Law vs. Grace

It seems like the “free grace” vs “works of law” war is as old as Christianity itself. Jude wrote about “ungodly persons who pervert the grace of God(v4) into lawlessness, wantonness, immorality”. Here in our own United States, in Boston a great battle was fought about this very issue. In Boston during the 1640‘s the feud heated up so much that the courts stepped in and banned some people from the colony. There seem to be a misconception of grace and its application as well as an ignorance of the law and its purpose.

The question that begs to be answered is: Does the grace of God erase all law - Moses, moral or otherwise? Or does it enable us to obey a higher law, a law of love, light and honor?

It might be that the real problem is a general ignorance of the person and attributes of God. Understanding grace and law cannot happen aside from a true understanding of Theology – the study of God. Understanding the attributes of God helps us to comprehend His kingdom, His actions.

Understanding God’s relationship to time and space makes it easier to see prophecy, election, salvation, redemption and judgment. It is in the light of God’s eternity, His ever presence, that we can begin to fathom the effect of an event that happened almost 2000 years ago, in our timeline, on our existence.

Our real problem is not so much the comprehension of any doctrine but in our misconception of who and what God is.

A lack of the teaching and preaching of pure theology may account for this. During much of the first thirty nine books of the Bible we see these words: “That you may know…Me” by God. He acts over and over again to reveal Himself through His actions. And then Jesus says emphatically: “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” We seem to worship, or proclaim to worship someone whom we do not really know.

The controversy is not really about law and grace but about a relationship to and with a being that exists in a realm unlike our own. We are battling about doctrines we only half grasp and miss the greater duty of knowing God. In our pursuit of God we may find that we have been wrestling about the wrapping paper while ignoring the gift. We possibly have been debating the violin while being deaf to the symphony or arguing about the heat while being blind to the fire.

As we read the Bible; let us ask ourselves these questions:

What does this portion tells me about God?

How does it apply to my life in the here and now?