Romans 6:15

Shall we sin? See on v. 1. The form of the Greek verb may suggest the occasional act of sin, as compared with the continuing in a life of sin of v. 1. May we indulge ourselves in sin once in a while now that we are not under law but under grace? Paul’s answer is that any indulgence in sin is a return to that bondage to sin from which grace has released the sinner.

To suppose that being under grace means that the believer is now at liberty to disobey the moral law of God with impunity is to misunderstand completely God’s whole purpose in the plan of salvation. It was man’s violation of God’s law in the first place that caused God in His love to offer grace to the sinner. By the grace of God man is released from sin’s rule. How then can anyone conceive it to be right or reasonable deliberately to place himself back in the old bondage? To disobey God’s law is to become once again the servant of sin, for disobedience to divine law is sin (1 John 3:4), and whoever goes on sinning is the servant of sin (John 8:34). To continue in the indulgence of sin after accepting the pardoning and transforming grace of God is to deny the very purpose of that grace. Whoever refuses to allow the grace of God to bring him into more and more perfect obedience to divine law is rejecting grace itself and thereby turning his back on freedom and salvation.

Under the law. Literally, “under law,” as in v. 14 (see comment there).

God forbid. See on Romans 3:4.