The difference between Law and Grace

The Law condemns the best of us. But Grace saves the worst of us, even salvation from sins.

The Law is God's word and it stands forever. Christ did not in any way come to diminish or discard the law. On the contrary, His death magnifies the law - only His sinless blood can fulfill its righteous requirements. All of our puny efforts at keeping the law (our own righteousnesses and attempts at being good people) are like a menstrual rag in God's sight (Isaiah 64:6.) Neither our law-keeping nor good works can make anyone righteous in God's sight (Romans 3:20.) One has to keep all of the law for his efforts to matter. See Galatians 3:10-

"10 But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under His curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.” 11 So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” 12 This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.”

The law was not given for man to keep in order to be godly or to have life by. The letter kills. See the purpose of the law in the following verses-

Romans 3:19-20- “19 Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. 20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.”

Also Galatians 3:19: “What then was the purpose of the Law? It was added [later on, after the promise, to disclose and expose to men their guilt] because of transgressions and [to make men more conscious of the sinfulness] of sin; and it was intended to be in effect until the Seed (the Descendant, the Heir) should come, to and concerning Whom the promise had been made…”

The Law is God's word, intended to cause us to realise our utter helplessness against sin and death (earthly ills are “death begun") and our absolute need for God's saving Grace.

But Grace! Grace is the Word of God made flesh for our salvation from the law of sin and death. Beloved of God, Grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11 says of Him:

"God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone."

Verse 14 of the same Titus 2 says: "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

The differences:

Under Law, God remembers sins and visits the iniquities of the fathers on their decendants: Numbers 14:18- "The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation."

But under Grace, our sins and lawless deeds God remembers no more. Hebrews 8:10-12- "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

Also 2 Corinthians 5:19- “I mean that God was in Christ, making peace between the world and himself. In Christ, God did not hold people guilty for their sins. And he gave us this message of peace to tell people.”

Under Law, try to obey the law and sins will multiply: Romans 5:20- “The law was given so that sin would increase….”

Also Romans 6:14- “For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under Law but under Grace.”

Also Romans 7:5 - "When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.”

But under Grace, we get to produce a harvest of good deeds for God. Romans 7:4- "So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God."

So much more. The very Law that many try to obey to notch up points of righteousness before God causes them to sin more. "Old nature" in Romans 7:5 above is the sin nature that all of Adam's seed inherited from Adam-

"For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous." Romans 5:19

New creation in Christ are those that have died to this old nature (sin), having Christ as our righteousness and not that which proceeds from works of the Law. No matter how much the one who depends on his obedience of the law and good works to make God have a good opinion of him tries to obey the law or do righteous works, still, as Christ said to the rich, young ruler who prided himself in his obedience, "there is one thing you lack." Isaiah 64:6 tells us what God thinks of those "good works" that some think counts before God:

"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."

Imagine someone offering you a glass of seemingly clean water that has undetectable amounts of the giver's poop or menstrual blood in it. But you know it's there. Would you drink it? Even worse is the action of those who claim to be for Christ (Grace) yet present their law-keeping and good works (Law) to God as evidences of their righteousness and expect God to bless them for such works! This horrid mixture of part-Law and part-Grace is the “neither cold nor hot” that Christ speaks of in Revelation 3. The law demands that your presentation to God be 100% pure/righteous. No one can attain this feat. Romans 3:20 tells us-

"For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are."

For any who is skeptical about the Holy Spirit-inspired writings of Paul in this verse, Christ says in Matthew 5:20-

"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

No one can beat the scribes and Pharisees at obeying the law yet Christ called them white-washed tombs. No matter how hard one tries to obey the Law and be good, the law condemns the best of us. Doesn't seem fair to those who are trying so hard to be godly (this is nothing but Pride) ...until we realise, like Peter after he denied Christ, that the reason why we are not wallowing in sins like the vilest offender is because God's restraining hand kept the vagaries of time and chance at bay for us and did not allow us to get tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:11-13.)

Romans 1 addresses this truth. It tells us how a group who “suppress the truth” of righteousness by faith (verses 16-19) devolved into sin after “God lifted off His restraining hand…” —

“24 This is why God lifted off His restraining hand and let them have full expression of their sinful and shameful desires…”

To any who thinks he is doing a good job of obeying the law in order to be godly or in a bid to “not perish but have everlasting life” - if God took away His restraining hand that restrains man from sins and which makes many churchgoers believe that they are or can be good by themselves, we would all devolve into committing the worst sins - collapse into the useless and helpless heap of flesh that we are of ourselves. There is no good in man of himself.

Yet, like Peter who boasted in his ability to keep the Ninth Commandment- "You shall not bear false witness..."- but ended up falling flat on his face three times; like Judas who tried to right himself with God after he sinned, many depend on human strength at keeping the law to make them righteous/godly (be like God.) See the typology of the forbidden as a picture of the law that many are trying to keep in order to be godly or "as a guiding principle for moral excellence" or for whatever reason in Romans 7:8-12-

“The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me."

