What Does Romans 6:15 Mean?
What then? Shall we miss the mark, because we are not under the instruction, but under favor? May it never be!
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.THE KEY
Being held by favor does not make a miss cease to be a miss.
THE MEANING
The verse names a tempting conclusion: if you are held by favor rather than instruction, missing no longer matters. Its answer is an emphatic no. Favor does not rename the miss as wholeness or make it harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that favor makes missing irrelevant, that once acceptance is given, nothing about what you do can matter.
THE ROOT
ἁμαρτήσωμεν
hamartḗsōmen
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
Missing; failing to reach what is whole.
“miss the mark” in this verse is hamartḗsōmen. The Greek word translated “sin” belongs to the word family for missing. The question is whether standing under favor makes that missing meaningless; the answer leaves the miss visible.
ALSO GROWS
hamartía: Missing; a failure or wrong.
ἁμαρτία
This noun names the same missing that the verse asks whether favor permits.
hamártēma: A failure; an act of missing.
ἁμάρτημα
The related word keeps the focus on a particular miss, not an abstract label.
hamartōlós: A person characterized as a sinner.
ἁμαρτωλός
The word family extends from the act of missing to the person described by it.
χάριν
chárin
GROWS FROM
χαρ-
char-
Favor; freely bestowed kindness.
The word translated “grace” is χάρις, favor freely given. “Under favor” describes what holds you; it does not declare that missing has become wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
charízomai: To grant freely; to show favor.
χαρίζομαι
Favor appears as something given without being earned.
chárisma: A gift of favor.
χάρισμα
The related word carries favor into the form of a freely given gift.
THE PATTERN
Favor and freedom do not erase the reality of missing; they change the ground from which a person responds.
For with you is release, so that you may be held in awe.For you, brothers, have been called into freedom; only do not make the freedom a foothold for the flesh, but through love be slaves to one another.My little children, I write these things to you so that you do not miss the mark. And if anyone misses the mark, we have one who comes alongside us before the Father, Jesus the Anointed One, the aligned one.THE THREAD
What then shall we say? Shall we stay in falling short, so that favor may overflow?Both questions pair ἁμαρτία (hamartía), “missing,” with χάρις (cháris), “favor.” The repeated pair makes the question plain: more favor never means missing has become harmless.
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