LAW VERSES GRACE

LAW VERSES GRACE

                When it comes to the issues of law and grace it is easy to get into disputes because some believe in keeping the law while some do not. A key question to ask ourselves is this: Does grace do away with the law, or does it enable us to fulfill the law?

                According to Romans 8:4, the law will be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. We also know that love fulfills the Law and we see that love spelled out in Galatians 5:22 in the fruit of the Spirit.

                That no one can be saved by keeping the law is self-evident. If we could have done that then there would have been no need for a New Covenant. Neither would there have been a need for Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. But we must understand that there was nothing actually wrong with the Old Covenant. The problem was with us, not with the covenant. We are fallen sinful beings of flesh and as such we tend to blow the covenant at every opportunity. We need the indwelling Spirit of Christ in us and we need to live by that Spirit and not by our flesh and thus the law will be fulfilled in us.

                If we stop being so religious about it, the law is very practical. Keeping it doesn’t save us eternally, but it saves us a lot of trouble. Imagine a nation in which there is no law against murder, or theft, or lying. It would be a nation in complete chaos. So we could say that the Law provides a very efficient way of dealing with reality. One only has to look at the complete chaos that reigns in many Islamic countries… the hatred and violence that rule their daily lives to see what it is like to live without the Ten Commandments.

                Even in dietary laws, God as Creator knew that some foods were good for us and some were not. Animals that are carnivores, if eaten, provide 2^nd and 3^rd generation nutrients and their systems are not designed to provide a good and healthy source of protein. Unfortunately we get all religious and think that people who avoid unhealthy foods are suddenly legalistic.

                Let’s say for a moment that God gave us instruction concerning the eating of plants. What if He told us that many plants are good for food, but that we should avoid eating poison oak or poison ivy and to go light on the castor beans? Would we consider ourselves or others legalistic if we didn’t eat those plants? Hardly. Even if God didn’t warn us about them, we would discover it for ourselves the hard way, right?

                What about God’s Feast Days? For instance, is it more legalistic to keep God’s Feast days than it is to keep pagan feast days? What makes keeping God’s appointed times more legalistic than keeping pagan’s appointed times? I rest my case.

                What about the Sabbath. Keeping the Sabbath will not save you. It is more a practical matter of offering us a break rather than working 24/7. As Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Again it is religion that distorts the issue. God made it for our benefit, but man made it into a burden with his many laws.

                Again I ask: Is it any more legalistic to keep the Sabbath on Saturday than to keep it on Sunday? Of course not, but as usual religion distorts the real issues. God gave us a beautiful day to rest from our labors and we have somehow turned it into works. What’s with that?

                Our true rest is in the Person of Jesus Christ. It is only in Him that we can truly rest from our own works. So in essence, the Sabbath points us to rest in Christ and that rest is found in His grace. So the Sabbath is a physical day that points us to a spiritual rest in Christ.

                There should not be a fight between grace and obedience. It is a manmade fight conjured up between two religious groups. One group is legalistic in their law keeping, while the other is legalistic in their approach to grace. Grace cannot do away with Law any more than Law can do away with God’s grace.

                In the overall picture of things we need to realize that God does not keep changing His mind about truth. Everything God does is eternal in scope. So rather than doing away with the Old Covenant, Jesus made it the foundation upon which the New Covenant is built.

                “And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, (Yeshua) explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:27. He was preaching from the Old Covenant to them since the New Covenant had not yet been written. In fact, the first century church used the Old Covenant scriptures as their syllabus with occasional letters passed around from the apostles.

                Jesus didn’t do away with anything. He simply showed us how He was the One spoken of in all of scripture. He was the living reality of all of those things that were prefigured in the Old Testament. If we partake of Him and live by His Spirit we too will become living realities of that which is prefigured in all of scripture.

                As for which day to keep, Paul said: “One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.” Romans 14:5. He says the same thing about food, so what can I say? We argue to our own shame, not knowing the scriptures.

                When I started manifesting symptoms of diabetes, my doctor, who was neither Jewish nor a Christian recommended that I stay away from all pork products. I’m not even sure why he said that, but I have to take it as practical advice and not religious. So God’s information for us is intended to be practical rather than legalistic.

                Paul concludes by saying: “But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.” Then he said:  “I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.” Romans14:10, 14.

                Okay, well enough Paul, but I’m still not going to eat poison Ivy.

                I still have to go with the idea that God is very wise and very practical and His laws undoubtedly reflect such. But I am not going to get on a bandwagon about it or try to force my view on someone else.

                Salvation is not made up of such things. Jesus came that we might have life and that more abundantly. He has set us free from condemnation in order that the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. The key is to live by the Spirit:

                “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba Father.” Romans 8:14, 15

                So I am free to live by the Spirit and not to judge others, for both of us will answer to God and He is going to judge us in Christ. So most of the stuff we argue about will not even be mentioned in the judgment, but whether we have received the Spirit of Christ and bear the fruit of the Spirit in love for God and in compassion for those around us.

                In many ways we have become like Pharisees… and Jesus made it abundantly clear that He stood in opposition to their brand of religion. He came to bring us something altogether different than that. “In Him was life and the life was the light of men.” John 1:4 When we have Him… when His Spirit dwells in us, then we have the life and the light as well. So let it shine; for His desire is for us to bear much fruit and that fruit is the fruit of the Spirit. If we bear that fruit, we will also fulfill the Law, for as Galatians 5:23b says; “Against such things there is no law.” So if we live by the Spirit we will not carry out the deeds of the flesh and that is the bottom line.

                In the Spirit of the Lord, Law and Grace are married. They have become one even as we are one in Christ.