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a picture of the law which gives the knowledge what is good and what is evil. Some church leaders try to compartmentalize the law into moral law/oral law/ceremonial law and say that we who believe are still subject to some of these compartments of the law. What a horrid antichrist teaching! The law is a whole, just like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (a picture of the law which gives the same knowledge and which many are eating of in a bid to be godly/be like God - see Romans 7:8-12 The Message.) As it was with eating of the tree which has many parts (bark, leaves, root, etc,) eating of any part of the law (the letter) kills, whether moral, oral, ceremonial or the one with which man privately judges himself in his heart (see Romans 2:12-15.) Whatever it is that man does by his arm of flesh/will-power in a bid to become godly like God or to contribute to his godliness is law-keeping.

Romans 7 also shows us that the law that we who believe are dead to includes the Ten Commandments; Paul used the 10th Commandment (You shall not covet…) as an example in this chapter.

Satan perverts the Law into a temptation and makes a piece of the forbidden fruit of it. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and the weapon with which Satan the accuser uses to push people into this road is the Law; he deceives people into trying to do the seemingly good thing of depending on the law to make one godly/be like God, just as he deceived Eve. For all who believe in Jesus, Satan has been disarmed of this weapon that he uses to accuse. He and his agents' strategy encompasses charging people with disobedience to the law, just like a prosecutor in any court of law who uses his tongue to bring charges against the accused. Condemnation and judgment follow the guilty/sinner. But all have sinned. Colossians 2:14-15 tells us that Christ has disarmed Satan and his agents of this weapon by cancelling the record of charges against us...:

"He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by His victory over them on the cross."

Knowing this truth is crucial for every believer, especially when Satan the accuser fires fiery darts of accusations — strongholds/reasonings, imaginations and thoughts that try to get us to take up the burden of guilt for our sins — to trick us into coming under the judgment of the Law. See this in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,"

From what we are up against in the verses above, we see that this warfare that Paul wrote about here isn't fought in some coven, church building or some mountaintop; what we are up against is "arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God" and "thoughts." Satan the accuser is a legalist. Ha Satan is literally “prosecutor at Law” in Hebrew. Remember how Satan deceived Eve into believing that she was not like God the Righteous when in fact God created she and Adam in His likeness (Genesis 1:27)? The battleground for this warfare is our mind where we analyse thoughts and arguments that tell us that we are not righteous (like God) because we don't quite have our physical lives all together; those thoughts that try to shift our focus to the law for the attainment of godliness and off Christ who suffered and died to make us righteous like God; those thoughts that try to condemn us so that judgment can follow- the same processes found in any regular court of law. Unfortunately these thoughts have their source from false doctrines that are being spewed from some church pulpits.

Satan the accuser can't just go about slapping judgment on anyone. He is a prosecuting attorney who's out to accuse, get convictions and ensure that the sinner gets the harshest judgment: Death preceded by its symptoms of earthly ills. But all have sinned. Christ died our death. Once.

We overcome not through carnal weapons (arm of flesh/human effort-driven activities at getting a “not guilty" verdict) such as doing restitution like Judas, promising to keep the law and being more obedient or attempting to break generational curses with 40 days' dry fasting when Christ already hung on the tree to redeem us from the curse of the Law. We overcome by bringing the weapons of the enemy (accusations of the accuser) into captivity to the obedience of Christ, according to the same passage. But what is the obedience of Christ? Who better to interpret the Word than the Word Himself! Romans 5:19 tells us all about the obedience of Christ and who we are because of His obedience-

"For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous."

When those accusing words and thoughts come calling, we confess with our mouth our righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ which we believe in our heart. Salvation, even from sins and earthly ills will follow (Romans 10:9-10.) God's word says so.

Satan’s strategy has not changed since he deceived Eve in Eden: In this court of law, all who depend on their own obedience/human effort at being godly (be like God) stand accused and condemned. With their admission of guilt and their arm of flesh/human strength-driven efforts at being godly (like God) in order to make the Righteous Judge look favourably upon them, they reject Christ as their Bearer of sins and Advocate, so their sins and guilt remain on them. As it is in any earthly court of law, condemnation and judgment must follow after guilt is ascertained. Death (preceded by its symptoms of earthly ills such as stupid mistakes, poverty, sickness, anxiety and depression) is the outcome. This is how the letter kills. But the Spirit gives life and with the Spirit of the Lord, it is neither by human might nor power.

The law condemns all who try to do the seemingly good thing of keeping it in a bid to be declared “Not Guilty" by God the Righteous Judge. This is the way that seems right to man (trying to godliness by human strength as Adam and Eve tried to do) but its end is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12.)

