Winning The Battle In Your Thinking: Romans 6:15-16
“15) What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16) Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” Romans 6:15-16
Sin and the flesh have a tendency of thinking logically to wrong conclusions. They look at the doctrine of grace and conclude: “If grace abounds where sin abounds, all I have to do to get more grace is sin more!” This twisted reasoning distorts grace into a ticket to sin without consequence. This is an example of false reasoning.
But Paul is quick to denounce this faulty thinking. He points out in verse 16 that you become a slave of the one you obey. You can become a slave of sin or you can become a slave of righteousness. The former leads to death, the latter leads to a life of freedom and godliness.
Chapter 7 points out that every human has this battle. Chapter 8 makes it clear that the only solution is yielding to the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
But these verses also highlight the fact that sin usually involves a mind game. It is like the original sin when Satan tempted Eve in Genesis chapter three. He engaged her in a fierce mind game as he planted all kinds of lies in her thinking. Then he stood back and let the venom of lies and deception entice her into sin.
I have found this to be true in my life as well. The battle begins in the mind. Renewing the mind with truth is an important process to victory. (See Ephesians 4:21-25) One of the ploys you will face involves Satan trying to twist the doctrine grace into a license to sin.
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoSev Global
