Law and Grace
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. The meaning and scope of the Law. Law is a word filled with glory, but wholly foreign to Grace. Law is the measure of the holy requirements of a righteous and just God. We are speaking of the Laws written on two tables of stone by the finger of God; and also of the Laws which God has given in His Word.
When God gave the Law, He gave it as an expression of the requirements of His inherent holiness; and not as commandments lowered in their standard, in order to make them acceptable to sinning man.
God knew the utter inability of the race to keep the Law, when the Law was given; therefore God knew that the Law would and could work nothing less than wrath.
We shall see that the Law holds no saving power or place in the work of redemption. Its scope of operation lies outside the pale of Grace. The Law cannot save, but it can show to the sinner the exceeding sinfulness of his sins, and can, therefore, act as a schoolmaster to drive the sinner to a Saviour.
We have said that the Law possessed glory; however, its glory is that of righteousness blended with judgment. Its glory makes one think of the brilliancy, and yet, the destructiveness of the lightning's flash. The Law knows no mercy and shows none. It holds a sword in its hand, but not a shelter. It speaks death, judgment and hell to lawbreakers, but never speaks of peace, forgiveness, and salvation.
The Law holds no hope for the criminal; no ray of light to the outcast. The Law speaks in the terms of "Thou shalt," and "Thou shalt not"; but never in the terms of "Come unto Me, * * and I will give you rest."
2. The meaning and scope of Grace. (1) Grace is the kindness of God, expressed to man in Christ Jesus. The Law is just, but not kind. Grace is never unjust, because it works along lines which uphold the glory and dignity of the Law; sustaining its righteous demands; and yet, Grace is more than just. Grace discovers what the Law could never find, how God could remain just and yet justify the guilty.
Grace, all the while upholding the honor of the Law, removed every legal obstacle to man's redemption and full salvation, and brought the possibility of life and peace to the sinner.
Grace does all of this in Christ Jesus, Christ was Himself the only possible One through whom Grace could operate, and man could be saved. Christ alone could become the medium through which God's Grace could work, because Christ alone could uphold the dignity of the Law, and take upon Himself the full weight of sin's punishment.
(2) Grace is the unmerited kindness of God toward man, in Christ Jesus. What we mean is this: There was nothing in man to compel God to be gracious. There was nothing in man to make Grace obligatory. Man had no works to proffer, no money to pledge, no goodness to parade, that by such things he might put in a claim for Grace.
Grace is sovereign in its movements. It works within the domain of God's own choice and election. It is expressive of God's love and mercy, independent of man's worth and worthiness.
(3) Grace employs MEANS but does not demand merit. There is nothing the sinner can do to merit Grace; there is much he can do as a means to Grace. The fact that salvation is the free-gift of God's Grace, and is, therefore, without money and without price, does not any the less obligate the sinner to accept the Grace of God.
I. THE ONE WHO BOASTS IN THE LAW (Romans 2:17)
1. A boast that is common among men. How often do we hear this one, or that one, say, "I am doing my best and God ought to be satisfied with that." The difficulty lies in two things, first, no one does his best; and, second, man's best is far short of the Law's requirements.
We were asked to address a men's business club on "The Golden Rule in Business." We began our address by stating that no such a rule ever dominated or could dominate world business, so long as men live in sin and under Satan's power. Sin is self-centered and not Christ -centered, Neither is sin seeking to serve the good of others. And men are sinners.
2. A boast that is condemned of God. Does the man who boasts before God of his keeping the Law, keep the Law? That is the question which God asks.
The Jews delighted to boast in their prayers. They made broad their phylacteries, and enlarged the borders of their garments. They even added to the Laws of God many of their own conceptions, making burdens heavy to be borne and placing them upon men's shoulders. These Law-boasters were Law-breakers. Of them God said, "The Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you."
