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Hi, everyone! I've been really busy and haven't had much time to come here this past week. I just wanted to share my views on the relationship between law and grace. It's a subject that is popular right now in the Christian world, especially with all of the recent talk about Ten Commandments Day. The following is an article that I wrote for our church newsletter to address some of these issues.
I did not mention this in the article, but notice that the opening illustration also shows the attitude that Christians used to have toward Sunday as the Lord's Day. Until recently--probably until sometime in the last century--people who observed Sunday were every bit as legalistic about its requirements as many Adventists are accused of being today (and admittedly some actually are) in regard to Sabbath. They did not view the Sabbath commandment as irrelevant but simply believed that its significance was transferred to Sunday. That's why even today so many states and cities have laws on the books requiring businesses to be closed on Sundays, for example. When those laws were enacted, the purpose was to try to preserve Sunday as the Lord's holy day by taking away opportunities for people to break it. However, those who would legislate such religious practices are wrong, as are those who would make the Sabbath into a legalistic burden.
God never intended the Sabbath as a burden but as a time to find joy in the Lord. If we keep the Sabbath as He wants us to, through the power of the Spirit and not as a legalistic way of trying to earn salvation, it is a great blessing to us. If we keep the Sabbath as an expression of our love for God and our love for others, it fits completely with Jesus' summary of the greatest commandments, which we still keep but in a new way, by the Spirit, because of the grace that God has given us.
______________________________________________________________________________
Law or Grace?
Many years ago, a pastor on his way to church one Sunday morning found the roads blocked. The only way he could get to church was to skate across a frozen river. When he arrived, the elders of the church were horrified that their preacher had, in their opinion, desecrated the Lord's Day. After the service they held a meeting, and the pastor explained why he had skated to church. Finally, one elder asked, Did you enjoy it? When the preacher answered, No, the board decided that it was all right.1
This story illustrates the fact that many people have the wrong idea about Gods law. They try to avoid sinning, and they try to make sure that everyone else avoids sinning, but they miss the point of Gods principles of law. God didnt give us His law to make us miserable because we are trying to work our way to heaven. Rather, He gave us the law to show us our need for a Savior.
The Bible discusses the relationship between law and grace, and its words are often misunderstood. On one side, people say that the law (usually referring to the Ten Commandments) was given only to the Jews and is not relevant to Christians. They cite verses like Romans 6:14, which tells us that we are not under law, but under grace.
On the other side, people say that the commandments are still important because they are based on eternal principles that didnt end with the Jewish era. They quote texts like James 2:24, which says that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. They are often accused of being legalists by those who think that they are trying to earn salvation by what they do.
Which side is right? Those who believe that the law is no longer binding are right that we are saved by grace and not by keeping the law. The only way observance of the law can save us is if we keep it perfectly, and we have all failed at that.2 However, that does not mean that the law is no longer relevant to Christians. On the contrary, Romans 7:12 says that the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
Those who believe that we still need to keep the law are right that Jesus did not destroy the law when He died; instead, He fulfilled its demands and cancelled our sins so that the law no longer condemns us.3 Like the church elders in the opening illustration, though, they do tend to slip into legalism and to give others the impression that they are denying the grace of God. Many even believe that we are initially justified by faith but then have to make ourselves perfect by our own efforts.
How then should we view Gods law? The apostle Paul had a lot to say about the relationship between law and grace. In Romans 6 he personified sin as a slave master that held us captive to our evil desires until Jesus set us free. However, Paul made it clear in verses 15-18 that obedience is still important:
The point is not that we should no longer follow the law; the point is that we are not to depend on it for salvation. If we try to gain salvation by our good works, the law condemns us because we can't do it. We are already doomed because we have all sinned. The law stands against us as an accuser. We cannot redeem ourselves from the slavery of sin.
When we accept Christ, the law no longer condemns us because He has set us free by His grace. Thus, Paul said that we should offer ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness (v. 13). We have a new master nowJesuswho makes us righteous and holy. We have a choice: we can attempt to do all the right things on our own, which is impossible, and remain slaves to sin while the law condemns us. That is what it means to be under law. Or we can depend on God's grace for our salvation. That is what it means to be under grace. Either way, we are still supposed to keep the law. The difference is our motivation for obedience and our reliance on God's power to keep us from falling rather than on our own willpower. Because we are under grace, we keep the law by grace. We do not keep it in order to be saved because it cannot justify anyone. We keep the law through the Spirit of God living in us.
Paul further addressed this idea in Galatians 5:13-25:
Therefore, there is still sin, and there is still a law, summarized here by the command to love our neighbors as ourselves and elsewhere by Jesus' instruction to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our souls. These are the principles upon which the whole law is based. These are the principles that are written on our hearts when we trust God for our salvation and have His Spirit living in us. Paul's and Jesus' statements of these principles, however, do not negate the specific applications that are given in other parts of the Bible. Even in this passage, Paul listed some specific sins that go against God's law and that Christians should avoid.
God still has requirements for us to follow, but only as an expression of our faith in Christ. We still fall short of His standards. We still sin. The Bible says that we should not continue to sin. Paul by no means taught that the law is now obsolete. We just have a new way of keeping it, which we could never do by our own power. Paul repeated over and over in his letters that we should offer ourselves to God to do His will rather than continuing in the bondage of sin. The difference is that we now focus on Christ instead of ourselves because only He has the power to keep us from sinning. Because we are under grace, we keep the law by grace.
The upcoming Ten Commandments Weekend is an opportunity to remind people of the importance of Gods law and its continuing relevance to Christians. Lets be careful as we do so, though, to put the emphasis where it belongson Jesus and what He has done to redeem us from the slavery of sin.
