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I. THEY ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW.

1. The law of which the apostle is speaking is not of man's making, but is the law of God; and is unlike any human law. Note, e.g. —

(1) Its universality. Man's laws are confined to particular governments and countries. But the law of God is meant for every creature He has made.

(2) The length to which it goes. Human laws lay down rules for the conduct of the outward man, and even then do not take notice of every instance of iniquity. But God's commandment is "exceeding broad." It passes sentence on the very thoughts, and makes no allowances whatever for sin. Sins which we are apt to look upon as small and pardonable are in God's sight without excuse.

(3) The sentence which it passes. Human laws make great distinctions between one crime and another. God's law makes no differences, and its sentence is, in every instance, death.

2. The state of those for whom this law was made, This law is made for man. Is man then a fulfiller of this law? It is an awful truth that, so far from being frightened out of any evil practice by knowing that it is forbidden by the law of God, his knowing it to be forbidden makes him feel a greater relish for it, and so much the more desirous to commit it (Romans 7:8).

3. Believers are not under the law. They are not under —

(1) The curse and condemnation of the law (Galatians 3:13; Colossians 2:14; Romans 8:33, 34).

(2) The law is "the covenant of works" — a dispensation in which he is taught to look for acceptance with God as the consequence of his own merits. The law of God says, "He that doeth these things shall live by them." Now, the Saviour does not say, "Earn but heaven by your works — establish a righteousness of your own, and you shall purchase heaven by it." No; but He says, "I have been your Law fulfiller, and My righteousness is unto all and upon all them that believe."

II. THE BELIEVER IS UNDER GRACE.

1. He is "under" the "grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." He is a man whom the free and undeserved love of his Redeemer has chosen unto life eternal. He is placed under a dispensation in which all he has, and all he hopes to have, are freely given him, "not for works of righteousness which he has done," but as "the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

2. He is under grace, because the grace of the Divine Spirit enters in and dwells in him. His soul is made the temple of the Holy Ghost. It is illuminated, sanctified, and comforted by that glorious inhabitant.

III. THE CONSEQUENCE OF BEING NOT UNDER THE LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE. "Sin shall not have dominion over you," because —

1. "The love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto you." A sense of the unspeakable mercy which our Lord has shown us begets such lively feelings of gratitude and love that to delight in that which God abhors becomes a thing impossible. Our heart burns, on the other hand, with holy fervour to render our redeemed life unto the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:15).

2. You are a partaker of a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17). Sin is not indeed utterly destroyed, but it has no longer the dominion.

(A. Roberts, M. A.)

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KJV: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

WEB: For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.