “None,” I am asked, “Don’t you think the law is the believer’s rule of life?” I answer, “No.” Then, inevitably, I am asked, “What do you do with the law?” I answer, “Nothing.” You see, I refuse to be brought again into bondage. Our rule of life is not the ten commandments. Our rule of life is the whole Word of God. Our motive for godliness is love for Christ. Is this not the teaching of Holy Scripture?

The Ten Commandments cannot be separated from the other statutes given to Israel. If we are compelled to keep a sabbath day, we must also keep up the daily sacrifices, the priesthood, and the day of atonement. Either we are under the whole of the law or none of it. Either Christ fulfilled it all, or he fulfilled nothing. The New Testament reveals this as a matter of fact. It is stated as clearly as anything revealed in Holy Scripture. Believers are not under the law to any degree, for any reason, at any time, in any sense, or in any way, because “Christ is the end of the law.” In him, we are “dead to the law.”

Does this mean that believers are loose living, licentious people, who have no regard for the will and glory of God? Only a proud, prating legalist would even think of such a question as that! Believers are people whose lives are voluntarily given over to the rule and dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ, consecrated to him, seeking conformity to him, and communion with him, realizing all the while that Christ alone is all our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

Don Fortner