The law and the grace:
As mentioned, many claim that we do not need to deal with the law, that is, God’s Ten Commandments, because we live in the age of grace. In John 8:1-11 we find the story of the woman caught in adultery, whom the scribes and Pharisees presented to Jesus, because they wanted to find something that could trap Him so that they could condemn Him.
The law says that a woman caught in adultery should be stoned to death. Jesus knew very well what the scribes and Pharisees were looking for, so he did not answer the question of whether a woman should be stoned or not but said that he who is without sin – with a clear reference to the law – should cast the first stone. None of the woman’s accusers threw a stone at her, but they all went away.
In verses 10 and 11 we find what it is all about. In verse 10 Jesus asks the woman these questions: Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? In verse 11 she answers: No man, Lord.
From the Bible, I understand that God does not forgive those who do not repent of their sins. We can therefore assume that Jesus could see that the woman had repented of all her sins, and Jesus said to her in verse 11: Neither do I condemn thee, and in this way, He places the woman safely under God’s forgiving grace … … … … before He continues by saying: Go and sin no more! with which Jesus places her under the law.
For me, this story is a good picture of how we should understand the law and grace, and how we must see the connection between them. What comes first is a sincere repentance for the sins we have committed, this triggers God’s grace, which covers the wrongdoings we have done.
Another picture of how the law and grace relate to each other is this: You are out driving on the highway. Since you are in a hurry because you have to get to an important meeting, you drive too fast. You are stopped by the police who want to give you a large fine, which is your well-deserved punishment for breaking the law. You admit your guilt and explain why you were speeding. The policeman looks at you and says, “I’ll let grace prevail this time”, tears up the fine, and lets you drive on.
When you were stopped by the policeman, he placed you under the law, and according to the law, anyone who breaks it must be punished. When the policeman says you don’t have to pay the fine but can drive on, he places you under the grace, which you certainly didn’t deserve. But what do you do now? Do you continue to drive too fast to make it to this meeting on time because the policeman has placed you under grace, or do you drive according to what the law says you can do?
Even though the police showed you mercy by not giving you this ticket, the speed limits on the road you are driving on have not been lifted. The law still exists. Grace does not abolish the law.
But because the law requires that the offender must take his punishment, which according to Paul is death, and because I am unable to pay the penalty the law requires, Jesus comes to me when I turn to Him and repent of my sins and He place me safely under his grace, telling me to “… go, and sin no more!”
We receive God’s grace undeservedly because we are sinners, and that we are sinners is something the law tells us. If Jesus has abolished the law, the law no longer exists, and by definition we cannot sin, and if we cannot sin, we are sinless and therefore do not need God’s grace.
To suppose that being under grace means that the believer is free to break God’s Ten Commandments without punishment is to misunderstand God’s whole purpose in the plan of salvation. It was man’s breaking of God’s law in the first place that moved God in His love to offer grace to the sinner. By God’s grace man is free from the bondage of sin. How then can anyone imagine that it is right or reasonable to deliberately put himself back into the old bondage? To disobey God’s law is to become a servant of sin, for disobedience to God’s law is sin (1 John 3:4), and whoever continues to sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34). To continue to enjoy sin after having accepted God’s forgiving and transforming grace is to deny the very purpose of that grace. He who refuses to let God’s grace bring him more and more into harmony with God’s law rejects grace itself and thus turns his back on freedom and salvation.
The law and the salvation:
Many people believe that you have to keep the law to be saved. Jesus placed the woman caught in adultery under the law, but He also placed her under the grace.
In many ways, I was once in the same situation as the woman in John 8. I was an atheist, living a life that was not compatible with God’s law, and I didn’t care at all that I was breaking God’s law. I was a great sinner who constantly broke God’s law, until I had an encounter with Jesus, who took hold of me, and slowly but surely, He molded me, as the potter molds clay.
When I came up out of the water the day I was baptized, I had full assurance that God had forgiven me of all my many sins, and that without me having done anything other than accepting Jesus as my Savior and repenting of my sins.
It was not because I had kept God’s commandments that Jesus saved me, quite the opposite. He saved me because I was a sinner.
Paul says in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.” The expression that “the wages of sin is death” we must understand correctly. Those who transgress God’s law are sinners, and by definition they are dead – spiritually. When I was an atheist, I was dead … spiritually dead.
