Commentaries:
Why should sin not have any dominion over us? Because we are under grace! Contrary to what these people were saying—that grace does away with law—Paul is saying that the very fact that we are under grace is what nails us to the floor, that we must obey the law! Why? Because grace makes us so obligated that we had better obey God. Our own acts, our conduct, have brought upon us the need for grace, and the fact that God has given it obligates us to keep His law.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Grace Upon Grace
Is that not strong, plain language? "Certainly not" is translated as "God forbid," "perish the thought," or "may it never be," in other Bibles. In his epistles, Paul uses this exclamatory expression in relation to sin sixty times! Yet, this world's Christianity has succeeded in communicating to it adherents one of the most devastating of all false doctrines?that the works of keeping God's commandments are not required! They insidiously twist the truth that, though works most assuredly cannot save a person, stopping sin in one's life is absolutely required to provide evidence that one is indeed a Christian, to bring glory to God, and to grow. Jesus Christ died to provide forgiveness of sin. Therefore, if a person persists in sin following his forgiveness, he is trampling "the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified [as] a common thing, and insult[ing] the Spirit of grace" (Hebrews 10:29).
John W. Ritenbaugh
Communication and Leaving Babylon (Part Three)
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Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Galatians 2:17
Galatians 4:7
Revelation 2:14-15
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