The Need for Grace and the Law
Published by Rob Skiba February 11, 2015 at 1:59 PM
I posted the following to my wall as simply status posts, but these things get buried there rather quickly, so I am putting them into a Note so that I can find them again. 🙂 I also added a bit more to it though…
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Some people wonder why I talk about the Law so much. With the world, I don’t do it. They already know they do wrong. So, I show them what Grace is – because they need to know that they have been given salvation through it. However, here on my wall, the VAST MAJORITY of my “friends” are already Believers (or claim to be). Therefore, I preach on the Law because I’ve been finding that MOST of Christianity today is totally and completely clueless about it (just read the responses on my wall to nearly any mention of it). I don’t really need to preach Grace to Christians because they’ve been taught about it their entire life. In fact, it often seems that they don’t know anything but Grace. They’ve been taught so much Grace that they’re now stuffed to obesity and are completely drunk on it, totally confused as to what it even means and why we have it.
Don’t get me wrong, believe me when I say that I absolutely think Grace rocks! No doubt about it. I love it! It’s awesome! I praise YHWH for it all the time. It saved a sinner (transgressor of the Law) like me. But how many truly understand how awesome the (life-giving) Law of YHWH is too? Why was David a “man after God’s own heart?” Why is the WHOLE BIBLE literally FULL of prophets and apostles who LOVE the Law (including Paul)? Yet, Christians despise it (again, just read the usual responses I get to nearly any mention of it on my wall). That’s a problem (see Matthew 5 & 7 and 1 John 2 – 5). Hence why I try to fill the desperate need for understanding it.
Once I began to finally START to understand it myself, it gave me such joy and FREEDOM and an increased love and respect for my Heavenly Father – which then has led to such immense blessings and greater revelation of the Scriptures – that I could do nothing more than shout the same things David sang about in Psalm 119. And all of that came with just ONE year of dedicated study of the Torah (which was the Bible of the people in the Bible). Now, 5 years into it… yeah… just try to get me to stop. Not going to happen. I talk about it because I love it.
Breaking it down as simply as I can…
Grace enables the Law to be written on my heart (Heb. 8:10), thus enabling me to DO it and covers me when I fail.
Ephesians 2:
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Romans 6:
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in transgression of the Law (sin), that grace may abound?
2a God forbid…
1 John 2:
1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not transgress the Law (sin). But if anybody does transgress the Law (sin), we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
And the Law, while often showing me my need for Grace also reveals MUCH about the Father and enables me to live in His blessing as I strive to show my love for Him through my obedience.
Deuteronomy 30:
1 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee,
2 And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;
3 That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.
4 If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
5 And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
7 And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
8 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.
9 And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:
10 If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.
12 It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
14 But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
16 In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
The prophets, psalmists and apostles all understood the above. That is why John, the beloved and last of the apostles, the FINAL author of Scripture wrote…
1 John 5:
1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
Amen!
Grace and the Law are and always have been meant to work together. Law without Grace is tyranny. Grace without Law is anarchy. Where there is no Law, there is no need for Grace. If there is no need for Grace, what need is there of a Savior to offer salvation by Grace through Faith? You simply cannot have one without the other. And I for one am extremely grateful for both! It’s an amazing package deal. 🙂
– Rob Skiba
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