Not under Law but under Grace

Part Two

by G. A. N. James

This is the second part of the series of messages entitled “Not under Law but under Grace.” So far, we have been examining what it means to be under the Law, according to the Scriptures. In the first part of the series, we dealt with the topic, What Is the Law. We examined what the Law means; how the Scriptures refer to the Law. We noted three terms with which the Scriptures refer to the Law. They are the Book of the Law, which consists of the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), the Law of Moses, and the Old Covenant. This indicates that the Law refers to the entire regime of rules, regulations, and rituals, which governed the lives of the people of Israel, and not only to the better-known Ten Commandments. Therefore, to be under the Law is to subject oneself to, or to try to live or serve God according to, the entire regime of rules, regulations, and rituals, which governed the people of Israel. In this message, we will examine the limitation of the Law.

The Limitation of the Law

To appreciate the limitation of the Law we must situate the Law within God’s plan and purpose in bringing salvation to humanity after the Fall. God’s primary aim in bringing salvation to humanity is to give man Life – eternal Life.

Why is the giving of Life to humanity the central aim in God’s plan of salvation? When man fell into sin in the Garden of Eden the immediate consequence, as God had warned, was death.

We read in Gen 2:16-17: “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’” Then Rom 5:12 states: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

Therefore, God’s plan of salvation was to effectively deal with death by giving man eternal Life. Here are a few of the many Scripture passages which clearly state God’s primary aim in bringing salvation to mankind is to destroy death by giving man eternal Life:

Rom 5:21: So that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rom 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Joh 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Joh 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

One may ask, “Is not God concerned about man’s sins and ungodly behaviour to deter man from transgressing by enforcing the Law upon man?” Yes, indeed, God is concerned. However, we must understand that it is as a result of spiritual death coming upon all men after the Fall that man became enslaved to sin. One who is dead cannot be instructed to do, nor can do, anything unless the person comes alive. Therefore, God in His wisdom in bringing deliverance to humanity deals with the spiritual death problem, which itself is the basis of the sin problem.

Eternal Life, which is actually the Life of the Son of God in man, is the fountain source of God’s righteousness. It is the power and ability to live unto God, to please God in every way. Since spiritual death bound man to disobedience and sin, eternal Life frees man from death and empowers him to live a life of righteousness and godliness in Christ in this present world. Contrary to what some may think, eternal Life is not a life for man to live only in future in heaven, but eternal Life is given to believers in Christ to be lived unto God in this present world and in the world to come (Rom 6:11-13). Therefore, it is clear that God’s primary objective in His relationship with mankind, in providing this great plan of salvation for mankind, is to bring man from death into Life.

Hence, the important question regarding the Law, which constituted God’s covenant relationship with the people of Israel, is: Did the Law or the Old Covenant provide an effective means of bringing mankind from death to Life? Invariably, it is to the Scriptures we must turn for an answer to this important question.

One of the Scripture passages which give us a definitive answer to this important question is Gal 3:21: “For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.” Let us repeat this Scripture passage: For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.

This Scripture passage reveals two important points which are relevant to this teaching on Law and Grace. One is that God has given no law which is able to impart Life, which can produce righteousness. The other is that no law, including the Law of Moses, has been given to be a basis for practising God’s true righteousness.

Therefore, the fundamental limitation of the Law is that it is unable to give man Life and was never intended to do so by God. Thus, the Law could not fulfill God’s aim in the plan of salvation to give man Life – Life which is able to free man from the bondage of death and sin; Life which is able to impart God’s own righteousness to man; Life which is able to empower man to live a godly life in this present world. The Law of Moses could not give this Life to man. The Scripture plainly reveals that “if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.”

This is not to deny the importance and meaningfulness of the Law of Moses in the unfolding of God’s plan of salvation. (We will examine later the end and objective of the Law in God’s plan of salvation.) While we appreciate the Law of Moses, we must recognize and agree with the Holy Spirit’s declaration in the Scriptures that the Law was limited in terms of giving man the Life necessary for deliverance from the bondage of death and sin.

