04.012. Law and Grace
Law and Grace For ye are not under the Law, but under Grace-- Romans 6:14. This does not mean a difference of historic dispensations, as though Old Testament saints and New Testament saints were saved on different principles: one by works, the other by faith. Paul, both to Romans and Galatians, cites Abraham as father of the faithful--of all who are justified by faith (Romans 4:1-25, Galatians 3:1-29).
These ten words state a universal fact, that with all believers God deals not legally, but graciously, under a system in which Grace is the determining principle. Only thus can Justification, Sanctification, or Service be understood. Legal notions and spirit are a bar alike to all peace and progress. To look to the Law for help is to fall from Grace to a lower level. The utter contrariety of the two principles appears in such particulars as the following:
The province of Law is to command. It is authoritative. The province of Grace is to enable. It is vitalizing.
Law requires of us perfect obedience, in order to acceptance; Grace provides for us a perfect obedience, acceptance in Christ.
Law, by its very perfection, lays on us burdens of duty; Grace interposes to lift our burdens and bear them for us.
Law has no room for pardon, but must exact penalty; Grace remits penalty, and offers abundant pardon.
Law can recognize only desert, and pays wages; Grace has no reference to desert, and bestows gifts.
Law, therefore, brings the sinner into utter despair; Grace inspires hope, even in the most hopeless.
Law cannot change character; it has no transforming power. Grace undertakes to make a sinner a “new creation.”
How melancholy is the fact, therefore, that many who, in justification, learned to look unto Christ and be saved, should afterward look to themselves for sanctification, and, instead of standing fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made them free, be again entangled in a yoke of bondage!