STARTING WITH GRACE AND ENDING WITH THE LAW

SERIES: THE PILGRIMS PROGRESS.

TEXT: GALATIANS 3:1-3.

As a Christian pilgrim goes on the pilgrimage journey, he/she later meets on Mr. Morality who demeans and disregards the cross and advises the believer that it is not necessary to obtain Salvation by the grace that comes through the cross. He deceives the believer that salvation can be attained by another way-keeping the Law of Moses. Many cults divert believers from embracing the Grace that comes from the Cross of Jesus and misdirects them to what seems reasonable according to the wisdom of man, keeping morals. They deceive that if on keeps the morals, being good and just trying not to offend anyone else, then they can please God and enter Heaven.

Apostle Paul often warned the New Testament believers who received Salvation through Grace that is in Jesus, against false teachers who would come later to mislead them from the way of the Cross to the way of the law.

It is very easy to be deceived by what naturally seems reasonable, that God judges man and justifies him/her of one keeps the Law of Moses.

The New Covenant/Testament came to replace the Old covenant, not to supplement it. The Lord talked about putting new wine in old wineskins-Luke 5:26-39; Mark 2:22. The “old wine (implied)” is the old covenant and the “new wine” is the new covenant, that contract of salvation between man and God.

The Lord gave us the new covenant-that brings Salvation trough the blood He shed on the Cross-Mathew 26:28; Luke 22:20; 1st Cor. 11:25.

The New covenant of relating man to God through keeping the Law of Moses.

More about Grace and the law:-

WHAT IS THE LAW OF MOSES?

Perhaps what most of us are familiar with, is the Ten Commandments, but the law was much more than that. What contention of the law most of us are familiar with about is keeping the Sabbath and circumcision but the law is much more than that. The law of Moses was a set of 613 rules to perform, do’s and don’ts summarized below:-

Moral Laws: these were summarized in the Ten Commandments, focus on ethical behavior of human conduct. They address fundamental principles of right and wrong.
Social Laws: these laws address societal structures, relationships and legal matters like inheritance and property, marriage and family, penalties for crimes, justice and fairness and social justice.
Ceremonial Laws: These govern religious practices, rituals and worship e.g sacrifices, religious feasts, the temple and sanctuary, ceremonial purity.
Purity: Clean and unclean diet, defilement and baths, maintaining cleanliness, skin diseases e.g leprosy, ritual baths e.t.c.
Circumcision: The rite of circumcision as a symbol of the covenant with God, the equivalent of New Testament baptism.

THE SHORTCOMINGS OF THE LAW.

Dispensation of the law and dispensation of Grace. There are seven dispensations in the Bible:

Innocence: The time before the fall of Adam and Eve.
Conscience: The period from the fall of man to the flood of Noah.
Human government: After the flood up to the call of Abraham.
Promise: From the call of Abraham to the giving of the Law of Moses.
Dispensation of the Law: from the giving of the law up to the coming of Christ (about 1,500 years).
Grace: from the day of Pentecost to the rapture, where God’s grace and salvation are offered to all through Jesus Christ.
Kingdom of God: the future millennial reign of Jesus. God deals with man in different ways according to that period/dispensation. Even before the Law of Moses, God related with man e.g Abraham, Noah, Enock, Job. The dispensation of the law of Moses lasted only about 1,500 years, about 25% of the time man has existed on the earth. What was relevant during the dispensation of the law is not relevant today in the dispensation of Grace.

Old Testament/Covenant and Israel. The Old Testament and the law were binding the nation of Israel to God. It was not a covenant between God and the gentiles.

Why a New Covenant? If the Old Covenant was good enough to save humanity there would not be need of a new covenant, the old Covenant would suffice. The Old Covenant was a shadow, a preliminary representation, while the New Covenant is the ideal substance (Colossians 2:17).

God said that the latter glory of His house would be greater than the former-Haggai 2:9. When the perfect comes the imperfect passes away-1st Cor. 13:10. God’s relation with man has been progressive since the creation of man, achieving perfection, the ideal through the blood of Jesus Christ.

The law gave the task but did not empower.

Performing the 613 laws of the Old Testament was no easy task. None could perform 100% of all the law. Breaking one law meant breaking all.
The Lord condensed all the laws of Moses to only two laws:-

Love the Lord your GOD with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself-Matt. 22:37-39.

Christ empowers the believer to perform these laws by the Holy Spirit who dwells in the believer who has received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Christ is the end of the law, he is the fulfilment or goal of the law, offering righteousness that God the Father accepts to those who believe and accept Him as Lord-Romans 10:4.

There was no mercy/love in the law. There was no easy forgiveness in the law. If a crime called for stoning to death that is what would be done, one could not escape, be sorry and ask for forgiveness. In the New Testament there is grace and forgiveness. The woman caught in adultery was to die by stoning but Jesus the author of grace, forgave her-John 8:1-11.
Gentiles were not part of the Old Covenant: Gentiles are only equal to the Jews through the New Covenant-Gal. 3:28.

CONCLUSION

- Going back from Grace to the law is like going from life to death. What the law could not do, Grace has done. The perfect came, grace of Jesus, the imperfect pass away-1st Cor. 13:10.
- The author of our salvation is Jesus Christ. You have no salvation outside the grace of Jesus.
- Jesus is enough, you do not need to add the law to please God.