Grace & Law (4)

 continued from previous post...

So let’s look at our handout and follow with me as we read some straightforward statements about bait & switch Christianity versus real Christianity:

            “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Ro. 3:20

            “…for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” Gal. 2:16

            There are a lot of translations of the Bible today, some are good, some are bad and some are ugly. Some are literal and some are paraphrases and some are in between. I enjoy some of the paraphrases, like Eugene Peterson’s The Message, but when I read them I remind myself that I am reading a paraphrase and I make sure that I also read a more literal translation, because there are some words whose technical meaning is so important that a paraphrase alone is not sufficient for our understanding. The words justified and justification are two of those words. The word grace is another such word. The meaning of these words is so big and vast that I will spend the rest of my life engaged with them, and that is as it should be, for they are God words, special God words, God words which draw me deeper and deeper into relationship with the Trinity.

            What does this word justification mean? Briefly, it means not only that God looks at me in Christ as if I have never sinned, but that He looks at me in Christ as if I have always, always, always kept His law – as if I have always lived a righteous life. And Paul writes that I can never attain this position in God and with God by trying, by my own efforts. In fact, he says that if I try I will learn about sin – because I will fail. And then we have Ro. 4:15.

            “…the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.” Ro. 4:15

            What does the law produce? It produces transgression and transgression incurs judgment and wrath. The law does not produce righteousness, it does not produce good behavior, it produces bad behavior. Perfect law does not produce good behavior, perfect law produces bad behavior; but great grace produces the fruit of righteousness.

            Perfect law produces transgression; Great Grace produces righteousness.

            Perfect law brings condemnation; Great Grace brings the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

            “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” Gal. 1:21

            If there is one thing I can do produce or to maintain a righteous relationship with God then guess what? Christ died in vain. That notice I read in the back of my brother-in-law’s church was really proclaiming, “Christ died in vain because we can do it ourselves.”

            “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by the law; you have fallen from grace.” Gal. 5:4

            Now Paul doesn’t say that they’ve lost their salvation – but he does say that they’ve chosen another way of life, that they have removed themselves from the way of grace.

            “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Ro. 6:14

            So many folks teach that if sin isn’t going to have dominion over us that we need to make sure our behavior measures up, that we become externally focused; but here the key to not allowing sin to have dominion over us is not by focusing on outward behavior, but on inward relationship, on a relationship with Christ enabled by grace.

            Let’s remember that we are justified – just as if I’ve never sinned and just as if I’ve always kept the law.

            Grace is internal; law is external.

            Law is religion; grace is relationship.

            Grace is lived by the life of God; law is lived by the life of man. Gal. 2:20

to be continued...