The Law vs. Grace, and Relationship with God

*Edited October 16, 2015.*

The Law vs. Grace

The Decalogue (Ten Commandments) and the Law were given to us as a mirror to reveal our sin — how filthy our lives get when we reject God and live independently of Him.  There are many who believe they are made righteous by keeping the Law (even when they don’t recognise it as such), which is legalism — overemphasising the Law and disregarding the Gospel.  Can you clean your face with the same mirror that shows you how dirty you are?  As St. James puts it, “For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was” (1:23-24).  We often look at the Law and immediately forget how sinful we are and don’t repent.  Just like a mirror, God’s Word has the ability to reveal to us the truth about our sinful condition.  In James’ example, the man looks into the mirror and then walks away without doing anything.  This illustration he gives represents the way most Christians today study the Bible.  They read Scripture, see the truth that demands transformation, and then walk away as if nothing ever happened (just think of Christians who support gay marriage).  Indeed, heretics do this as well.  If we hear the Word of God but don’t do what it says, we are merely deceiving ourselves.

James continued in saying that religion without practical action is worthless (vv. 26-27).  The Bible does not teach us to follow rules; it is a picture of Jesus.  It is God revealing to us whom He is and what He does and has done for us.  While words may tell us of God’s character and what He may want from us, we cannot do any of it by our strength alone.  Life is in Him and in no one else, not even ourselves.  You might think that living by rules and principles are easier than living in relationship with people and God.  It is true that relationships can be messier than rules, but rules will never give you answers to your deepest questions and they will never love you, they will never have mercy, they will never have compassion, and they will never forgive.  The Law condemns, ostensibly revealing to the human race that we are incapable of fulfilling the Law, which is why it was necessary for Christ to fulfil it (more on that in a little bit).  When you read the Bible, don’t look for rules and principles (even though they exist); rather, look for relationship — a way you can grow closer to God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit that proceeds from the Father.  The “rules” and “principles” listed in Scripture are the ways that God has made it possible for us to be in relationship with Him.

There is no mercy or grace in rules, not even for one mistake.  A rule or law (or the Law) tells you that if you commit this sin/wrongful act (e.g. lying), you are condemned and if you omit this particular action (e.g. loving your neighbour as yourself), you are condemned.  That’s why Jesus fulfilled the Law for us — so that it no longer has jurisdiction over us.  For we are no longer under law, but grace (Romans 6:14).  But that doesn’t mean the Law no longer applies to the Christian life; believing otherwise is known as antinomianism.  The Law still reveals our sin and condemns us.  However, the Law that once contained impossible demands now becomes a promise that the Triune God fulfils for us in Christ Jesus (Matthew 5:17).  Keep in mind that if you live your life apart from God, the promise is empty.  Jesus laid the demand of the Law to rest — He fulfilled it; it no longer has any power to condemn the Christian, unless you live apart from God.  Jesus is both the promise and its fulfillment.  Trying to keep the Law is declaring your independence from God — a way of keeping control; and it is a failure of trusting God in your salvation.  There is no salvation in the Law; salvation is in Christ alone.  We like the Law so much that we see others, even wrongful Christians being guilty of this, preaching the Law in condemnation in order to have control; but it’s much worse than that.  It gives us the power to judge others and feel superior to them.  We believe we are living to a more righteous standard than those we judge.  Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty.  Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to judge and to condemn.

God prefers verbs over nouns.  Buckminster Fuller once said, “God is a Verb.”  To Moses, God said, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14).  God is whom He will be.  He is alive, He is active, and He is moving.  As His very essence is a very, everything we know about God is what He does.  We know who He is (the verb for current state of action) because of what He does (the verb for continual action).  He is related to verbs such as confessing, repenting, living, loving, responding, growing, dancing, singing, and so on.  Humans, on the other hand, have a tendency to take a verb that is alive and full of grace and turn it into a dead noun or law that consists entirely of rules.  Nouns exist because there is a created universe and physical reality, but if the universe is only a mass of nouns, it is dead.  Unless God is, there are no verbs, and verbs are what make the universe alive.  What this means is this:  For something to move from death to life (or non-existence to existence), you must introduce something active to something living and present tense, which is to move from law to grace.  And who has the power to do this?  God alone.  Only can create something out of nothing, and therefore only He can move law to grace.