Let us beware lest we also become boasters in the Law, depending upon law-works for our salvation; for he who places himself under the Law, must keep the Law. If, in one point he breaks the Law, he stands guilty before God.
II. THE LAW PROCLAIMS ALL THE WORLD GUILTY BEFORE GOD (Romans 3:19-20)
1. All men are sinners. The Jew makes his boast of the Law. We ask, therefore, is the Jew better than the Gentile? The response is plain. "No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin."
2. All men stand guilty before God. What can the Law do when its precepts are broken, and its commands are set aside? The Law is helpless. It is a bed too short, on which a man may stretch himself; and its coverings are too narrow, with which a man may cover himself.
The one who has boasted of the Law can say nothing in self-justification, as the Law pronounces its curse upon him.
3. The Divine conclusion. Verse twenty has no alternative. It is final in its statement. "Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the Law is the knowledge of sin."
Had God sought to reach man by the Law, and lead him unto salvation, He would have been compelled to retreat. A sinner who breaks the Law cannot be justified by the Law. The Law might desire to bring righteousness; it might boast its own strength and majesty; it might boast its mighty arm, but it would find itself altogether impoverished by reason of the weakness of the flesh of man.
III. HOW GRACE WROUGHT REDEMPTION (Romans 3:24)
1. Grace operates without the Law. The Law revealed unto man his sin, but stood by helpless to remedy it. What could the Law do? It could only witness to the fact of the fall of man; but never play a part in man's justification.
Grace stepped in, and God took hold of the situation, and proffered salvation as a free gift to every man. Thus, the righteousness of God passes upon all who believe in Jesus Christ, whether they be Jews or Gentiles: for there is no difference. Justification through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus is offered freely by God's Grace.
Jesus Christ becomes God's channel through whom that Grace operated. God set Christ Jesus forth as a propitiation for our sins, through faith in the Blood of Christ.
Grace leads us to the Cross, and declares unto us how God is righteous; and how we may receive the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. Grace tells us not only that God is righteous, but that He is also just, when He justifies the ungodly who believe in Jesus.
2. Grace excludes boasting. When Grace steps in, boasting passes out. The two cannot dwell together. The one is given to self-glorying, the other to God-glorifying. How can two walk together except they be agreed?
The Law of works which operates through self-deeds, would open the door and bid "boasting" to enter in; the Law of faith, which operates through the Grace of God, opens the door and bids "boasting" to take its exit. Here is the way God puts it: "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what Law? of works? Nay: but by the Law of faith."
3. Another Divine conclusion. "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law." This conclusion is much the same as the one mentioned in verse twenty-one. Here, however, added truth is brought out. It is this: faith operates according to Grace, and not according to the Law. What does this mean? it means that there is no merit in faith, no room for boasting. Faith is the hand that takes, the eye that looks, the foot that steps, the heart that trusts. Faith is active, but it is not classed with "Law-works." It works, but it works in another realm than that where legality works. Faith does not say, I will do this, or that, in order to be saved; it the rather says, I will do this and that because of trust in my Saviour.
Law-works lie in the domain of effort to obtain redemption; faith-works He in the realm of having obtained redemption. Law-works do things to get saved; faith accepts Grace as a basis of salvation, but, being saved becomes a blessed and living reality in valiant service.
IV. THE LARGER VIEW OF GRACE (Romans 4:16)
1. Vital issues at stake. The contentions that revolve around Law and Grace are not small. (1) The question of "glorying" is at stake. Chapter four puts it this way: "If Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory." (2) The question of salvation as a "debt" is at stake. Chapter four continues: "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of Grace, but of debt." Here are two conditions worthy of deep thought.
Abraham had a vitalized faith, a living faith, an active faith. He believed God and offered up Isaac; he believed God and went out, not knowing whither he went. He was an heir of God, who died without obtaining his heirship; God gave Abraham a land, he never inherited; a seed, he never saw. Abraham's faith, however, never wavered, for he saw the fruition of God's every promise, but saw it afar off.
