Is the law of God the antithesis of His grace?
Do we set aside God’s grace when we keep His commandments?
[Revised Nov 24, 2011]
Despite its simplicity, “law and grace” continues to be a topic of never ending discussions. Sometimes I suspect the problem to be the language that the apostle Paul used. Some say it is a matter of paradigm. But when explanation jumps from “law is abolished” to “law not abolished, but not necessary” to “it depends on your motive for obeying”, it sounds like it is about attitude. God’s commandments seem like “hot potato”… to be avoided at all cost.
This dislike for the law is nothing new. Christ denounced Jewish leaders themselves for rejecting God’s commandments:
Mar 7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Mar 7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men …
Mar 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
WHEN JESUS walked the earth, His overwhelming focus and concern is doing the will of His Father – OUR Father. In His model prayer, He taught us to pray to the Father: “Thy will be done”. He warned His listeners many times that only those who do the will of His Father will enter the kingdom of God [Mat 7:21]. And even in the face of the most horrible suffering and death, He would only say obediently: “Not my will but Thine be done”. Incredibly, hundreds of years later, all that people remembered is the person of Jesus, which clearly IS ALL that “Christians” today care about. Conveniently forgotten is Christ’s message: “Thy will be done”. Is it any wonder that there is so much confusion about law and grace?
WHAT PAUL REALLY SAID
THE APOSTLE PAUL wrote: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” [Rom 2:10]. Sin is the breaking of the law [1Jo 3:4, Rom:7:7]. When one sins he falls short of God’s perfect standard and is as good as a “reject product” – fit for destruction [Rom 6:23]. It takes just one sin for us to earn death sentence [James 2:10]. Once guilty, no amount of obedience could remove that guilt, because the law is not made to erase guilt. The law rather is a lamp that lights the way to life [Prov 6:23]. We have to walk in that way, toward the destination it leads to, that is, eternal life. However the carnal mind is naturally hostile to God and His law [Rom.8:7], a problem that Paul points out as a “weakness” of the law “through [or because of] the flesh” [Rom.8:3]. The problem, as you can see, is human weakness, rather than the law.
THAT IS WHY Paul said that we are “saved by grace through faith … not of works” [Eph.2:8-9]. This grace is really the goodness of God who let Jesus Christ die in our stead [John 3:16]. Since grace is a gift, people are quick to conclude that obedience to God’s commandments has no relevance to salvation, forgetting that Christ throughout His ministry emphasized obedience and doing God’s will. Some, through fertile imagination claim that Christ enjoined obedience to Jews only, as if God has a different standard for Christians. If they had just read on they would have seen that Paul talks about the need to do “good works” [v.10 of Eph 2] – and Paul was talking to Ephesians, who were Gentile converts.
CHRIST’S DEATH fully satisfies the demand of the law for the death of the sinner. By Christ’s sacrifice, we obtained remission of the sins that we committed. But Paul says this does not void the law!
Rom 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Did you get that? The law was not just not voided – it was established! In fact, Christ denounced attempts to nullify the law [Mat.15:6]. While God tolerated our past shortcomings through forbearance [Rom 3:25], He did NOT give us excuse or permission to continue in sin, [or break the law, 1John 3:4]. To continue in sin is to become servants of sin, which produces death. We rather must be “servants of righteousness” [Rom 6:15-16], which leads to life [Prov 11:19,12:28]. The unrepentant, willful disregard for the commandments of our Creator will not yield eternal life or entry into God’s kingdom. The Bible makes it clear that “if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” [Heb 10:26-27].
WHY GOD GAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT
What most people have taken for granted is why the other gift, the Spirit, is made available to us. The Spirit is not for a badge or some trivial purpose. The Spirit is given to us to write God’s law in our hearts and mind [Heb 8:10, 2Cor 3:3] AND to help us to walk in that law [Ezek 36:26-27] — which is what this life is all about.
Ecc 12:13 After all this, there is only one thing to say: Have reverence for God, and obey his commands, because this is all that we were created for. [GNB]
The apostle Paul echoes:
Eph 2:10 God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do. [GNB]
Can you now see why Christ is so focused on doing our Father’s will?
CONCLUSION
OUR SAVIOR loves us so much that He gave up His life for us, making up for our shortcomings. But it makes no sense for us to continue doing the same things that necessitated the death of our Savior. It would be like crucifying Christ all over again! [Heb 6:6]
Since WHEN did the refusal to do what Christ and His Father commanded become a good thing? Yet preachers have a way with language. Loving and obedient response to God had somehow become the wrong thing to do. Just throw in the word “legalistic” and people drop God’s commandments like “hot potato”. But this handiwork of darkness will be exposed in due time.
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