In Galatians 3:13, Paul says that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. But what is the curse of the law? The curse of the law is the same as the wages of sin, death. Even if we were to keep the law to the letter, it still would not be able to save us. There is only salvation in the name of Jesus, because Jesus Christ conquered death when he rose from the dead on the third day.
Christ bought us free from death, and from the curse of the law when He died in our place on the cross. It cost Jesus Christ absolutely everything to buy us free. His death was the payment for me to be free from the curse of the law.
God offers us a gift, and it is absolutely free. We cannot earn it we can only choose whether we will accept the gift or not. The salvation in the blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed for us on Calvary, is this gift that God offers, and it is the greatest gift I could wish for, and it contains a hope for the future, and a promise of an inheritance: eternal life. Even if we die before Jesus returns, we will still live forever with the Lord after the resurrection. This is what the law is unable to do for us. It cannot save us or give us eternal life. Only Jesus can do that, (Acts 4:10-12).
But how does the law work when it cannot save us? The law can be compared to a mirror. The mirror only gives a reflection of reality but can do nothing to change this image.
A little parable: If my face is dirty, I cannot see it without looking in a mirror. When I look in the mirror, I see that I am dirty. I can try to clean myself with the mirror, but it does not work. The only thing I achieve with this is that I become more dirty. I need something else, and that is what the mirror shows me. I am dirty and must do something about my appearance, in other words, I must find something or someone who can clean me. To remove the dirt, I need clean water so that I can be washed clean.
This means: I have sinned, which is the same as being dirty on the face, but I do not see it without seeing what the mirror shows me, which is what the law says about me. The law cannot make me clean but shows me that I need water to wash away the dirt, which is the same as a savior who can cleanse me from my sins.
As I said, many believe that one must keep the law to be saved, but that is impossible. I myself would say that I want with all my heart to keep God’s law, not because the law can save me, but because despite the demands of the law I am saved by grace alone in the name of Jesus. That I want to keep the law is a fruit of salvation.
The grace and the salvation:
God’s grace is one of the expressions that show us God’s infinite and boundless love. John says in 1 John 4:9-10: «In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins«.
The Bible, as mentioned earlier, is clear that the penalty that the law demands of sinners is death. God does not want anyone to perish; He wants everyone to call on His name and be saved. God says in Ezekiel 33:11: Say unto them, [As] I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? … // … and in Jeremiah 29:11 He says: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
When I asked for forgiveness for my sins, Christ in His great love chose to take my punishment upon Himself, so that I might be saved and be credited with His righteousness.
As a father of four, I have been in situations where I have become angry several times because my children have done something they knew was wrong. My oldest son bought a car before he got his driver’s license. I kept the keys so that he would not be tempted to «borrow» it. But one day while I was at work, the temptation became too great, and he took the keys and went for a drive with his friend.
This went wrong … …
… … terribly wrong. They drove off the road and ended up between two trees near a river. The car was a total wreck, but the two boys luckily escaped with a fright. When I got home, I knew nothing about this, but I saw that the car was gone, and when I discovered it, I was both angry and scared and thought about what reactions I should have towards the culprit, and what punishment he should receive.
When my son came home, I was still angry, but the first thing he said was: «Dad, I have done something I should not have done, I hope you can forgive me«. Then he told me the whole story, and I was left with the feeling that I should be happy and not angry, even though he had done something wrong. Both boys could have lost their lives or been in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives. The joy that my son was just as healthy after this accident overshadowed my anger at his disobedience, and I realized that he had received enough punishment for his disobedience. Because I love him, I could not punish him after he had asked for forgiveness.
I believe that is how Jesus sees it when we come to him and ask for forgiveness for our sins. We know we should not have committed these sins, yet we sin, and in this sense, we deserve all the punishment that the law demands. But because Jesus loves us, he takes the punishment we deserve, he died for us, and has paid our debt, and the salvation he gives us is by grace … …
… … and by grace alone.
When I stood condemned, He took my place.
The Bible tells us through the law that we are sinners, but the law cannot help us. The law is only a mirror that tells us that we need help and sends us to Jesus – who is the only one who can help us. Jesus is the source of grace. When we repent and repent of our sin, Jesus will forgive us and save us from the curse of the law … undeservedly … … … by grace alone.
What the Bible says about the commandments.
Let’s start in the New Testament, because these books were written after Jesus was supposed to have abolished the law, which is God’s Ten Commandments.
