The Law is for Wimps, Conclusion
You might still be asking how is Grace tougher than the Law as no one can keep the Law! I will show you a few examples of what I mean when I say there is no such thing as Cheap Grace, and living under Grace is not a so called cake walk. I believe living under grace is tougher than the Law ever can be.
There is one note I want to add. By no means am I trying to make “grace” legalistic or burdensome, as did the religious teachers of Jesus’ time with the law. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
What I am trying to do is get people to see that the law is obsolete. Do not try to mix Grace and the law. There is nothing there to substantiate that line of reasoning because living in the Spirit of God and submitting to His Lordship is freedom not burdensome. The Holy Spirit gave me this illustration to show the difference between law and grace.
Let’s say you live in Denver and you want to take a trip to Paris. You decide you want to drive to Paris! So off you go from Denver to Paris. You get on I70 East and head toward the East coast for the next 2200 miles. The trip is going great, you drive and drive and then something horrible happens: THE ATLANTIC OCEAN! Let me point out that as soon as you hit the sands of Atlantic beach, your driving trip to Paris is over! You can have the best and newest BMW or Mercedes Benz but that car is not crossing the ocean. That car took you as far as it could go. It is useless at this time. You are going to need a plane or a boat to finish your trip. You cannot mix the car and the ocean – they are mutually exclusive at the moment. Again, that car is useless to cross the ocean. That is the law. It can only take you so far and if you want to go to heaven, you are going to have to ditch the Law and grab hold of Jesus and His grace. He is the only one that can get you there. So my advice to you is get rid of the car in Denver and instead go to the airport and get a first class ticket with Air Grace Jesus and enjoy the journey. PS: the ticket is FREE
Here are some examples of law vs Grace
How many laws and traditions are there under the Law? According to one source there are 613 laws and traditions.
Now, how many commands are there living under Grace? I believe most will say two: Love thy God with all your heart, soul and mind and Love your neighbor as yourself. Those two laws fulfill the Law. If you love someone you will not steal, lie, commit sexual sin or covet their possessions from them. Love does not do these things against another.
Again, how many commands are there living under Grace? The answer is infinity. Let me explain. Under Grace we live by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit directs and guides every believer with the Will of God and the plans He has for our lives. So let’s break this down. The Holy Spirit should be telling you, who you should marry, where you should work, if you should buy that house or just rent. He wants to be in on every decision you make.
Remember, Jesus is not only Savior of our life but also our King. I would also like to add that He is not too busy or overworked to help you. In addition you are not bothering him. So when the Holy Spirit is at work and is allowed to work, He has full decision making power in our lives. Think of how many times the Holy Spirit is guiding all of us believers in the world with all of our decisions that need to be made on a daily basis. That number boggles the mind. Also remember, He is not just sending out suggestions, He is a KING in charge of His Kingdom. Jesus is commanding His kingdom.
How different our world would look if we all would live and walk in the Spirit. Can you imagine, if we all lived in the Spirit and followed Gods Word in the Bible? Think of how many less divorces there would be in the church? How many more missionaries and Pastors would be in service if we all obeyed His call on our lives? How many fewer bankruptcies and financial problems there would be if we were lead by the spirit on the issues of money? We can ask this question in every area of our lives! And then on a more personal level, we can wonder how much are we listening to and obeying the Holy Spirit?
Marriage
Within the New Testament God has placed many guardrails and has given us many directives to guide us regarding marriage and sexual relations. Under the Old Covenant, Moses gave us a right of divorce for any reason. Men treated women like property. I believe they treated women a lot like we do cars. They would buy a new one, love it for a few years and then get tired of it and trade it in for a new one. Jesus had to deal with this issue with the Jews and the hardness of their hearts. Under the New Covenant, the only reason given to get a divorce is for infidelity. In the church today there are many questions regarding getting a divorce.
