Not under Law but under Grace

Part Three

by G. A. N. James

This is the third part of the series of messages on the subject of Law and Grace entitled “Not under Law but Under Grace.” We first examined what the Law is. How the Law is defined or referred to in the Scriptures. We have seen that the Law is referred to in the Scriptures as the Law of Moses, or the Five Books of Moses, which are known as the Pentateuch and consist of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers. The Law also refers to the Old Covenant, which is the covenant relationship which God established between Himself and the People of Israel. Therefore, the Law consists of the entire regime of rules, regulations, and rituals which govern the people of Israel and not only of the Ten Commandments, which are the better known aspects of the Law. In the second part of the series, we examined the limitation of the Law. We have seen that God’s primary purpose in bringing salvation to man is to deliver man from the bondage of spiritual death. To do so God gives man eternal Life through Jesus Christ. The Law, however, while providing man with an elaborate system of the knowledge of good and evil, like the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, was unable and never meant to give Life. Therefore, the fundamental limitation of the Law in God’s unfolding plan of salvation was its inability to deliver man from the bondage of death and sin and give man eternal Life. In this third part of the series we will examine the end or pupose of the Law.

The Purpose of the Law

The fact that the Law of Moses was limited in the area of bringing Life to mankind does not mean that the Law was meaningless or purposeless. The Law had its purpose to fulfill in God’s unfolding plan of salvation. The Law of Moses, therefore, could not be abolished until its purpose was fulfilled.

The Scriptures teach that God had a specific intent for the Law of Moses. To appreciate the Law one needs to understand God’s intent for the Law. Moreover, by understanding God’s intent for the Law, one is able to identify in what way the intent of God for the Law was meant to be fulfilled.

Our Lord Jesus Christ highlighted the meaningfulness of the Law of Moses when He declared: “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Mat 5:17-18).

As we indicated before, the Law and the Prophets referred to the Jewish Scriptures and today constitute more or less what we call the Old Testament. The Law and the Prophets embodied the Old Covenant or the entire regime of rules, regulations, and rituals which governed the people of Israel. The full context of the Law and the Prophets essentially constituted types and figures which foreshadowed Christ and His work of redemption to bring salvation to mankind. Jesus, therefore, was declaring that not the smallest letter or stroke would pass from the Law or the Prophets until all was accomplished, and that He came to fulfill or accomplish the requirements and prophecies of the Law and Prophets.

Jesus had also pointed out that “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Mat 5:19). Therefore, before we can move on to examine the end of the Law we need to ascertain whether indeed the Law was fulfilled or accomplished in Jesus Christ.

Therefore, let me point out here that our aim in these series of messages on the subject of Law and Grace is certainly not to criticize or debate with any individual who uphold the keeping of the commandments of the Law, as is usually the case with the controversy on the subject of Law and Grace. In examining the Scriptural declaration that we are not under Law but under Grace, we will also show how the commandments are upheld and fulfilled in Christ under Grace.

In addressing the disciples regarding the keeping of the commandments, Jesus Christ made it plain that the righteousness of the Kingdom of Heaven resulting from man’s deliverance from the bondage of death and sin into Life in the Kingdom of Heaven far surpasses the righteousness of the commandments of the Law of Moses as practiced by the Pharisees and the Scribes who profess to uphold and teach the Law.

Let us read Mat 5:20-28:

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that the ancients were told, 'you shall not commit murder' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell…. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Right here Jesus was revealing the astonishing truth that not even the Scribes and Pharisees who boasted of keeping and teaching the Law met God’s standard of righteousness, which the Law represented. It was one thing to boast of not having killed any one, and to judge those who kill according to the commandments of the Law, but how does the Law deal with the hidden murderous attitudes of anger, prejudice, and arrogance against others? According to Jesus anger, discrimination, and arrogance are as unrighteous as murder. It was one thing to judge one who is caught in bed with another who is not his or her spouse according to the commandment that states one should not commit adultery, but how does the Law deal with hidden adulterous desires and imaginations?

In other words, the corruption of death and sin in humanity runs deeper than the externalities and practices by which the Scribes and Pharisees interpreted the prohibitions of the Law of Moses. In their profound meaning, the Law and the Prophets pointed to a righteousness which exceeded the righteousness of those who profess to keep the Law. Our Lord Jesus Christ indicated that He had come to fulfill this true righteousness of God and to impart this true righteousness by grace to all who would believe in Him. We will deal with Jesus’ fulfillment of the righteousness foreshadowed by the Law and the Prophets later on.

Now, let us proceed to answer the question, why then the Law. What then was the purpose of God in introducing to the people of Israel this elaborate system of rules, regulations, and rituals, known as the Law of Moses or the Old Covenant? The Scriptures are very clear and plain on that. Therefore, let us examine what the Scriptures teach regarding the purpose of the Law of Moses.

Interestingly, the Scriptures raise and answer the question directly concerning the purpose of the Law of Moses. Let us read Gal 3:19-29:

Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one. Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.

The Law was like a mirror which gave man a true insight of his sinfulness and helplessness in the state of spiritual death and thus his need for God's righteousness. Under the regime of the Law of Moses man was actually being tutored and instructed of his need for God's true righteousness which God would provide in Christ Jesus.

Let us read again Gal 3:24-28: “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

One can say then that the Law through the excellent wisdom of God was designed to bring man to a sense of his need of Christ. The Law revealed without any uncertainty man's helpless sinfulness and at the same time pointed man to Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Moreover, all the requirements of the Law of Moses, the rules, regulations, and rituals prescribed in the Law, as well as the predictions recorded in the Prophets, were pointers or foreshadowing types of the actual work of Christ to bring mankind into a life of God’s true righteousness.

Let us read this in the words of Christ Himself to His disciples after His resurrection:

Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem’ (Luk 24:44-47).

We will end this part of the series here. Having examined from the Scriptures in this message the meaningfulness and purpose of the Law in God’s unfolding plan of salvation, we will go on in the next part of this series of messages to examine the fulfilment or accomplishment of the purpose of the Law in Christ, and, therefore, the declaration of the Scriptures that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom 10:4).

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