LAW AND GRACE


A. LAW AND GRACE
  1. A subject over which there is considerable difference of opinion:
    1. Some think that law and grace are contrary to each other; that they do not mix.
    2. Others teach that since no sinner can keep the law, God, in mercy, supplanted the law by placing man under grace.
  2. What does the Bible teach about law and grace? Are they against each other? Does grace nullify God's law?
B. THE NATURE AND RELATIONSHIP OF LAW AND GRACE
  1. The law of the Ten Commandments are a revelation of God's character and an expression of His eternal and unchangeable will:
    1. A revelation of His nature and the nature of His government - Compare Ex. 20:1-17 with Rom. 7:12, 14; Ps. 111:8, 9; Luke 16:17
    2. They are an expression of His eternal and unchangeable will by which He regulates the moral relationship between man and God and man and man - Rom. 2:17; Luke 10:25; Matt. 19:16-19
    3. They are summed up in the two commandments spoken of in Matt. 22:36-40.
  2. The grace of God is God's unmerited favor toward sinners:
    1. Salvation by grace excludes the works of the law - Eph. 2:7, 8; Rom. 3:20; 11:6
    2. A broken law cannot save the guilty, it can only condemn him - Rom. 3:19; Jas. 1:22, 23
    3. The grace of God is an expression of a loving Father to sinners; a willingness to forgive our sins and to redeem us from the eternal consequences of sin.
C. TRUTHS ABOUT THE NATURE AND RELATIONSHIP TOO OFTEN OVERLOOKED BY SOME PEOPLE
  1. Grace is no license for breaking God's law:
    1. Read very prayerfully Rom. 6:1-12 - Consider also Paul's words in Gal. 2:16-19
    2. Vivid examples of the obligations of grace -
      1. Go and sin no more - John 8:11
      2. Sin no more - John 5:14
  2. Who is under grace and who is under the law:
    1. Every one that accepts Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour is under grace! Rom. 8:1
    2. And every one that breaks God's law is under the law - Rom. 3:19; Jas. 2:8-11; 1 John 3:4
    3. Impressive examples - Two men went into the temple to worship, one was a Pharisee and the other was a despised tax collector; both were sinners -
      1. One came as a sinner and left as a sinner.
      2. The other came as a sinner, but left under the dispensation of grace - Luke 18:10-14
  3. Law and grace come from the same source, from God; both serve a purpose in God's plan for man:
    1. One reveals God's will; the other enables us to do God's will.
    2. One convicts of sin; the other pardons our sin.


Design © John Bryant 2011