September 19, 2024
Law and Grace
The subject of “law and grace” provokes a great deal of debate and misunderstanding, especially when the law is associated with punishment, prison and death. Yet it is often forgotten that it is not the law itself that kills, but sin. So the question arises: is the law evil? No. By its very nature the law poses no danger to a righteous person — on the contrary, it is a protection. For the criminal, however, the law does indeed mean death. Why, then, are so many people afraid of the law when they are not criminals? Let us turn to the words of the apostle Paul, who said: “I have done nothing against our law” (Acts 28:17). These words reflect how he understood the law even late in his life.
True freedom lies not in refusing to keep the law, but in being set free from sin. The law was never set against grace, still less was it given for death. It was given to preserve life, as a means of protecting people. Sadly, many have misunderstood the law and still do not grasp its true purpose. As Paul says in his Epistle to the Romans (7:7–14), the law is holy, spiritual and good. It does not kill; it exposes sin — and death comes from sin, not from keeping the law. Conflict with the law arises only when a person remains under the dominion of sin.
The Messiah came and, in His mercy, redeemed us not from the law, but from the law of sin and death. Once a person understands this, they realise that everything good, spiritual and holy in the law serves life and helps to safeguard the grace of God. The law, or Torah, is a fence that protects a person from lawlessness and sin, and in this sense it helps believers to serve one another with grace, as the Epistle to the Hebrews says (12:28).
In debates about the law, those who know little of the Torah and the Tanakh often claim that the law has been abolished. But where do such claims come from? More often than not, they rest not on personal experience and understanding, but on other people’s interpretations. Those who understand and value the law receive the Torah as the Word of God, and Christ as the embodiment of that Word. It is important to recognise that grace never abolished God’s law; rather, it brought people out from under the power of sin and death. And if we are under grace, sin and death no longer have dominion over us.