For example, let’s look at the noun responsibility.  Before our words became nouns, they were first God’s words (verbs) — nouns with movement — the ability to respond.  God’s words are alive and active — they’re full of life; our words are dead and full of law, fear, and judgement.  This is why we don’t find the word responsibility in Scripture.  God gives us the ability to respond and our response is to be free to love and serve in every situation, and therefore each moment is different and unique.  Because God is our ability to respond, He is present in us.  If God simply gave us a responsibility, He would not have to be with us at all.  It would now be a task to perform, an obligation to be met, and something else to fail at.

Relationship with God

Let’s use friendship as another example and how removing the element of life from a noun can drastically alter a relationship.  Say you and I are friends, and I don’t mean that we just simply know each other by association, but truly friends.  As friends, there is an expectancy that exists in the relationship (“expectancy” may be a noun, but what it consists of are actions, which are verbs).  When we see each other or when we’re apart, there is an expectancy of being together, of laughing, and talking to each other (notice how these are all verbs — things of action).  That expectancy has no concrete definition; it is alive and active and everything that is produced out of our being together is a unique gift that we share with no one else, otherwise we wouldn’t be such close friends.  But what would happen if I change that active expectancy to an expectation — implicit or explicit, spoken or unspoken?  Suddenly, a rule (law) has entered into our relationship.  With this expectation, you are now expected to perform in a way that meets my expectations or standards.  Our living friendship rapidly deteriorates into a dead thing with rules and requirements.  It is no longer about you and me on a personal level, but about what friends are “supposed to do,” or the “responsibilities” that make someone a good friend.  The same can apply with the role as husband, wife, mother, father, student, employee, etc.  One may say, “If we didn’t have expectations and responsibilities, wouldn’t everything just fall apart?”  This is only if you are of the world — apart from God and under the Law.  Responsibilities and expectations are the basis of guilt, shame, and judgement; and they provide the essential framework that promotes performance as the basis for identity and value.

We’ve all failed to live up to somebody’s expectations because as sinners, failure is inevitable.  God has no expectations of us because He’s never placed them upon us.  If He had, then we would be cursed with coming up short every time with each attempt, receiving only punishment and condemnation in the end (again, that was the Law); but through Christ we are promised salvation despite our shortcomings and many inevitable failures, past and future.  The idea behind placing expectations upon somebody requires that they do not know the future outcome of the relationship and is trying to control behaviour in order to get the desired result because human behaviour is, after all, unpredictable and unreliable.  Humans try to control behaviour largely through expectations (just think of job descriptions and requirements listed for a specific job position — those are set in order for the employer to control your behaviour were you to have the job).  However, God doesn’t need to predict our behaviour.  He knows everything there is to know about each and every one of us.  So why would He have an expectation other than what He already knows?  Because He has no expectations, we never disappoint Him.  What God does have is a constant living expectancy in our relationship with Him, and He gives us the ability to respond to any situation and circumstance in which we find ourselves.  As I said earlier, the “rules” and “principles” listed in Scripture are the ways that God has made it possible for us to be in relationship with Him.  Those “rules” and “principles” are criteria He put into order so that we may live good lives as He leads us towards sanctification (see 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8).  To the degree that we resort to expectations and responsibilities, to that degree we neither know God nor trust Him; and to that degree, we will live in fear.

We live by priorities — putting God first, then family, friends, however it is for you.  The trouble with living by priorities is that it’s a hierarchy.  If you put God at the top, what does that really mean and how much is enough before you call it quits?  How much time must you give God before you can go on about the rest of your day, the part that really interests you the most?  Or how much time is enough before you spend time with family or friends?  And vice versa?  You simply cannot calculate it.  You give God a certain allotment of time, and that allotment always changes, whether it increases or dwindles or varies in between both.  God doesn’t want just a piece of you and a piece of your life.  Even if we were able, which we are not, to give Him the biggest piece, that’s not what He wants.  God wants all of you and every part of you.  Put God at the centre of your life and you won’t need to live by priorities.  With God at the centre, which is where He desires to be, makes God the driving force of all your relationships.  With God at the centre, you are able to involve Him in every single aspect of your life.  If you truly want to put God first in everything, put Him at the centre of your life and He will be the driving force of every relational aspect of your life.