Many years ago I attended an area-wide meeting of preachers where a brother presented his beliefs about law and grace. He contended that God’s law and His grace effectively cancel out one another; that we can be subject to law or grace, but not both. This is a common doctrine in protestantism, with deep roots in John Calvin’s assertion that God’s grace is “irresistible” (that is, God chooses who receives His grace, and no person can “do” anything to affect or alter that random choice).
In the scriptures, certain things that complement and complete one another are always coupled: Man and woman; day and night; right and wrong. Removing one part of the combination leaves the other incomplete, inadequate, and ineffective. Law and grace form just such a combination: Separating them effectively neutralizes each. God’s law and His grace are complementary, not contradictory, concepts.
God has interacted with humanity on the basis of LAW since the time of Adam: There were both “positive” and “negative” laws in the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:15, 17). There was law concerning sacrifices to God given long before Moses was born (Gen. 4). In Genesis 14:18 Melchizedek was called a priest of God; priesthood implies a moral code (a law). Paul states in Romans 5:13 that sin was in the world before Moses’ covenant — which means God did give law for that ancient time — for law is what defines sin (Rom. 3:20; 7:7).
Much of christendom assumes that any law instituted by God takes no account of a person’s ability or inability to obey that law. Should God command people to “walk,” a crippled person would stand condemned for “violating” a command which God did not enable him to obey. No scripture shows God ever judging anyone in this way.
Humanity today is no more perfect or sinless than in biblical times: Like the ancients, we too “go astray” (Isa. 53:6). We need a way to obtain God’s favor other than flawless observance of His law (Gal. 2:16). “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Rom. 3:23). “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (Jas. 2:10).
These passages show that justification under law alone is beyond humanity’s grasp (which was Paul’s point in Ephesians 2:8-10). When John the apostle declared that “…the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17), “law” describes the standard by which God measures man. John wrote that “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4), but in Romans 4:15 we learn that “…where no law is, there is no transgression” (i.e., no violation).
Just as modern christendom’s image of “law” contradicts what the bible reveals about God, so the modern concept of “grace” does not accurately reflect what the bible states: There is no dispute as to whether God offers us grace, but plenty of disagreement about “how” He does so.
The word “grace” appears 159 times in the King James version of the bible (37 times in the Old Testament and 122 times in the New Testament). The Hebrew word for grace (khane) means favor, charm, or acceptance. The Greek word (charis) means pleasure, delight, charm, or good will, and the common New Testament use of this word refers to favor from God. In Luke 1:30, Mary “found favor” with God. Likewise, Jesus grew “…in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52) and “dwelt among us…full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Very few in protestantism and the community church movement actually assert that God’s grace is a “completely NO strings” gift. Most require the “sinner’s prayer” or some acknowledgment of personal belief in Jesus (“accept Jesus as your personal savior”) as “proof” of salvation; some will also recognize that one must also depart from sins (repent); and a few will even admit that a person must publicly confess faith in Jesus as the Son of God. If nothing beyond asserting belief in Jesus is required to obtain God’s grace however, why did Peter tell believers to repent and be baptized in order for their sins to be forgiven (Acts 2:38)?
The modern definition of “grace” is generally expressed as “unmerited” favor, which encompasses something MORE than the scriptures show. “Unmerited” implies that we have no part whatsoever in obtaining God’s favor, which makes a mockery of passages like Philippians 2:12 (“…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”). The words “merit” and “unmerited” do not appear in the scriptures in connection with God’s grace: We would be wise to simply use the bible’s term in the bible’s way, and just define “grace” as God’s favor.
God’s grace recognizes a person’s inability to save himself, even through a system of laws. Paul emphasized in Romans 9:11 that God’s purpose in old testament times was not based on human perfection under law, and in Ephesians 2:8-10 he stressed that a Christian’s basis for “glorying” is not flawless obedience to law but the fact that God extended His grace to us through Jesus Christ. His “favor” is what makes possible the salvation of an imperfect person!
Being freed from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2) did not result in Paul being exempted from all law; rather, it was “the LAW of the spirit of life in Christ” that made his freedom possible, and though he became “as without law” to those who were “without law” in 1 Corinthians 9:21, he plainly acknowledged being under law to Christ. James described this as the “perfect law of liberty” in James 1:25, and the “Royal law” (Jas. 2:8).
What the bible shows is that God’s law and His grace are interdependent, not independent: Neither can exist without the other. Law is what DEFINES “grace,” for in the absence of law there is no need of grace and in the absence of grace there is no hope in law. Through sin we become slaves condemned by submission to Satan’s temptations: In Christ, we are freed to become His grateful servants. In sin, we have no hope because we stand condemned by God’s law: In Christ, we have perfect hope because we are justified by His grace through our faith.