Difference Between Law and Grace
The difference between the law and grace is that the law requires an
outward restrain while grace requires an inward transformation.
God did not do away with the Law of Moses. He expects us to keep it
otherwise why would He have given it. However, apart from grace and
faith, we cannot keep the Law.
God gave His people the Laws of Moses or Torah after their release
from the bondage of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 4:5 "Surely I have taught you statutes and
judgments, just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should act
according to them in the land which you go to possess."
Torah was a book of instruction given not to save them but to show
them a way of life based upon the Covenant that God had made with them.
Exodus 19:5 “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My
voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to
Me above all people…”
Jeremiah 7:23 "But this is what I commanded them,
saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My
people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it
may be well with you.'
The outward rules of the codes written on tables of stone produce
death not life. Therefore, the Law serves only to reveal our needs. The
list of “do” and “don’t” has no power to meet them. The sign on the
highway tells the motorist that the speed limit is 65 miles per hour.
That is the law. If I am driving at the speed of 90 per hour, the sign
reveals my need to slow down, but it is powerless to make me do it.
Romans 3:20 “ … by the deeds of the law no flesh will
be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of
sin.” (Emphasis added).
Romans 7:7 “…I would not have known sin except through
the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had
said, "You shall not covet."
The purpose of the Law was – and still is – that of teaching the
people of God how to live IN Christ, for it is only in
Christ that the Law can be fulfilled. In fact, in the Old Testament, it
was the blood sacrifices, performed in faith that preserved the
Israelites, not the law.
The principal function of the Law is to be a schoolmaster that leads
to Christ and His grace.
Romans 10:4 “ For Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone who believes."
(The word “end” is a translation of the Greek word “Telos”, from
“Tello” (to set out for a definite point or goal) and can be translated
“the point aimed at”, “the purpose”, and “the conclusion of an act or
state”). In other words, the Law shows man how utterly sinful he is and
how incapable he is to fulfill its demands. At this point, he will
realize that he needs a Savior and will put his faith in Jesus. (The
Apostle Paul vividly describes the conflict of the sinful man, and the
solution provided by God, in Romans 7 and 8).
Jesus – as the point aimed at by the Law and as the purpose for it -
is the end of the Law. He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill
it.
Matt 5:17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law
or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."
The New Testament believer then, can fulfill the Law only IN CHRIST,
by the grace that He gives, which is received through faith.
GRACE IS THE POWER THAT GOD GIVES FREELY SO THAT WE CAN LIVE A HOLY
LIFE.
Titus 2:11-12 “For the grace of God that brings
salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously,
and godly in the present age…”
In Christ we are no longer under the law, but under grace: for the
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ
(John 1:17).
Jesus fulfills the law IN us by changing us from the inside.
The New Covenant makes this possible.
Jeremiah 31:33 "But this is the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I
will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I
will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Ezekiel 36:26 "I will give you a new heart and put a
new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your
flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
In conclusion, God’s grace, through our faith in the New Covenant
promises, releases the power of the Holy Spirit within to obey the law
and to walk in Covenant relationship with the Lord.
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