1 Today in the Word, Moody Bible Institute, December 1989, p. 12.
2 See Romans 3.
3 Colossians 2:13-14.
I did not mention this in the article, but notice that the opening illustration also shows the attitude that Christians used to have toward Sunday as the Lord's Day. Until recently--probably until sometime in the last century--people who observed Sunday were every bit as legalistic about its requirements as many Adventists are accused of being today (and admittedly some actually are) in regard to Sabbath. They did not view the Sabbath commandment as irrelevant but simply believed that its significance was transferred to Sunday. That's why even today so many states and cities have laws on the books requiring businesses to be closed on Sundays, for example. When those laws were enacted, the purpose was to try to preserve Sunday as the Lord's holy day by taking away opportunities for people to break it. However, those who would legislate such religious practices are wrong, as are those who would make the Sabbath into a legalistic burden.
God never intended the Sabbath as a burden but as a time to find joy in the Lord. If we keep the Sabbath as He wants us to, through the power of the Spirit and not as a legalistic way of trying to earn salvation, it is a great blessing to us. If we keep the Sabbath as an expression of our love for God and our love for others, it fits completely with Jesus' summary of the greatest commandments, which we still keep but in a new way, by the Spirit, because of the grace that God has given us.
______________________________________________________________________________
Law or Grace?
Many years ago, a pastor on his way to church one Sunday morning found the roads blocked. The only way he could get to church was to skate across a frozen river. When he arrived, the elders of the church were horrified that their preacher had, in their opinion, desecrated the Lord's Day. After the service they held a meeting, and the pastor explained why he had skated to church. Finally, one elder asked, Did you enjoy it? When the preacher answered, No, the board decided that it was all right.1
This story illustrates the fact that many people have the wrong idea about Gods law. They try to avoid sinning, and they try to make sure that everyone else avoids sinning, but they miss the point of Gods principles of law. God didnt give us His law to make us miserable because we are trying to work our way to heaven. Rather, He gave us the law to show us our need for a Savior.
The Bible discusses the relationship between law and grace, and its words are often misunderstood. On one side, people say that the law (usually referring to the Ten Commandments) was given only to the Jews and is not relevant to Christians. They cite verses like Romans 6:14, which tells us that we are not under law, but under grace.
On the other side, people say that the commandments are still important because they are based on eternal principles that didnt end with the Jewish era. They quote texts like James 2:24, which says that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. They are often accused of being legalists by those who think that they are trying to earn salvation by what they do.
Which side is right? Those who believe that the law is no longer binding are right that we are saved by grace and not by keeping the law. The only way observance of the law can save us is if we keep it perfectly, and we have all failed at that.2 However, that does not mean that the law is no longer relevant to Christians. On the contrary, Romans 7:12 says that the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
Those who believe that we still need to keep the law are right that Jesus did not destroy the law when He died; instead, He fulfilled its demands and cancelled our sins so that the law no longer condemns us.3 Like the church elders in the opening illustration, though, they do tend to slip into legalism and to give others the impression that they are denying the grace of God. Many even believe that we are initially justified by faith but then have to make ourselves perfect by our own efforts.
How then should we view Gods law? The apostle Paul had a lot to say about the relationship between law and grace. In Romans 6 he personified sin as a slave master that held us captive to our evil desires until Jesus set us free. However, Paul made it clear in verses 15-18 that obedience is still important:
The point is not that we should no longer follow the law; the point is that we are not to depend on it for salvation. If we try to gain salvation by our good works, the law condemns us because we can't do it. We are already doomed because we have all sinned. The law stands against us as an accuser. We cannot redeem ourselves from the slavery of sin.
When we accept Christ, the law no longer condemns us because He has set us free by His grace. Thus, Paul said that we should offer ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness (v. 13). We have a new master nowJesuswho makes us righteous and holy. We have a choice: we can attempt to do all the right things on our own, which is impossible, and remain slaves to sin while the law condemns us. That is what it means to be under law. Or we can depend on God's grace for our salvation. That is what it means to be under grace. Either way, we are still supposed to keep the law. The difference is our motivation for obedience and our reliance on God's power to keep us from falling rather than on our own willpower. Because we are under grace, we keep the law by grace. We do not keep it in order to be saved because it cannot justify anyone. We keep the law through the Spirit of God living in us.
Paul further addressed this idea in Galatians 5:13-25:
Therefore, there is still sin, and there is still a law, summarized here by the command to love our neighbors as ourselves and elsewhere by Jesus' instruction to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our souls. These are the principles upon which the whole law is based. These are the principles that are written on our hearts when we trust God for our salvation and have His Spirit living in us. Paul's and Jesus' statements of these principles, however, do not negate the specific applications that are given in other parts of the Bible. Even in this passage, Paul listed some specific sins that go against God's law and that Christians should avoid.
God still has requirements for us to follow, but only as an expression of our faith in Christ. We still fall short of His standards. We still sin. The Bible says that we should not continue to sin. Paul by no means taught that the law is now obsolete. We just have a new way of keeping it, which we could never do by our own power. Paul repeated over and over in his letters that we should offer ourselves to God to do His will rather than continuing in the bondage of sin. The difference is that we now focus on Christ instead of ourselves because only He has the power to keep us from sinning. Because we are under grace, we keep the law by grace.
The upcoming Ten Commandments Weekend is an opportunity to remind people of the importance of Gods law and its continuing relevance to Christians. Lets be careful as we do so, though, to put the emphasis where it belongson Jesus and what He has done to redeem us from the slavery of sin.
1 Today in the Word, Moody Bible Institute, December 1989, p. 12.
2 See Romans 3.
3 Colossians 2:13-14.
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