Dangers of Mixing Law and Grace - 4
In this post we will be looking at a more explicit differentiation and analysis between Law and Grace by contrasting the many Biblical points. Unfortunately, most churches and clergy are so bifurcated they fail to see the errors of their futile attempts that striving for perfection is really a danger to experiencing God’s rest.
What the Law is and Does:1. The Law is a mirror, manifesting the dirt on our faces but unable to cleanse them -(James 1:23-24).
2. Three thousand men were slain when the Law was brought down from Mt. Sinai to Israel -(Exodus 32:28).
3. The Law is only a JUDGE and NEVER a Savior!
4. The Law is God's holy requirements of and prohibitions on sinful men -(Exodus 20:1-17).
5. The Law demands that you work in order to be accepted in the presence of God -(Galatians 3:12).
6. The Law is a ministration of condemnation -(2nd Corinthians 3:9).
7. The Law completely failed to bring redemption to the human race -(Romans 8:3).
8. The Law says, "The soul that sinneth it shall die" -(Ezekiel 18:4).
9. The Law says "Try" -(Exodus chapter 20).
10. The Law stones an adulteress -(Leviticus 20:10 & John 8:5).
11. The Law tells us to get to work.
12. If we are under the Law, who of us should not be stoned to death for not keeping the Sabbath -(Numbers 15:32-35).
13. It take more than the Law to change a sinner's heart -(Jeremiah 13:23).
14. The Law left the rich, Law-giving, young ruler lacking something -(Matthew 19:20).
15. Law keeping encouraged the Pharisees to boast in his prayers before God -(Luke 18:11-12).
16. The Law says, "Do and live" -(Ezekiel 18:21).
17. The Law shuts every mouth before God in condemnation and guilt -(Romans 3:19).
18. The Law curses -(Deuteronomy 28:15-68 & Galatians 3:10).
19. The Law kills -(Exodus 21:12-17).
20. The Law says, "An eye for an eye" -(Exodus 21:24).
21. The Law is a religion of probation -(Galatians 3:10).
22. The Law, when on the throne, brought only condemnation and death -(Romans 5:20).
23. The age of Law ended at the cross -(Colossians 2:14 & John 1:17).
24. No man ever kept the Law perfectly except Jesus Christ -(John 8:46).
25. The Law never made any man righteous -(Galatians 2:16 & Acts 13:39).
26. The Law is both a chain and yoke -(James 2:10 & Acts 15:10).
27. The Law was made for a sinner and not the ungodly -(1st Timothy 1:9).
28. The Law puts an insurmountable wall between Jew and Gentile -(Ephesians 2:14-15).
29. The Law kept man from the presence of God behind the veil in the Temple -(Hebrews 9:6-8).
30. The Law puts a great and guilty distance between God and man -(Exodus 19:12-13, 23).
31. Paul found out that the Law could not even give him victory over his own flesh -(Romans 7:9-25).
32. The Law was only Israel's schoolmaster till Jesus Christ came, disciplining them as little children -(Galatians 3:24).
33. The legalist claims that no man can be righteous who is not under the Law -(Acts 15:1, 5).
34. The legalists at the Jerusalem Conference said that the Gentiles had to keep the Law to be saved -(Acts 15:1, 5).
35. Legality split the church at Antioch into two hostile divisions -(Galatians 2:11-14).
36. The Law was only a parenthesis in God's great plan of redemption -(Galatians 3:19).
37. At Mt. Sinai Israel accepted and put themselves under the Old Covenant of the Law -(Exodus 19:3-8).
38. The Law "was added" only as a temporary covenant -(Galatians 3:19 & Hebrews 8:5-13).
39. The ceremonial laws were fulfilled at the cross because they produced dead works, which were only types of good things to come -(Hebrews 10:1).
40. The moral law was also fulfilled at the cross because the moral law could not justify or give life -(Acts 13:39 & Galatians 3:21).
41. The Law was never given to the Gentiles but only to Israel -(Romans 2:14 & Exodus 19:5).
42. The New Testament never says that the Law is our guide.
43. Those taking the Law to live by, reject the authority of Jesus Christ and His New Testament of Grace -(Hebrews 8:10-12).
44. Those taking the Law to live by, in addition to rejecting the authority of Jesus Christ and the New Testament of Grace forfeit all their blessings under Christ Jesus. The reason this is true is that Christ Jesus death on the cross and His atonement for sin was a "Free" Gift. It is not a "Free Gift" so long as it has not been received and owned by the believer. In a short one word this is known as "repentance". You cannot walk under the Law and Grace simultaneously. It is one or the other, which one is it for you? This, for the believer, is perhaps the most important point of errantly following the Mosaic Law. This is problematic for those who feel they need to become a Jew first in order to become a Christian. Many of the Hebrew Roots ministries attempt to place believers under the Law once again as the Judaizers of the Apostle Paul’s day.
Is the Law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a Law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the Law -(Galatians 3:21).
For the Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ -(John 1:17).
