Listen!
 

by Mark McCrary

For law to condemn anyone as a sinner, it must be given by the only One who has the power to give it. But once we acknowledge that such law is given by God, we must also acknowledge that it is not optional for us. How can we dare say that any law given by God is optional or unnecessary? That would be us making ourselves judges of God's law, and we have no such authority to act this way. It is not we who judge the law, but the law that judges us. This is why we need grace to begin with.

Yet the same One who gave law also gives grace. This alone should tell us that law and grace are not contradictory. It is when we isolate the law from grace that we begin to think that obeying that law can somehow justify us. If grace is removed, the only way to be justified would be by law-keeping. But the law has already judged us as guilty, so justification this way is not possible.

Similarly, if we isolate grace from law, and thus ignore the law, we turn grace into a license to do whatever we wish, and such is a dire abuse of grace (Rom 6:1-2; Jude 4).

By keeping before us the concept that God is the One who has given both law and grace, we can avoid the abuse of either side. Respect God's law, for it is His, but know that justification is through God's grace, which also is His to give.

 

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