Law & Grace. What's the Difference?

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’
(Rom 1:17 NIV)

WFW: 20 Points to Ponder
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1. Pregnant with meaning, together law and grace offer the complete message of God’s biblical plan for redemption. United by faith, law and grace exist on a continuum with one another, a trinity of Scriptural rhetoric waiting to be unpacked by the spiritual traveler.

2. Every school boy learns that play involves competition and rules, and rules mean law. Uniquely wired for action, boys learn to hit the ball according to the rules. When the game is over, there is a clear winner and a clear loser. Occasionally, someone goes home with a bloody nose.

3. Conversely, every school girl learns that play involves cooperation. Wired for talk, groups of girls take turns listening receptively to each other without judgment. To girls, play equals relationship, and relationship means empathy, understanding, and grace. In the end, everyone wins.

4. Therefore, even school children understand at least half of the biblical equation, according to their gender. By adulthood, most thoughtful people recognize that law and grace or rules and relationship exist in tension with one another. And like gender, they accept that both are valid.

5. Fresh from the hand of God, our ancestral parents, Adam and Eve, learned these concepts in a symbolic way. In the absence of playmates and a school yard, God gave the first pair a rigorous object lesson. When commanded not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (law) the two disobeyed, forfeiting the opportunity to eat from the Tree of Life (grace) and live forever in Paradise.

6. In a deliberate effort to compete against God and reverse the roles inherent between the Creator and his creation, the first couple failed to trust in God's loving lordship. In the end, the federal head of humanity got his nose bloodied, and sadly, he (and his bride) went to their graves as losers.

7. Adam and Eve committed a capital crime, and that crime reversed the order of all things. Originally, the first couple were abundantly provided for by their loving Father. Adam and Eve lived in Eden according to the law of reaping and sowing.

8. There was plenty of time for conversation with the Father and with each other. The orchard was full of produce, and after they harvested the fruit-laden trees, they sowed the seed for a future harvest. This state of ease and bliss can be summarized with the phrases “being before doing,” “spiritual before physical,” “relationships precede work,” or “grace begets morality.”

9. Conversely, after the Fall, the first couple were forced to live in the harsh environment outside of Eden according to the law of sowing and reaping. Planting seed in infertile soil, plus facing drought, pestilence, and weeds, Adam and Eve had to compete against many adversities to survive. Now separated from God, fellowship and conversation with Him were severely limited.

10. The first murder occurred soon after Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden when their son Cain killed his brother, Abel. Succeeding generations were equally violent and corrupt, and God brought Man to the point of near extinction during Noah’s Flood. Nevertheless, God slowly began to unfold his plan for redemption through one faithful man, Abraham.

11. Eventually, God gave his Law to Moses and the emerging nation of Israel. Designed as a codified civil, ethical, and ceremonial system, the Law was intended to restrain man’s evil ways and open a way for fellowship with God. This latter state of human affairs can be summarized with the phrases “doing before being,” “physical before spiritual,” “good works precede relationship,” or “moral law begets peaceful living.”

12. The rise and fall of Israel proved that the Old Covenant of the Law was incapable of producing the quality of righteous living that God required of his people. Faithful obedience to this written set of precepts only served to reveal sin (Rom 3:20); demonstrated the impossibility of works righteousness (Mt 5: 21ff); and enabled sinners to recognize Jesus as the Messiah
(Lk 24:44-46).

13. There are several important characteristics that limited the law’s effectiveness in producing lasting change. For instance, as a type, the Law was behavioral or external to believers; it was only given to the nation of Israel; it covered sin without providing remission; and it required repetitive sacrifices under the administration of a special priesthood.

14. On the other hand, God’s intervention into human history in the person of Jesus Christ, inaugurated a New Covenant of Grace that pleroo (fulfilled) (Gal 5:14) and katargeo (nullified) the Mosaic Law (Eph 2:14-16). With the outpouring of the promised Spirit, came the power to live the kind of holy life that adherence to the Law could never generate.

15. For instance, by faith in the anti-type―the grace of Jesus Christ―the New Covenant is internal to the believer; it knows no national boundaries; it remits or washes away sin; and it requires only the perfect blood of Christ, who is both the sacrifice and the eternal high priest.

16. According to Jesus’ teaching, the New Covenant of Grace holds believers to a much more exacting ethical standard than did the Old Covenant of the Law. The Decalogue is still cited in the New Testament as an invaluable code of ethics. Yet, Jesus taught that emotional states such as anger and lust were akin to murder and adultery, both capital offenses on the list of divine commandments.

17. In conclusion, the difference between Law and Grace is similar to the differences between Male and Female, Hawks and Doves, Mind and Heart, or “have to” versus “want to.”

18. On a spiritual level, God has begun a grand reversal of the catastrophic state of judgment and death that he cursed upon the federal head of humanity in the Garden. The New Covenant in Jesus Christ is a glorious down payment toward man’s return to the blissful Edenic state of Grace.

19. Christian believers have already tasted a bit of heaven through their restored relationship with God. But the complete fulfillment has not yet arrived. Ultimately, Jesus Christ and his Bride the church will find complete restoration and union in the eternal age that is to come.

20. "And the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse." (Rev 22:1-3 NIV)

Photos: Barnaby Wasson (Flickr).

This week, Word-Filled-Wednesday will be at Susan's blog, Forever His.

Coming Up—Guest Post: Book Review

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