As we said earlier, eternal Life is the source of God’s own righteousness, and God offers or promises this Life to mankind, not by the Law of Moses, but in His Son Christ Jesus to empower man to be righteous and godly. And so, what the Law could not do for man’s salvation, the Son of God did through the power of eternal Life. “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (Joh 1:17).

God’s promise of eternal Life to mankind is the central element in His plan of salvation. The Scriptures highlight the importance of eternal Life to the salvation of mankind.

Rom 8:2-4: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

1Jo 2:25: This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.

1Jo 5:11: And the testimony is this: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

1Jo 5:12: He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

1Jo 5:13: These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Although the Law, as a body of religious rituals, rules, and regulations, presented to the Jewish nation a comprehensive system of knowledge of the standard of holiness and righteousness that God demanded from them, it had a major limitation. The fundamental limitation of the Law at its onset was that while it gave the Jews the knowledge of good and evil, it could not of itself enable them to live a holy and righteous life. The Law then represented for the Jewish people the knowledge of righteousness but not the Life of righteousness. Therefore, having knowledge of the Law did not equally mean having the ability to live a holy and righteous life before God.

The truth is that none who lived under the regime of the Law of Moses could have lived a truly righteous life by trying to live by the Law. None could have maintained all the requirements of the Law. According to Gal 3:10-11, “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, to perform them.’ Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, ‘The righteous man shall live by fiath.’”

The failure of the Jews to live righteously despite their knowledge of the Law is well documented in the Scriptures. For instance, we read in Rom 2:17-29:

But if you bear the name "Jew" and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonour God? For ‘the name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you,’ just as it is written. For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

This Scripture passage underscores the fact that Law provides instructions but does not produce obedience. Thus, one may be quite knowledgeable in the Law, knowing what is right and wrong, but inevitably transgresses the Law because of lacking the inner character to obey the Law. This was the case with Israel under Law. They boasted in the Law of Moses and at the same kept breaking the Law. If being Jewish meant being God’s holy people, they tried to be Jews in appearance, but inwardly were an ungodly people. Dead in sin, like all of humanity, Life and not Law was the only means of enabling Jews to live righteously before God.

Rom 7:7-14 presents a similar argument:

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘you shall not covet.’ But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

The limitation of the Law is astonishing. The Jews had great difficulty in accepting the fundamental limitation of the Law as a means of righteous living. From the emergence of the Church to this day, even non Jews, who have come to appreciate the Christian Life, struggle to accept the limitation of the Law as a basis for living a life of true righteousness. This has resulted in much doctrinal controversy on the subject of Law and Grace. Nonetheless, if we honour the wisdom of God, we must submit to the truth which the Scriptures declare about the Law. The truth is that the Law brings the knowledge of sin, but not deliverance from sin. The Law gives the knowledge of good and evil but not a Life of godliness.

To seek for godliness and righteousness in the Law is to repeat the unfortunate error into which the Devil deceitfully led Eve in the Garden of Eden. You will recall that in the Garden of Eden man had access to both the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. We read in Gen 2:8-9: “The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

And God gave clear instruction that partaking of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would produce death. Nonetheless, in the Garden of Eden, Satan deceived Eve into believing that partaking of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (although God had forbidden it) was the way for man to become like God or godly because partaking of the fruit would give man the ability to know right and wrong (Gen 3:1-6). This is the same error that all those who seek for righteousness in the Law and not from the Life which is in Christ Jesus continue to make to their condemnation.

Paul laments concerning the Jewish people who chose to remain under Law: “Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom 10:1-4).

Therefore, we may conclude that, according to the Scriptures, the limitation of the Law is that, while it presents to man an elaborate system of knowledge of good and evil, it is limited in delivering man from the bondage of sin and death. This is because the Law is unable to give to man the Life which can free him from the bondage of sin and death and empower him to live a godly and righteous life in this present world.  Yes, indeed, Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

This brings us to the end of this second part of this series of messages entitled “We are not under Law but under Grace” on the subject of Law and Grace. In the next message in the series, we will go on to consider the end or objective of the Law.
 

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