The Ways of the Heart
Chapter 8: The Ways of Law vs. The Ways of Grace
Page 1: "Managing Principles: Law and Grace"
by Frank Allnutt

It is a widely-held belief that God’s sovereignty over man is governed by two managing principles: law for non-Christians and grace for Christians. This may stem from the Apostle John’s statement (and others with similar wording): “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

Does this mean there is a total absence of God’s grace in the lives of those who are under His law? Does this mean there is a total absence of God’s law in the lives of those who are under grace?

Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15), and “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love...” (John 15:10).

Now, the apostle Paul, who some mistakenly believed was against the Law, commended the Roman Christians, “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed...” (Romans 6:17).

It was Peter’s desire “that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure” (1 Peter 1:2).

In view of these and many more scriptural calls to obedience to God, Paul wrote: “you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:15); “You also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ...we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound (Romans 7:4, 6); and, “the law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious...” (1 Timothy 1:9).

Is Paul contradicting himself? We are called to obey God, yet Paul wrote that we have been released from the law and are under grace. “Do we then nullify the Law through faith?” Paul asked. “May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law” (Romans 3:31). And “what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God” (1 Corinthians 7:19).

Are there contradictions here? Do Christians, who have “died to the Law” and are under grace, still have some obligation to keep the New Covenant commandments or laws of God?

These are not at all simple issues to understand and reconcile. And it does not help that there are conflicting views among even Bible scholars. In approaching the issue, it seems wise to ask: Are the laws Christians are called to obey the same laws to which Paul asserts we have died and have been released? If so, the only conclusion is that there is contradiction in Scripture! However, this runs against the grain of those of us who believe the Bible is the infallible Word of God. But there is no contradiction once the intended meaning of “law” is understood in its particular context, and what Paul meant by his assertion that believers have died to the law.

So what does God want us to know about the various laws, and how does He want His children to regard them and respond to them?

The study of law and grace is a complicated challenge. In this short study we will take on the challenge, addressing the subject of law first, then grace.

I want to begin by citing some observations:

Forms of government
Citizenship under the theocracy
Laws of the theocracy
Criminal laws
Laws pertaining to domestic relations
Estates—descent and distribution laws
Social security and welfare laws
Laws pertaining to contracts
Religious laws
Laws pertaining to legal procedure
Tort laws
Laws of sanitation and cleanliness
Laws pertaining to animals
Laws concerning interest and loans

The most categories of law (Hebrew, tora) are found in the Old Testament. However, law is perhaps more difficult to understand in the New Testament because of the flexible use of the term law (Greek, nomos) and the various dispensations of God’s law—for example, pre-cross law and post-cross or New Covenant law. It is important for us to understand the various kinds of law, as well as their diverse meanings, in order to discern what Scripture has to say about the law, our relationship with it, and our attitude and response toward it. For example:

1. “Law” can refer to laws given directly by God. These fall into three categories: Law for nonbelievers, “Old Covenant” law for the children of Israel, and New Covenant law for those of us who have been reconciled to Him through Christ Jesus, and by faith and through grace.
   
   
2. “Law” can refer to all or part of the Old Testament (Romans 2:17-27; 3:19a). In this sense, the reference is sometimes “the law of Moses,” the “Book of the Law,” “Torah,” or the Pentateuch division of the Old Testament.
   
   
3. “Law” sometimes refers to the Mosaic administration or dispensation which God inaugurated at Sinai (Romans 5:13, 20; Galatians 3:17, 19, 21a). God specifically instructed Moses to give His law to the children of Israel: “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the people, for all the earth is Mine...’” (Exodus 19:3-5). Note that God did not give His law to Moses to pass on to gentiles (non-Jewish people).
   
   Jews, from the time of Moses until the inauguration of the New Covenant, were said to be “under law” or “under the law.” Jesus was born “under law” in this sense (Galatians 4:4). Since the New Covenant replaced the Mosaic Covenant, two thousand years ago, no one has been born “under the law” or Mosaic administration. Even so, some people today—particularly religious Jews—do not understand this, and so they continue to live as though the Mosaic administration were still operative.
   
   
4. “Law” and the expression “under the law” are also used in a depreciatory sense in the New Testament in reference to the status of a person who regarded Mosaic law and “works” of such law as the way to become justified, righteous, and accepted by God (Romans 6:14, 15; Galatians 5:18).
   
   During the time of the Mosaic administration there developed a perverse “legal system” through which it was wrongly perceived that the law of Moses was the basis of attaining righteousness and God’s acceptance, and even salvation. This is simply called “legalism.” In the time of Jesus and the apostles it was the pharisaic legalistic regard for the “Torah.”
   
   Torah law was based on God’s directly-given laws; however, the Torah also incorporated customs and traditions and sundry laws added by man—all of which, in the pharisaic view, carried the authority of the laws given by God. When obedience to Torah law or any other law is considered the means of righteousness, becoming accepted by God, and earning salvation, it is a legal system that has no standing with God. Those who buy into such a legal system are said to be “under law.”
   