One day Jesus was in a conversation with a rich young man, and we read in Matthew 19:16 what this young man was concerned about, and he asked Jesus the following question: Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? To this Jesus answers in the next verse: if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments! Why does Jesus ask the rich young man to keep the commandments if He intended to abolish them?
On Maundy Thursday in the Easter week just before Jesus was betrayed, He spoke to His disciples. Once again, I must ask the question of why Jesus says what He does about the commandments. In John 14:15 we read this: If ye love Me, keep My commandments. If it were so that Jesus’ death would abolish the commandments, why does He ask His disciples to keep the commandments the day before He died on the cross?
Then Jesus follows up with this in the following verse: And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. As we see, the Father will give the disciples another Comforter, and this Comforter is none other than the Holy Spirit, who was given to the disciples on the day of Pentecost that same year. But the condition for receiving the Holy Spirit is that we keep God’s ten commandments as they came from the hand of the Lord.
In John 14:21 Jesus continues by saying this: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. This means in plain language that all those who know that God’s Sabbath is the seventh day of the week – our Saturday but still choose to exalt Sunday – the first day of the week, are breaking God’s commandments on purpose. And if you do not keep God’s Ten Commandments which clearly point to Saturday as God’s holy day – the Sabbath, God Himself says that you do not love Him, and if you do not love Jesus, why should you then have one of the greatest privileges that God can give us here on earth, the Holy Spirit.
Now all Pentecostals will shake their heads and say that all Pentecostals are baptized with the Holy Spirit, at least those who speak in tongues. However, babbling away in in an incompressible language has nothing to do with God’s gifts of grace. This is not speaking in tongues in the Biblical sense. The Bible is very clear that speaking in tongues is the gift of speaking a language that is known, but which the person did not know before being given this gift of grace from God, see Acts 2:1-11. (See also Glossolalia, speaking in Tongues, under Various topics.) There is no doubt that there is a spirit behind the babbling away “tongue speaking” that Pentecostals, Charismatics and many Catholics engage in, but it is clearly not from God’s Holy Spirit.
In John 15:10 Jesus continues in the same vein and says: If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.. Once again, Jesus emphasizes that keeping God’s commandments is an essential part of being a Christian.
If we go to 1 John 2:3, John says it this way: And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. If we do not keep the Ten Commandments of God, we have not come to know God, says John. And in Revelation John writes the following: And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, (Revelation 12:17) … // … Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, (Revelation 14:12).
John was given the Revelation by God the Father, (see Revelation 1:1), so there should be no doubt that this is a divine revelation. Matthew wrote his Gospel around the years 50 – 70 AD. John wrote his Gospel around the year 85 AD. his three letters between 85 and 95 AD. and Revelation while he was a prisoner on Patmos in 95-96 AD.
It is very strange then that these two focus so much on keeping the commandments if they were nailed to the cross with Jesus in 31 AD.
More about what the Bible itself says about God’s Ten Commandments.
As we have already seen, the Sabbath was instituted in the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world, and the seventh day was blessed and sanctified by the Creator. Let us now look at some other verses that deal with God’s Ten Commandments.
Just before Israel was to enter the Promised Land, Moses repeated the Ten Commandments that God had given them (Deuteronomy 5:7-21), and in Deuteronomy 28:1-14 Moses lists the blessings that will follow if the people obey God and keep all of His Ten Commandments. If they disobey, however, the curses will come upon the people, which Moses lists in verses 15-68. As always, most of you will probably disagree with me, so I urge you to read this chapter carefully and see what God is really saying to His people. Although this was said explicitly to Israel just before they entered Canaan, it applies to God’s people throughout all time, and especially to us in the end times.
Deuteronomy 28:1 indicates that the entire book consists of the farewell speech that Moses gave before he was to die, except for chapter 34, which deals with Moses’ death, which he could not possibly have written himself. However, many believe that this is a collection of speeches that Moses gave. In any case, the most important thing is not whether it is one or more speeches, but the content. In chapter 5, God’s Ten Commandments are emphasized as the norm to live by, and in chapter 28, all the blessings and curses are summarized for the people.
