“So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” (Galatians 5:1 NLT)
As New Testament believers, we live under grace, not the law. Jesus Christ’s sinless life and sacrificial death ended the law’s dispensation. Thus, believers are now under grace (Matt. 5:17, Rom. 10:4).
Paul clearly states this truth.
Romans 6:14 – NLT
14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
Living under grace implies having a personal, intimate, and loving relationship with God, not based on your self-righteousness, performance, or good works, but purely based on faith in the person of Jesus Christ and His finished work.
Living under grace means receiving God’s righteousness as a gift by faith in Christ Jesus and continuing to walk in it.
Philippians 3:8-9 – NKJV
8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.
Living under grace is standing firm in the liberty by which Christ has made you free from the yoke of the law. It is serving God in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. It is walking in the Spirit or living by the Spirit of God!
Paul aptly explains this truth in his epistles.
Galatians 5:1 – NLT
1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.
Romans 7:6 – NLT
6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.
Galatians 5:18 – NLT
18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
Living under grace is to let Christ live in you, work in you, and manifest Himself through you. It is living by faith in Christ alone (Gal. 2:20).
The believers living under grace are those who live the Christian life solely by faith in Christ. We came into grace by faith in Christ alone and can only continue in grace by faith in Christ alone (Col. 2:6).
However, living under grace does not imply freedom to sin or violate God’s commandments. Although Jesus Christ has completely fulfilled the Mosaic Law and set us free from the demands and the curse of breaking God’s law, He has given us a new commandment.
Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34 NKJV). “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12 NKJV).
Unlike the Mosaic Law, Jesus’ commandments are not burdensome, and the believers have been empowered to obey them.
1 John 5:3 – NKJV
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
The born-again believers now share the same life, nature, and Spirit with Christ, who fulfilled the law and pleased God.
1 John 3:9 – RSV
No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.
2 Peter 1:3 – NLT
3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvellous glory and excellence.
Jesus Christ, who led a sinless life and fulfilled all the requirements of the law, now resides in each genuine believer through the Holy Spirit. By His Spirit, Christ guides, instructs, and empowers believers to fulfill God’s will.
The Scripture amply affirms this truth.
1 John 4:13 – NKJV
13 By this, we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
Galatians 4:6 – NKJV
6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!
Romans 8:9 – NKJV
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Therefore, believers can obey God’s Word and live godly by acknowledging, appropriating, and depending upon the power of the Spirit of Christ living in them (Phil. 2:12-13, Col. 1:28-29).
Living under grace begins with approaching God through faith in Jesus Christ and His finished redemptive work. Faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work is essential for establishing a loving and intimate relationship with God, thereby granting unlimited access to the boundless riches of grace (Rom. 5:1-2, John 14:6).
Friend, having become born again, you now have the Spirit of grace, the Holy Spirit, to establish you in grace. When you let the Holy Spirit rule, control, lead, guide, and direct you, you will be established in grace and never return to bondage under the law.
Galatians 5:1 – NLT
1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.
Galatians 5:18 – NKJV
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Prayer:
My Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of grace, to establish me in grace. Teach and help me to obey and follow Your Spirit daily so I will not slide back to living under the law and its bondage, in Jesus’ name. Amen.