Tuesday: Law and Grace
Daily Lesson for Tuesday 25 th of March 2025
| Please note that the Monday’s lesson was posted in this space. That has now been corrected, and you can study the appropriate lesson for the day. |
As we have seen, law and grace are not opposed to one another. Instead, they serve different functions in accordance with the love and justice of God. A sharp contrast between law and grace would have puzzled ancient Israelites, who saw God’s giving of the law itself as a great display of God’s grace. While the “gods” of the surrounding nations were fickle and entirely unpredictable, leaving people without a way to know what the “gods” desired and what would please them, the God of the Bible very clearly instructs His people about what pleases Him. And what pleases Him is just what is for the ultimate good of all His people, individually and collectively.
Yet, the law cannot save us from sin or change human hearts. Because of our innate sinfulness, we need a spiritual heart transplant.
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34. What does this teach about God’s promises to give us a new heart? Compare this with Christ’s words to Nicodemus in John 3:1-21 about the new birth. See also Heb. 8:10.
The Ten Commandments were inscribed by God Himself on the tablets of stone (Exod. 31:18), but the law was also to be written in the hearts of God’s people (Ps. 37:30-31). Ideally, God’s law of love would not be external to us but internal to our very characters. God alone could inscribe His law on human hearts, and He promised to do so for His covenant people (see Heb. 8:10).
We cannot save ourselves by law-keeping. Rather, it is by grace we are saved through faith, not of ourselves, but as the gift of God (Eph. 2:8). We do not keep the law in order to be saved; we keep the law because we are already saved. We do not keep the law in order to be loved but because we are loved, and thus we desire to love God and others (see John 14:15).
At the same time, the law shows us our sin (James 1:22-25, Rom. 3:20, Rom. 7:7), shows us our need of a Redeemer (Gal. 3:22-24), guides us in the best ways of life, and reveals God’s character of love.
| What is your hope in the judgment? Is it your diligent and faithful law-keeping or is it Christ’s righteousness, which covers you? What does your answer tell you about the function of God’s law regarding what it can or cannot do? |
(6)
Jesus made the law and Jesus confirmed the law when He walked on this earth. The promise that He is coming back to take us home some day soon, is all the more reason for us to let our light shine on a daily basis, thus being ready for Jesus to come and hover in the clouds. And when me meet Him in the air, He will tell His Angels to throttle up and head back to beyond the Orion. There will be a multitude of people on the last trolly to heaven, our heavenly home. Yes we can say with David this earth is only a temporary stop off for us Christians. Psalms 119:19-20. So let’s be ready for Jesus to come.
The link between love and grace of God is as follows:
Verse 1:
The theme of the Bible is Jesus,
And how he died to save men.
The plan of salvation assures us,
He's coming back again.
Look for verse 2 on Wednesday, and the chorus on Thursday. Friday will be the culmination of this quarter.
Regardless of the many spiritual and practical blessings that accrue from observing God's law, the carnal mind view the law as punitive, authoritarian, oppressive and impossible to keep. This view is not surprising because carnal mind is rebellious to God.
"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." - Romans 8:7
It is only through the renewal of the mind that carnal mind can start to appreciate the goodness of God's law.
"Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect" - Romans 12:2 (NLT).
With out God law and grace would not work
True. If there was no law, then there would be no sin. If there was no sin, there would be no penalty for any behavior, and no need for salvation. The Law of God is not arbitrary, it is simply an accurate description of the necessities of how we must treat God, and each other, in order for perfection to continue to exist in the Universe. The absence of perfection is sin, which causes death. The purpose of the Law of God is to prevent our death, by ensuring we do what not to do, so we do not cause it by our actions out of ignorance.
In the context of Seventh-day Adventism, conversations about Law and Grace often centre around Sabbath-keeping. We get ourselves involved in convoluted semantic discussions that essentially end up with: "Therefore we have to keep the Sabbath! Quad Erat Demonstratum".
I am not very good at arguing the point. I know all the arguments and the counterarguments in this discussion and while I am pretty good at convincing myself, convincing others is another game altogether.
The issue is that Sabbath-keeping is intimately tied to our identity and consequently we consider it important to defend our position. Further, we want to present a united front to the rest of Christendom about Sabbath-keeping. And that leads to a very legalistic argument.
We need to learn to share the blessing of the Sabbath. My answer to the enquirer about why I keep Sabbath is to tell them how much I enjoy it. I go birdwatching early on Sabbath mornings and when my birding friends mention my Sabbath-keeping I tell them that birdwatching is part of my Sabbath experience. It's not just about church attendance (By the way the birds have disappeared by the time church begins, so I can keep up my church identity). My point is that there are ways of sharing the Sabbath experience with others in way that is inviting. We can share the grace of God with others in a way that they can appreciate.
Maurice, I agree that the Sabbath is central to us because it’s our intimate to our identity. Another factor to that centrality in discussions, especially with others is that most anyone regardless of belief in God or not, in general will not struggle with the other nine commandments. But every last one of them will struggle with the Sabbath commanment
To violate any of the 10 Commandments is sin, and the consequence of that is death. There is no lesser consequence for failure to keep the 7th day Sabbath holy as commanded. What makes that particular Commandment form God more difficult to "sell" to non-believers is that the others we can attribute a human logic to, based on our human ego, based on our expectations of how a human King would expect to be treated, and how we and other people want to be treated. To break the Sabbath Commandment seems like a victimless crime, by comparison. But that's what makes it the perfe4ct test of faith. If we love God and trust Him, we will want to do whatever pleazses Him, and we will happily do our best to keep the 7th day Sabbath holy. If we don't, we won't. That is how it is used to determine who truly are the servant's of God, and who are not. In the last days, the 7th day Sabbath will be the great test of faith. Either we will keep it no matter what, because we would rather die than to break even one of God's Commandments, or we will not. The result will be apparent to the entire Universe, and they will know who is faithful and who is not.
As Christians, we are called to uphold the law not as a means of earning salvation but because we’re already saved by His grace.
Grace doesn’t cancel the law. Also, grace isn’t a free pass to sin; rather, it gives us the power to choose good because we’re transformed by God’s love.
We obey God’s law because we are thankful for His kindness. His laws aren’t rules to control us, they’re guidelines for living a life that honors Him and blesses others.
A message I heard recently and I have been asking God to lead; The question in that message: “Are you a 7th day Adventist or a seven-day Adventist?”
I appreciate very much the promises of Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8.What a relief to trust in God's promise to write His law on our hearts!