Monday: Law and Grace
(Rom. 6:15-23)
One of the most difficult concepts for Christians to comprehend is the continued role of the law for the one saved by grace. If a believer attains righteousness by accepting the sufficiency of the life and death of Jesus, why is it still necessary to keep the law? This question provides another opportunity to repeat a key point: the law was never intended to provide salvation; its function (after the Fall) was to define sin. Yet, the Cross doesn’t negate the need for a person to follow God’s law any more than someone having been pardoned for violating the speed limit can now continue to violate it.
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According to Romans 6:12, Rom. 6:15-23, what are the implications for living a life of grace? See especially Rom. 6:12, Rom. 6:15, Rom. 6:17.
Grace and the law are not contraries; they do not negate each other. Instead, they are powerfully connected. The law, because it can’t save us, shows us why we need grace. Grace is not opposed to law but to death. Our problem was not the law itself but the eternal death that resulted from violating it.
Paul warns the Christian to be careful about using the promised gift of grace as an excuse to sin (Rom. 6:12, Rom. 6:15). Because sin is defined through the law, when Paul tells Christians not to sin, He is basically telling them: keep the law, obey the commandments!
Paul had ever exalted the divine law. He had shown that in the law there is no power to save men from the penalty of disobedience. Wrongdoers must repent of their sins and humble themselves before God, whose just wrath they have incurred by breaking His law, and they must also exercise faith in the blood of Christ as their only means of pardon.-Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 393.
Why is it so easy to get caught up in the faulty logic which says that because we are not saved by the law, we no longer have to obey it?
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Should someone say to me that the law is futile, we don't need it, my response would be "So how can you experience grace if you don't keep the law?" Grace is the bridge to righteousness as we strive to be obedient. God's grace compensates for our inability to achieve righteousness. God's grace is freely bestowed on all who believe in Him. If you believe in him, will you obey him? And what to obey if there are no Laws?
Thank you for explaining!
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Grace and the Law are two side of a boat. If you row one side (grace or the law) your boat will a point and keep spinning around. Unless you row the boat left and right (grave and the law) before your boat can move forward.
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i believe obeying is the best form of true worship....often at times we take grace as something that rightfully belongs to us,we need to repent and be immune to the disease called sin.
The faulty logic is if we sin, we can just ask God for forgiveness and keep sinning. But the whole purpose of the law is to show God how much we love him. In John 14:15, Jesus says "if you love me, keep my commandments." If we continually break God's law because we know we'll be saved anyway, then we do not really love the Lord.
Both Law and Grace are inseparable. We need grace every day to live an obedient life to keep the law and to live for Jesus, so that we can attain Sanctification.
God's laws are immutable and are the yardstick upon which the judgement revolves. The idea that the law is futile is a misplaced idea, it has lead many astray due to misreading of the Paul's books.Grace achieved what laws couldn't offer ,and, by this,God's character is made manifest by sending Christ to the cross to meet the demands of the law and to justify humanity, and, so, salvation by faith alone and not by laws lest it be legalistic.Could somebody explain how these three phenomena work in the God's judgment throne 1.Grace
. 2.Justice
. 3.Laws
Psalms 85:10
Taking the example of grazed domestic animals, it is also easy to understand this. The pastorilist takes all the effort to direct the animals to where good pasture is. Where possible, He may even tie them to restrict them in a place of good pasture. If one of them struggles to break away from the fence, it may get hurt or get lost. Thats the same thing with the Lord, who by His law keeps us into check and directs us in the right path as our carnal minds are always bent to sin. For those who go ahead and jump the fence, grace is still sufficient if they seek for it or else they will get lost. For those who struggle to keep inside the fence, its difficult without the grace and they end up breaking the fence out of frustration!
God has given unto us the breath of life freely and in the same manner He has given us the Grace. God has also given us the will and power enabling us to choose between evil and GOOD and whichever is your choice the grace and the breath of life remain till death do you part. What then would separate you from God even though you remain in your physical life, even though grace remains to abound? - it is SIN. And what is sin?
Sin is transgression of Divine Law, sin is violating God's will, sin is anything that violates the ideal relationship between an individual and God. Summarily, sin is all about transgression and violation of God's Moral Law, The Ten Commandments.
the law does not save, it has no power to save us and cannot save us but only faith in Christ Jesus. it is only His righteousness that can save us.yet as paul save so therefore we are justified through faith in Christ and went on to ask that should we make void the law through faith. should we trample on law because we are under grace. should we steal because there is grace. when it comes to the nine there is no problem, they understand it well but when it comes to the sabbath that is where the whole problem lies as to whether we are under the law or not.
When we really love someone, doing what pleases them is no burden at all. We don't even need a discussion about whether or not it's necessary . . . we're too busy showing our love.