The historic prologue covered 1-3, now we come to the definition of the relationship between God and God's people. God demands obedience, citing Baal of Peor, (from Numbers 25), where the people turned to another god and paid the consequences. The demand is that they obey their God. Idolatry, the opportunity to make a god in the form of anything not their God, is forbidden to them. This is reviewed in the special history of being chosen by the LORD and taken out of slavery in Egypt by the LORD's power.
They are a special nation, they must keep the LORD's commands. Three cities of refuge are then established in the territory conquered east of the Jordan for the safety of the people.
From this introduction, we move into the law that the LORD has given. 4 ends with a brief introduction and 5 recounts the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20. The LORD's work with Moses at Sinai is cited, that was the place where God's law, that which will govern the people well, was given.
In Romans 6, Paul continues to develop our relationship with Christ. Baptism is passage into death, death with Christ, death to a sinful nature, that we might rise to new life, raised from the dead as Jesus was. Because of our death and resurrection through and with Jesus, we no longer have to let sin govern our lives, but can be made new under grace.
So grace is not an excuse to continue sinning. Rather, it is the opportunity to seize onto righteousness, to seek to do what is right in thanksgiving to God, recognizing that grace covers the failures we will have along the way. Eternal life is the free gift we receive from our God.
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