Now we know that what things so ever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God -(Romans 3:19).What Grace is and Does:
1. Grace is a fountain, which cleanses from every sin stain -(John 13:10).
2. Three thousand were saved on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended on believers -(Acts 2:41).
3. Christ Jesus only is the Savior of the world, and He came not to judge the world but to save it -(John 12:47).
4. Grace is a loving God bestowing His favor on undeserving and repentant sinners -(Titus 3:4-5).
5. Grace says that faith is the ONLY WAY to be accepted in the presence of God -(Hebrews 11:6).
6. Grace is a ministration of justification -(Romans 3:24).
7. Grace through Jesus Christ's death brought in man's only redemption -(Ephesians 1:7 & Romans 8:3).
8. Grace says, "The soul that believeth, it shall live" -(John 3:36).
9. Grace says, "It is finished" -(John 19:30).
10. Grace says, "Neither do I condemn thee: Go and sin no more" -(John 8:11).
11. Grace puts into our hearts a desire to "want to" work -(2nd Corinthians 5:14).
12. Under Grace, Christ Jesus is our "Sabbath", and we are told not to keep holy days -(Colossians 2:16-17 & Galatians 4:9-10).
13. It takes nothing more than the Grace of God to change any sinner's heart -(Titus 2:11).
14. Grace makes every believer complete in Christ Jesus, lacking nothing -(Colossians 2:10).
15. Grace humbles us in realizing that we have nothing to boast in but the cross of Christ Jesus -(Galatians 6:14).
16. Grace says, "Believe and really live" -(John 6:35).
17. Grace opens every believer's mouth in confidence before the throne of Grace -(Hebrews 4:16).
18. Grace redeems from the curse and blesses -(Galatians 3:12).
19. Grace makes alive -(Romans 5:17).
20. Grace says, "Resist not evil but return good for evil" -(Romans 12:17, 21).
21. Grace is a gospel of eternal certainty -(Hebrews 12:28).
22. Grace is now on the throne, and brings only life and blessing -(Romans 5:17).
23. The age of Grace began at the Cross and the covenant of Grace will never end -(Hebrews 13:20).
24. But Grace enables us to fulfill the righteousness of the Law if we walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit -(Romans 8:4).
25. Grace makes every believer righteous in Christ -(Romans 3:24).
26. Grace is NOT LAWLESSNESS but a freedom that makes us willing love slaves for Christ Jesus -(Galatians 5:1).
27. God does not call the "sinners" or "ungodly", so the Law was not made for us -(1st Timothy 1:9).
28. Grace broke down the wall and made both Jew and Gentile one -(Ephesians 2:14-18).
29. Grace rent that veil from top to bottom; so that all might come directly to God through Christ Jesus -(Hebrews 10:19-20).
30. Grace reconciles and brings the believer as close to God as Christ Jesus -(Ephesians 1:6 & 2:13).
31. Paul found victory through Christ Jesus' and with His Grace he could gain victory over every sin -(Romans 7:25).
32. Grace does not place us as little children under a schoolmaster but as full-grown sons and daughters by adoption into the family of God -(Galatians 4:1-5).
33. However, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, and Job were declared righteous before the Law was given because of their faith in the Grace of God. The legalist doesn't know what to say to this -(Hebrews 11).
34. Peter answered, saying that the Gentiles were saved by Grace through Faith without the law -(Acts 15:7-12).
35. The Grace message preached by Paul is the only message that could bring it [the church] back together -(Galatians 2:15-21).
36. Grace was always God's plan of dealing with man in every age; otherwise man would have perished -(Psalms 103:17).
37. At Calvary, we came under the New Testament, the New Covenant of Grace, one entirely different from the Law -(Hebrews 8:6-13).
38. Grace is an everlasting covenant -(Hebrews 13:20 & Romans 5:21).
39. Grace takes the place of the types because it is the substance, the answer, and the reality of the types -(Hebrews 9:8-10).
40. Grace took its place because it could give both life and justification -(Romans 3:24 & 5:23).
41. "The Grace of God...hath appeared to all men", Jew and Gentile -(Titus 2:11).
42. It does say that the Holy Spirit is our guide -(John 16:13).
43. Grace recognizes that Christ Jesus' authority and His New Testament is God's last and final word to mankind -(Hebrews 1:1-2).
44. It does say that we are going to be judged by Jesus' words and Paul's gospel of Grace -(John 12:48 & Romans 2:16).
My observation and experience over the past thirty-five years is that the Christian believer under Grace is a better all-rounded person than those that persist to think you have to live under the Law. Those of you who have been convoluted or bifurcated in their walk of faith will find great relief in the Grace message. When you discover this for yourself you will experience a relief, as if a heavy burden has been lifted from your shoulders. The reason is it really has been a burden. Remember, Jesus said in Matthew 11:30, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light". In a forthcoming post I will discuss the issue of "the gift".
All those folks that want to tell you there is no Pre-Tribulation Rapture merely expose their ignorance. They are all trying to live by the Law, for Jews, but the Judaizers have got to them and brained-washed them to where they have to be "Law" and "Sabbath-observant". It is so sad because they carry such guilt because they don't, and, nor can they succeed in their vain efforts to live by the Law, to achieve perfection. You can't achieve it. All my life (with the exception the period since 1986) I was a "perfectionist", on the treadmill of performance, work-driven, always exhausted, and guilt-driven if I even took a day off for myself. I was always seeking to please the Lord in ministry. The end result for me was spiritual burnout. Today, I glory in the Rest God has given me in Christ Jesus. Between 1965 and 1996, my standard work week was an 80-hours a week. I drowned in guilt for not being able to do enough to find peace and rest.
Blessings from our Lord and King, Christ Jesus,
Pastor Bob