As long as Joshua was alive and leading the people, Israel was doing well, but when he died, paganism began to penetrate among God’s people, and towards the end of the period of the judges, we read the following in the Book of Judges: In those days [there was] no king in Israel, [but] every man did [that which was] right in his own eyes, (Judges 17:6) … // … In those days [there was] no king in Israel: every man did [that which was] right in his own eyes, (Judges 21:25). Since that time, God’s people have lived a life that has fluctuated up and down in relation to God. At times they kept all of God’s Ten Commandments and were blessed, at other times they broke all of God’s Ten Commandments and received some of the curse that Deuteronomy chapter 28 outlines.
If we go back to the time when Isaiah lived and worked between 736 and 700 BC, we find this text. In Isaiah 48:18, God says through the prophet: O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. Here we see why we should listen to God’s commandments, we do what we do so that our righteousness will last forever, which the waves of the sea indicate.
The reason for this heartfelt sigh from God is found in the verses before, which are about God redeeming his people from captivity in Babylon: Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I [am] he; I [am] the first, I also [am] the last. Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: [when] I call unto them, they stand up together. All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these [things]? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm [shall be on] the Chaldeans. I, [even] I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there [am] I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me. Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I [am] the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way [that] thou shouldest go, (Isaiah 48:12-17).
As for Isaiah chapter 48, this chapter can be summarized as follows: In order to convince the people of their well-known rebellion and rebelliousness, God revealed His will through His prophets, but He wants to save them for His own sake, and He exhorts them once again to obedience. God rebukes their backsliding and says that if they return to Him He will redeem His people and bring them back to the promised land.
It is undoubtedly the Jews who were taken into captivity that the prophet addresses, but as we know, God also desires to redeem His people throughout all time, so this is an everlasting prophecy on the part of Isaiah. God desires just as strongly to redeem His people from the end-time captivity in end-time Babylon. We are no less dependent on God’s intervention in our day than the Jews were in Isaiah’s day.
Here in James 1:25, Jesus’ brother says the following about God’s law, that is, God’s Ten Commandments: But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth [therein], he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
That it is God’s Ten Commandments that James has in mind in this verse is clearly stated in chapter 2:10-11. Another inspired statement that the law, which is God’s Ten Commandments, is perfect is found in Psalm 19:8. We can also look at what James says in verse 18 of chapter 1, where he calls God’s Ten Commandments the word of truth, and in verse 21 he calls them the engrafted word.
The law, God’s Ten Commandments, is a description of God’s character – the true standard of righteousness – and the first four commandments outline the relationship that humans should have with their God and Creator, and the last six commandments outline the relationship that humans should have with one another. God’s Ten Commandments, or law, therefore, becomes a mirror that a person can use to evaluate his motives and actions, to see if he is in harmony with God’s good will.
But why this strong opposition to God’s Ten Commandments?
Jesus says in John 14:21: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me … … Can this be so difficult to understand? I must add again that this applies to all of God’s Ten Commandments as they are found in Exodus 20:3-17, and it includes the Sabbath commandment, which is God’s fourth commandment. It is this commandment that is the problem for most Christians, and they agree to whatever it should be in order to avoid having to deal with this commandment.
They have gone so far as to say that the commandments have been abolished and nailed to the cross with Jesus. This is nonsense and nonsense. Jesus himself says that He did not come to abolish the law, (God’s Ten Commandments) but to magnify them by filling them up with the right meaning, (Matthew 5).
But it all boils down to God’s fourth commandment, which they falsely claim Jesus changed. The problem with such a claim is that there is not a single verse that supports such a claim in the Bible, not even a hint that this would happen we find in the Bible.
If one does not keep all of God’s Ten Commandments, where the Sabbath is the fourth commandment that points to the seventh day of the week, which is our Saturday as God’s holy day – the Sabbath, which was instituted in the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world, then there will be dramatic consequences for those who knowingly and willfully break God’s fourth commandment.
Just look at what James says: For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one [point], he is guilty of all, (James 2:10).
I must add that we all break the commandments without intending to do so or out of carelessness. This is one thing, and if we daily ask for forgiveness for the sins we have committed unconsciously, God will forgive us our sins. God will also forgive conscious sins if we ask Him for it and repent. But if we knowingly and willfully break one of God’s commandments without asking for forgiveness for it, then we struggle …
Then it is of no use to have done many and powerful works for God, it is of no use if we have preached the word of God throughout the world, or cast out demons, because on the last day Jesus will say to them, if they do not repent and ask for forgiveness, the following: Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:21-23). Working iniquity is the same as breaking the Ten Commandments of God without asking for forgiveness.