   A prime example is found in the book of Acts: “And some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’...But certain ones of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed, stood up, saying, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them, and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses’” (Acts 15:1, 5). Paul’s correction of this false teaching is summarized in his letter to the Ephesians: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works...” (Ephesians 2:8, 9). “Works” here would include circumcision and wrongly motivated obedience to law.
   
   So to be “under the law” as described in number three above was applicable to Jews prior to the New Covenant, and a person “under the law,” as referred to here, in Romans 6:14, was one who regarded the Mosaic administration as still operative and as a system of attaining or maintaining righteousness, God’s acceptance, and salvation by works.
   
   
5. “Law” and the expression “under the law” can also refer to God’s unadulterated, standing law in the age of the New Covenant which applies to all natural or unsaved people (Romans 3:19).
   
   
6. “Law” can refer to the laws and commandments of Jesus (1 Corinthians 9:21) and the New Covenant.
   
   
7. “Law” is frequently used to designate the will of God (Romans 3:20; 4:15; 7:2, 5, 7-9, 12, 16, 22; 8:3, 4, 7, etc.). All people, nonbelievers and believers alike, are subject to God’s sovereign will.
   
   
8. “Law” can designate the native law—the law God “writes on the hearts” of all people (Romans 2:12-14).
   
   
9. “Law” is sometimes used with the meaning of a managing, operating, or governing principle. Examples are: “The law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2), and “the law of faith” (Romans 3:27. See also Romans 7;21, 23, 25b).

The nature of God’s law
The law God gave to Moses—the Ten Commandments—are the basis of all of God’s laws, which include the laws and statutes of old covenants, as well as the commandments of the New Covenant.

The entire body of God’s unadulterated law is good (1 Timothy 1:8) because it reflects His perfect, holy, loving, and righteous nature and will.

While man can obtain deeper understanding of good and evil from God’s law, and even obey the written letter of the law to a limited degree, the law cannot empower man to obey (Romans 7:6). Such motivation and power are only available through the believer’s new birth and the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Law as a managing principle
God’s law, as a managing principle, is examined in the Bible from three perspectives: In relationship with the nonbeliever, in relationship with pre-cross believers under Mosaic Law, and in relationship with Christians under the New Covenant. Today, non-Christians are subject to the authority and condemnation of God’s judicial law. With regard to believers, the New Covenant has rendered some Old Covenant laws obsolete and has established others under the New Covenant. Even so, law, as a managing principle, has been replaced with New Covenant grace as a managing principle in the lives of believers.

Though Old Testament believers were under the Mosaic Law, their salvation did not come through the law or through obedience to the law, but rather by their faith and God’s grace. Their obedience to the law was an outward expression of their faith. Their salvation was consummated through the grace of Christ’s death and resurrection.

The judicial and filial purposes of God’s law
Within the body of God’s standing laws under the New Covenant, there are two applications. When applied in the judicial sense (sometimes called salvific law), His law governs His relationship with unsaved or natural people. Such unsaved people are under the “curse” of God’s law, which renders them spiritually dead and separated from God. When applied in the filial or parental sense, His law governs His fellowship with believers and their fellowship with others.

I’ll give you an illustration: When I adopted three-year-old Garrett as my son, it was accomplished through law—the judicial process. That legally established our relationship as father and son. As Garrett’s father, I raised him to obey certain parental rules. Like all children, he sometimes disobeyed. Now, this had no bearing on our legal relationship as father and son, but it did temporarily create sin-debt in the soul of his heart—such as guilt and anxiety. Coupled with that, whenever he rejected my fatherly authority (which really wasn’t that often), it temporarily strained our fellowship. But we remained in a father and son relationship—disobedience did not alter that. Because of our love for one another, confession, forgiveness and quick reconciliation always followed. This restored our fellowship.

The parable of the prodigal son is another illustration. The son remained in a father and son relationship, but his disobedience took him out of fellowship with his father until that time he experienced contriteness of heart and returned home to become reconciled with his father.

Do you see the difference between relationship and fellowship? The Christian’s relationship with God is absolute and everlasting; but fellowship with God is variable, and can be strained or even broken. At the time of salvation, the believer is removed from an old relationship with God’s law, in the sense he is no longer subject to its judicial authority, and is placed into a new relationship with His law, through grace, in the filial or parental sense. When a believer commits a sin, he is not subject to God’s law in a judicial sense because the judicial only applies to nonbelievers. However, the believer is subject to the filial aspects of God’s law. When a believer is conscious of committing a sin he should do his part—in cooperation with the Holy Spirit—in the process of restoring the pure, sincere, or whole condition of his heart as well as fellowship with God and any other offended parties.

The roots of law and grace
Adamic man’s relationship with God’s law is rooted, if you will, in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for it is through law that we have knowledge of what is good and what is evil. The grace system is rooted in Eden’s Tree of Life. Had Adam and Eve not disobeyed God, but had instead eaten of the Tree of Life, they would have been under grace—God’s love in action.

Adam and Eve disobeyed God out of the motivation of sin, not love. In doing so, they disqualified themselves from being “under grace” and became subject to God’s judicial law. The Bible refers to this as being “under the law” (Romans 3:19)—under the power or authority and death curse of God’s law. In Adam and Eve’s relationship with the law, the law was master and they were its slaves because of the law’s authority over them, due to their sinfulness.

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