The result is that Abraham stood justified before God; but not because of his works not because he offered up Isaac, but because in offering him, he knew God was faithful, and by faith he received him back again from the dead: not because he went into the far country, but because he counted himself no more than a stranger and a pilgrim to another country, whose Builder and Maker is God.
Had Abraham been justified by works, he could have gloried; he was, however, justified by faith, and we glory in him, and in the grace of God that was upon him.
Had Abraham been justified by works he would have had a reward, as of debt; he could have "foreclosed" on God, and have demanded of God his wages. Since, however, he was justified by faith he had no claim on God, no forced demand. God nevertheless answered his faith with abundant reward.
2. Walking in the steps of Abraham. Verse twelve speaks of walking "in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham." It seems strange that saints of a later day should be given, as an. example, a man who lived and walked with God centuries before. Yet, so it was.
Abraham was placed on the plain of Grace, and therefore of faith; for, if his heirship had been of the Law, faith would have been made void, and God's promise would have been made of none effect. It was true then, and it is still true that the Law worketh wrath, because man is helpless before its just demands.
Salvation, therefore, is of faith, that it might be of grace; "to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed."
V. DEAD TO THE LAW BUT ALIVE TO GOD AND GRACE (Romans 7:1-4)
1. A striking analogy. The seventh chapter of Romans presents a woman bound by the Law unto her husband as long as he liveth, but free from the Law to her husband when he is dead.
The message of this analogy is that we become dead to the Law in the Body of Christ, that we should be married to Another, even to Him who is raised from the dead.
The result of this analogy brings forth this statement: "Now we are delivered from the Law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."
Sin, by the commandment, wrought in us all manner of evil. When the commandment came, sin revived, and we died. This was because sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived us and slew us.
Sin, by the commandment, was made exceeding sinful. All of this means that when God gave the Law, the realization of sin, and the sense of sin, became super-evident. Man saw himself as carnal, sold under sin. The more the sinner attempted to keep the Law, the more he realized his inability to keep it, and the sinfulness of his own heart.
When the Law, which was spiritual, came, man woke up to his carnality. When the Law, which was holy and just and good came, man realized his inherent unholiness, corruption, and sin.
The result of this realization was that man cried out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
2. A blessed consummation.
A way out from sin's dominion, was found through the Lord Jesus Christ. The result was, that, passing out of death into life; passing from the dominion of Law, and into the dominion of Grace, we came in touch with the Spirit of life, who made us free from the Law of sin and death. The consummation, in all of its benefaction, is set forth in Romans eight. What the Law could not do; God, through Christ, did do.
Marvel of marvels! The man who had utterly failed in his flesh to fulfill the righteousness of the Law, entering into the realm of the Spirit, fulfilled the Law.
As we close this study, it is with a great eureka in our soul; with a great praise to God welling up in our heart. The impossible is made possible. Where the old man, the flesh, the ego, stood condemned under the righteous requirements of God's holy Law; the new man stands a victor, by Grace. Let the words ring in your mind, If we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh,
AN ILLUSTRATION
THE OPENED TREASURY AND THE BAGS
"If a mighty king should open his treasure, and bid men corns and bring their bags, and take as much as they would; do you think they would neglect this occasion of gain? Surely no; they would run and fetch bag after bag, and never cease. Thus doth the Lord act towards us in the covenant of Grace." He makes over all its fullness to His people, and saith, "All are yours." We are not straitened in Him. The bags will come to an end long before the treasure is exhausted. Let us come, then, to the throne of grace with enlarged desires and widened expectations: the Lord does not stint us, why should we put ourselves upon short commons? "He gaith, eat and drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved." Why, then, do we sit at the table and starve, or rise from it hungry? Let us by faith suck of the abundance of the sea of Grace, and partake largely of the hid treasure which the Lord has laid up for us.
C. H. Spurgeon.