Grace and the Law

Salvation is all about "grace". Salvation is all about "The Law".

Is that contradictory?

What is grace? 

Romans 5:8 "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 3:24 "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:"

Ephesians 2:8" For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:"

These three verses taken together define "grace" . It's not a simple definition, but is a simple way to be saved. Let's look at what grace is: Because he loves us, God provided a plan for him to pay for our debt for our own rebellion. God gave all mankind a gift: We are redeemed by God's sacrifice of his own Son. We can do nothing to save ourselves, other than trust in God because he loves us. That trust is faith. Since "grace" is for free that "faith" is a "work", but because he made us, God gave us even that! Faith is a work and a gift!

Philippians 2:12 "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

1 Thessalonians 1:3 "Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father..."

 Yes, even our faith is a work, but being able to even work is a gift of God. Our ability to love is a gift, but we must work at even loving! It's not merely an emotion... it's an obligation, even a command!

Now let's look at The Law:

Technically, The Law is the decrees of the first five books of the Old Testament. There is more than law there, but The Law can be found there. Much is said about how to live one's life to please God, but God's Law is summarized, not by all the regulations, but by The Ten Commandments. The regulations, not written in stone, are Mosaic Law.  God's Law is stated very clearly in the New Testament:

Matthew 22:37 "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Mosaic Law explains more fully on how to obey God's Law, which can be summarized as "Love God and demonstrate it by loving others!" This is deduced from the following:

John 14:15 "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

These two verses tie together the keeping of The Law and grace.  It is by grace we are saved and it's by The Law  that we show our appreciation for God's gift! James validates this:

James 2:26 " For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

Therefore, God's plan, him being the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, was always about grace! The only covenant that ever accounted for salvation is the "Covenant of Grace" and The Law was a demonstration of thankfulness for that gift. From a scientific standpoint The Law is "love" operationalized:  It explains love by objective criteria:

Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”

How do we know that we love God? We obey The Law! How can we tell if we are in obedience to The Law? We are not blamed (imputed) for sin without The Law and it has a purpose:

Galatians 3:24 "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith."

With The Law mankind knew that they were out of the will of God. The Law was merely to bring people to salvation. The Law through the Holy Spirit was the beacon to mankind that people need salvation!  Hence, law complements grace:

Matthew 5:17 "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."

Grace and law are twins, not adversaries. The problem arises when people don't have the faith (trust) in the Lord and obey The Law  without the trust.  In essence, they obey all the commands without the purpose in obeying. They fail to love God and show it by loving others! James made it clear that the two worked together!  What was missing from those Pharisees who only obeyed was a heartfelt obedience:

Proverbs 3:5  "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."

The Pharisees understood The Law, but failed to understand the reason behind it;  to show God love!

We think of Moses and the Exodus when we first consider The Law  being laid down. That was when it was written down in objective commands. A careful study will show that the first three of The Ten Commandments were commands to love God. The last seven are commands to show love for others. Together these two divisions are God's Law expressed as The Greatest Commandment and the One Like Unto It. However, The Law existed long before it was written down! It was stated:

Genesis 2:16 "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

What was God commanding here when he said "thou shalt not eat of it"?  I believe that this command was not referring to real fruits, but of worship! We know that Jesus is "The Tree of Life" of which mankind could eat. (Genesis 3:22, Revelation 2:7).

There is no such thing as "irresistible grace", which is a basis for Calvinism (Point 4). Mankind was given a choice and a free will in the garden and he made the wrong choice! That choice was to accept a gift or not. God gave Jesus (The Tree of Life) to love, but man chose unwisely. He sought pleasure, wisdom and wealth by eating of the other tree. Hence, "grace" was there all along and so was The Law!

Genesis 2:17 "Thou shalt not eat of it" is in essence, "love God" and is truly The First Commandment! By electing the "Tree of Life" (Jesus) they would accept the gift of God (grace) and love God. Jesus was The Word (John Chapter 1), and it was Jesus who was that "Tree of Life". Genesis 2:7 is like God's Law, it's a summary of The Ten Commandments!

Jesus was in that Garden. Adam and Eve could eat of his tree, but didn't! They rejected grace and chose instead to worship their self. By selecting the wrong God to love they violated The Law.  They failed to love God! They  were never innocent, since before they even ate of the fruit, they were in disobedience! Eve assumed the dominant role delegated to the man and the Man let her usurp his authority.

As such "grace" was always the way to salvation and it was only by faith. Abraham's faith was the measure for us to follow:

Romans 4:16 "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all..."
Galatians 3:7 "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham."

Abraham was "saved by faith". He trusted in Jesus. His "work" of his willingness to sacrifice his own son for the sins of the people was "trusting Jesus" who was The Word, there guiding and instructing him. Abraham believed in the propitiation of Jesus' blood for the sins of mankind although it had yet to happen! His faith was greater than ours because we believe what did happen while he believed in God's promise of what was to come! Abraham has the same salvation which we have! He was saved by grace because grace was always the plan of God!

In fact all the Old Testament patriarchs had the same faith in God. Men have never been saved by works, but by faith alone. Jesus is the only way. Works never was the way!

John 14:6 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

There was never a "Covenant of the Law" nor a "Dispensation of the Law". Those are mere inventions of Calvinists to rationalize their own doctrines. Salvation was always by Jesus. He is the only way to salvation... ever! "No man" is saved except through the propitiation of Jesus, including The Old Testament patriarchs!

Grace has always been the covenant! Salvation has always been by grace. Jesus has always been the Way and only way!