The ones on this wrong way are no different from Peter when he implied that Christ didn't know what He was saying when He told him about his then upcoming denials; Peter thought he could obey the law (Ninth Commandment- “You shall not bear false witness…”) but ended up falling flat on his face three times. The ones on this broad road are like Judas who sinned and tried to get back into God's good books via his human strength (arm of flesh.)

This is how Satan the accuser/prosecutor at law kills and destroys- First, he has to steal the word that proclaims that we who are in Jesus Christ (our Advocate and Bearer of sins) have been declared righteous/not guilty by God (the Righteous Judge) Who, because of His sacrifice of His own Son for us, no longer remembers our sins and lawless deeds; see this truth in the witness of the Holy Spirit (our Witness) to us in Hebrews 10.

Righteous Judge. Advocate. Witness. These are all judicial terms. These are terms of the Law. Spiritual warfare is a legal battle where we overcome through the obedience of Christ- Romans 5:19.

"For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous."

The righteous like God (through faith and utter dependence on Christ our Advocate and Bearer of sins) get to escape paying the wages of sin and to live the abundant life in Christ. The wicked (those who expect the Righteous Judge to give them a favourable verdict based on their mentrual rag law-keeping, good works andarm of flesh/human effort-driven obedience) face judgment. They reject the sacrifice of Christ. This is why we often wonder why bad things happen to good people. There is none good but God. The difference between the righteous and the wicked is receiving God’s abundance of Grace and His gift of Righteousness to us in Christ.

As it is in any earthly court of law, there is no condemnation for those who are righteous in God's sight. See Romans 8:33-

“Who then would dare to accuse those whom God has chosen in love to be His? God himself is the Judge who has issued His final verdict over them—“Not guilty!””

No one who depends on human strength at keeping the law can stand should Satan come to sift like wheat. Peter's desire to not want to break the Ninth Commandment was a noble thing. Judas tried to set things right after he sold Christ out. What Satan deceived Eve into doing was not a bad thing; afterall, what is bad in desiring and trying to be godly? The danger here is depending on human effort/arm of flesh that will fail at keeping the law in order to attain godliness which all three had in common. It's what made Peter fail three times. It is what caused sin and death to have dominion over Adam and Eve. . It's what caused Judas to be depressed and suicidal- what do we think is the major cause of depression and suicide even among non-believers? It is guilt for sins, fear, anxiety, hopelessness and sorrow in the heart for sins aka not measuring up to particular standards - no different from what happened to Judas who was full of remorse and blamed himself for his sin. The word "sin" is translated from the Greek word Hamartia- literally "miss the mark." All have missed the mark. See what God's word says of man's efforts at living a godly life as was Paul's experience in Romans 7:18-

"For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."

God's word says human effort (the arm of flesh) will fail, is powerless and cannot. But Pride in the arm of flesh (human effort at obedience) that will fail says:

"No, I can. God must be wrong. I still have some good in me. I can keep the law and resist temptation to commit sin by my own will-power. Others should too, since I can. They are just lazy."

God wants us to be like Him, but His ways and thoughts are higher than man's. God's prophets of old sought to know more about this Way of salvation that you and I have in Christ today. 1 Peter 1 says of them:

10 "Regarding this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace [of God] that was intended for you, searched carefully and inquired [about this future way of salvation], 11 seeking to find out what person or what time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He foretold the sufferings of Christ and the glories [destined] to follow."

Isaiah was one of such prophets. He prophesied about the sufferings of Christ (in Isaiah 53) and the glories that will follow (in Isaiah 53 & 54.) See the result of His suffering for us in Isaiah 53:11-

"After He has suffered, He will see the light of life. And He will be satisfied. My godly servant will make many people godly because of what He will accomplish. He will be punished for their sins."

The law cannot make any godly. Only Christ's sacrifice will suffice for God the Righteous to declare any righteous in His sight. Just like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the letter (law) kills. Such who have any kind of relationship with the law have no idea how much God hates sin, so much that if you stumble at just one point of the Law you are guilty of all (James 2:10.)

By default, all of mankind was rendered lame with sin by Adam.

The law says to the lame man: "Walk, or die!"

But Grace Himself (our Lord Jesus Christ) tells the lame man (aka sinner) who believes:"Receive the ability to walk and start running faster than Usain Bolt! I am running with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you! I will help you when you stumble! I will never shake my head at you in dusgust for your sins. I am your righteousness and your strength! I will save you from your sins!"

Believers in Christ, thank God that we are not under Law but under Grace where sin does not have dominion over us (Romans 6:14.)

Beloved of God, by His Grace, let's move away from believing like the prodigal son's older brother who thought he had to earn the Father's blessings. Receive God's abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness and get to live in triumph over sin and death through Jesus Christ-

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:116-17.

The Law condemns the best of us. But Grace saves the worst of us, even salvation from sins.