“What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?”
The full verse · Romans 6:15 · KJV
? shall we , we the , ? God .
Asked by
Paul: called to be an apostle and separated unto the gospel of God (Romans 1:1), writing to the believers in Rome
Asked to
Romans: the believers in Rome, whom Paul has just told, "ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14)
The Scene
Paul has just told the believers in Rome, "sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14).
Why It Was Asked
The purpose behind the questionPaul heads off a wrong conclusion someone could draw from his own words. If believers are no longer under the law, does grace leave them free to sin? Barnes frames the objection this way: if Christians are not under the law, which forbids all sin, but under grace, which pardons sin, "will it not follow that they will feel themselves released from obligation to be holy?" Barnes adds that many professing Christians have drawn this very conclusion. Paul had answered a similar question in Romans 6:1 about continuing in sin "that grace may abound." Here he repeats the exact words of Romans 6:14. Gill says that using God's grace to encourage loose living "is greatly to abuse the grace of God."
The Response
What Scripture recordsPaul answers at once: "God forbid" (Romans 6:15). Then he explains why. Whoever you yield yourselves to obey, "his servants ye are" (Romans 6:16). The Romans had been "the servants of sin," but they "obeyed from the heart" and, being "made free from sin," became "the servants of righteousness" (Romans 6:17-18). He closes the argument with the great contrast: "the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).
Historical Context
The world behind the words"God forbid" translates the Greek me genoito, literally "may it never be." The word God does not appear in the Greek; the KJV uses "God forbid" to carry the force of the refusal, and the ESV says "By no means!" Barnes points readers back to his note on the same phrase at Romans 3:4.
The phrases "under the law" and "under grace" are repeated word for word from Romans 6:14 in the Greek (hypo nomon, hypo charin). Paul takes up his own words from the verse before.
The Bigger Picture
Where this fits in God's storyGrace, in Paul's teaching, is not a loophole. It brings a new master: believers have "become servants to God" (Romans 6:22). The promise that sin "shall not have dominion over you" (Romans 6:14) is a promise of freedom from sin's rule, not permission to stay under it. Gill says nothing "more powerfully engages to a love of holiness" than grace rightly understood.
Paul meets this objection more than once in Romans (Romans 3:8; Romans 6:1). That it could be raised at all shows how free the grace was that he preached. That he answers it with "God forbid" (Romans 6:2, 15) shows that this grace produces holy lives.
Look Closer
Which words from just before this question could be misread as permission to sin?
Carry the question into prayer and conversation.
Father, where have I treated Your grace as room to keep doing what I want, and how are You using that same grace to teach me to love holiness?
A prayer to carry into the day.
- When you hear "you are under grace," what is your first reaction: relief, permission, or gratitude? Why?
- Tell about a time when knowing you were forgiven made you want to live differently, not more carelessly.
For you, a small group, a friend, or the dinner table.
Grace really does set you free, but it frees you from sin's rule, not for sin's service. If you belong to Christ, you are "not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14), and that is exactly why sin no longer has the right to run your life.
When you catch yourself thinking, "God will forgive me anyway," ask Paul's question honestly and give his answer: "God forbid." Matthew Henry asks what could be worse than taking a friend's "extraordinary expressions of kindness and good-will" as an occasion to offend him. Grace is kindness to be returned with love.
This is not a reason to doubt your standing when you stumble. Paul writes to people he calls "made free from sin" (Romans 6:18). His warning is aimed at choosing sin because of grace, not at returning to grace after failing.
Scripture's own application: Galatians 5:13; 1 Peter 2:16
Built from the biblical text and checked against trusted commentaries and lexicons. References & Sources
Keep questioning
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”
“How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
“And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come?”
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”