Law VS Grace
There has been much controversy by the followers of the Christian Religion in keeping God’s laws with our own effort and understanding or allowing God to lead us to keep his laws and using the term, “Under Grace” because today, men as well as women, have entered into a new beginning and are made up of individual members of the Body of Christ. What’s the difference? This article will help in an explanation but the reader needs to judge for himself or herself the notable difference. We will never know the difference without the help of God’s instruction manuel, the Bible, so we will reference occasionally the wisdom of the Bible, God’s Word.
We know from history that Christian worship came out of Judaism. the Apostle Paul states:
Romans 2:29, “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of man, but of God.”
The Judian religion which is outward, not inward as verse 29 says, observes 613 laws which they are expected to follow. That’s quite a challenge. All these laws are outward meaning that they need to be doers of the law through their own effort verses God’s laws being brought within a person through a transformation of receiving of a new heart, (mind) and his leading of and through His Spirit.
. James 2:10, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilt of all.”
Whether you are of the Jewish or of the Christian faith, and try to be doers of the law through your own effort and miss the mark as James says, there seems to be no room for compromise. If you’re able to keep the law perfectly, you’re as Nobel as Jesus Christ was. You would be like the Jews of today who don’t need Jesus.
Law
Of the Ten Commandments, nine are ligimate commandments and the fourth, concerning the Sabbath, is a ritual. A ritual is a form or shadow leading to it’s spiritual reality. A lamb was in type a shadow of Jesus Christ. Circumcission in the Old Testament was a shadow of the removal of the flesh. Rituals are an outward form of a spiritual reality. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. As the Lord of the Sabbath He could do whatever He wanted with it. It was practiced in the Old Testament as a ritual and now in the New Testament it is a reality of the spirit, spiritual. Today, Christ is our Sabbath.
The Sabbath is Not a Law But A Feast
Leviticus 23:2, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts. 3, Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest….
A good way to define a law is: if a person anywhere in the world, a christian or otherwise, commits a murder or steals something, he is guilty of breaking one of God’s Commandments. It is a law which applies to everyone throughout the world.
A feast, according to the Bible is a joyful time of eating and drinking with many guests and merrymaking. People are invited or called as guests to a special occasion as a wedding as we see in Matthew 22:2-3 or a banquet as we find in the Book of Esther 5:8. Not every person in the world is invited to a particular wedding or feast or banquet. Only those guests who are known or are invited.
Grace
Grace, defined by Websters Dictionary: A period of time granted beyond the date set for the performance of an act or a payment or obligation, temporary delay or exception. Favor shown by granting such a delay.
Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Evidently all men are paid the wages of a death sentence because Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Years ago there was a practice by major companies in the U.S. that had a policy in which a payment for service was due on a certain date and if the payee couldn’t meet the date deadline, he would be granted a grace period in which the owed payment could be made. The ruling on any payment was a flexible law that could be made at sometime later than the due date.That is called a grace period.
In the Book John 8:2-11 records a woman taken in adultery by the religious leaders who believed in the law of Moses. They brought the woman to Jesus in order to trap Him in his breaking of the law of Moses. They said that, according to Moses, the woman should be stoned to death. After the religious leaders left without condemning the woman we read:
John 8:10, when Jesus had lifted himself, and saw no one but the woman, He said unto her, “Woman, where are thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?” 11, She said, “No man Lord,” and Jesus said unto her, “neither do I condemned thee, go and sin no more.”
The religious leaders in the story of John 8 were applying the letter of the law and Jesus was applying the spirit and the intent of the law by giving her a chance to have a change of heart. This is what circumscission of the heart is all about, it is inward where the heart ( of the mind ) is not outward as physical circumscission.
There is a topic on this website called “Bones of Joseph.” It would be well to read and study the subject matter in the article.
Adam’s Sin
When we understand Adam’s sin in the Garden we realize that we all have the wages of a death sentence placed upon us.
Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as one man’s sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and death passed upon all men for that all men have sinned.”
The law of Moses had no flexibility, it is hard and rigid. God, in His Wisdom, knew that man could not keep or obey His laws, like the Jews 613 laws mentioned above. He made it possible, although all men are deserving of death, to provide a grace period for those He would call to Himself or those who had a loving heart for Him.
John 3:16
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.
The word world means an orderly arrangement, as we read in Isaiah 45:18, not as it became tohu and bohu, meaning without form and void, as Genesis 1:2 says. This only begotten Son refers to the promise Seed mentioned in Genesis 3:15 Who became Jesus the Christ and is ushering in a new beginning. He is the unique one, a Son of God and born into this world as man’s savior.
Jesus is the only begotten of God who is the Father of all but there are others who are begotten through the preaching of the Gospel, 1st Corinthians 4:15. These are those who are called who are called out of this world through the effort of others and are believers during Jesus Christ’s leading before His 2nd coming, and are under grace not law, so we read:
2nd Corinthians 3:3, “Foras much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” Verse 6, “who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
The Three Parts off Man
1st Thessalonians 5:23, “And the very God of peace sanctify you whole; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Jus as God is Triune, men are triune also. As far as men go, men are made upon the order of importance, spirit first, soul second, our physical body third.
. John 4:23, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.”
Because God is Spirit, our only way to contact God is through our spirit. There is a spirit in man, job 32:8; 1st corinthians 2:11.
Although Death Passed to all Men, We Live to Express Christ within us.
Romans 6:11, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Those who are reckoned as dead during Jesus 1st coming and His calling, making disciples out of all nations, Matthew 28:19, and believe the gospel are under grace, not law. This is a grace period for us in the body of Christ to learn and grow by and through the Spirit of Christ. This grace period doesn’t remove the death penalty from us but allows us to grow in grace and knowledge of the Godhead while in a body of flesh and as overcomers of our sin nature, awaiting the return of Jesus 2nd coming.
Romans 8:2, “For the law of the spirit of life, (written in our hearths), in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Because of God’s mercy, we have become spiritual Jews having a transformation of our heart and have put on Christ as our garment through the Spirit of Christ,1st Corinthians 15:45.