PerryDox – BeJustAChristian

Grace (forgiveness) vs Law (obedience) – There are “grace churches/preachers” and there are “law churches/preachers”. If we are either of these, we are wrong. Take for example the first two stories of mankind in the Bible:

1. Adam and Eve sinned, God covered them with clothing, then expelled them out of the garden. Can you see both grace and law?
2. Cain sinned against Able, God covered him with a mark of protection, and yet still cursed him. God didn’t just throw Cain away or else he wouldn’t have given him a mark. But the story of Cain’s descendants is one of disinterest in the God who gave grace.

What should we emphasize in these true stories? Can you see that we need to emphasize everything God does? To take only the grace side or the law of God means taking only half of the story. I want and need to hear stories of grace. I need to hear stories of law, and should want to also. Let’s discover why.

Grace teaches me about God’s love, mercy, and faithfulness despite my own imperfection.

Law teaches me about God’s holiness, justice, and yes faithfulness again because of His own perfection.

So don’t give in to the temptation of God is only or mainly love, because God is more than gracious to sinners. Their mantra is, “Let’s include everyone!” Does God include everyone?

And don’t give in to the temptation of God is mainly righteous, because God is more than holy. The mantra here, “Doctrinal perfection!”. Does God only include those who stay perfect after they were imperfect? If so, isn’t that salvation by works?

This is a much deeper topic than can be told in this brief moment. It would take the entire Bible since the story of Jesus is as long as the Bible, and the story of Jesus emphasizes beautifully the correct balance. That’s why to emphasize half the story, mainly forgiveness or mainly obedience, is to emphasize half of God and miss the true Jesus.

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This entry was posted by PHall on Wednesday, July 21st, 2021 at 9:29 am and is filed under Bible. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.