14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the Law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the Law, but under grace? God forbid. Romans 6:14-15 (1599 Geneva Bible)
Most of the formative years of my Christian walk were spent in one church from February 1987 through February 2000. During that time we had three pastors. I was in some form of teaching for most of that time. One of the things that always came up when we studied the Old Testament was Romans 6:14-15. It was as if someone always had to make sure that we were not being legalistic. They cast the law as far from them and our church as the East is from the West. Is that how we are to treat God’s Law?
In Romans 6:14-15 we learn that Christians are not under law, but, instead, are under grace. What does this really mean? Does it mean that it is wrong to preach God’s Law under all circumstances?
1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the Law) that the Law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which is in subjection to a man, is bound by the Law to the man, while he liveth: but if the man be dead, she is delivered from the Law of the man. 3 So then, if while the man liveth, she taketh another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if the man be dead, she is free from the Law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she take another man. 4 So ye, my brethren, are dead also to the Law by the body of Christ, that ye should be unto another, even unto him that is raised up from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the affections of sins, which were by the law, had force in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death, 6 But now we are delivered from the Law, he being dead in whom we were holden, that we should serve in newness of Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Romans 7:1-6 (1599 Geneva Bible)