This leads me to the first point. If we allowed the Holy Spirit to direct us and guide us in picking our spouse, just think of how few marriages would end by divorce due to alcoholism, drug and violence? Do you think the Holy Spirit would allow you to marry a man who He knew would beat his wife? The fact is, we rely more on cultural traditions then we do on God for finding a partner. Too many times we do what we want and go out with whom we want, and then TELL GOD to bless our choice. We then try to make it the Will of God while in a state of emotional bliss or lust. Then after all of that we ask God to Bless our Mess! Wow!
But on the positive note on living in the Spirit, I want to tell a story I heard in college.
I heard this man was sitting in his office one day. The Holy Spirit spoke to him and said, “On your way home, buy your wife, one white rose.” He shrugged it off. As he was driving home, the Holy Spirit commanded him to stop and buy his wife a white rose! Once again, he did not want to stop but the Holy Spirit began moving more strongly until he finally stopped. When he got home and gave his wife the rose, she broke down into heavy sobbing. Her husband was so confused. After she composed herself, she explained that she was having a battle in her faith walk. She was believing God did not love her anymore. But in her morning prayers, she struggled heavily with this and the Holy Spirit told her how much God loved her and that He would never stop loving her. As a token to show His love, He wanted to get her a “White Rose.” She thought to herself, how could God buy her a white rose? You can see why her reaction was so powerful when her husband, not knowing of her prayer time, came in with a white rose. This is what I call living in the Spirit. Can you image what our marriages would look like if we all did this?
Finances (Money)
There has been a great debate in churches for many years now. This is the debate; should tithing, an Old Testament commandment from God, exist in the New Testament. Many have argued on both sides of the (coin). Even the best grace teachers still hold on to tithing in the New Testament. I believe this is because tithing deals with their money and how they receive offerings. What I am going to share with you is what I believe I received from the Lord in my quite times with Him.
What I learned from the Lord is this. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells the Parable of the Talents. This is found in Matthew 25:14-30. Jesus tells of a master who left for a journey and left three of his servants with money. One with 10 thousand dollars, one with 5 thousand and the last with 1 thousand. The first two went and invested and doubled their masters money. The last one dug a hole and buried the masters money – which gave no return.
There are many applications to this parable, but the Lord showed me this. Who is the master? Jesus is the Master and He went away to command his kingdom. The servants are His Christians. So Jesus left us behind to serve in his stead with his money. Most, I believe even in the best Christian circles, believe that they work for their money and it is theirs to do with as they please. Then on Sunday they believe it is their responsibility to give a little bit back to God, a tenth (tithe)
God showed me why we do not see the tithe in the New Testament. Because He is Lord over all. God owns everything!
Let me explain. In the New Testament there are 18 references to “Bondservants”, a nice way of saying a SLAVE, who loves his master and then signs their life over to them permanently. We in the typical Christian Church do not preach this very often….we are slaves to Jesus, He owns us and He is our Lord and Master. We must remember that at salvation, we exchanged our lives for Jesus. He gave His life for us and we Gave our life to Him. He is Lord.
So back to my point. A slave owns nothing unless the master grants it. The master owns all! He owns you, your wife, and your children. They are his to do with as he pleases. So in this parable in Matthew, I believe Jesus is showing us that he gives us our jobs, our health and our talents. The money we make belongs to HIM! He is not a asking for a percentage as listed in the Law but all of it. So in the New Covenant, I believe as Spirit filled believers, we should be seeking the Lord on how we are to use His money. How to spend it on our needs, how to give and who we should be blessing. This is tougher then the tithe because the Lord may say to give only 10 percent away and keep the remaining 90 percent. But the Lord may tell you to give 50 or 70 percent away and live on the 30 percent remaining.
How would you respond? When I went on the mission field, I was giving away most of the money to feed the poor. But the Lord was always faithful and we always had more then enough. So ask yourself is the Law tougher then Grace? Remember, we are to live by the Spirit of God and allow Him to direct and command our finances. But the truth is only 2 to 3 percent of all Christians really give the tithe, (10%) let alone more as God directs.
The Sabbath and Holy days.
Colossians 2: 16 So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths.
Under the Law, the Sabbath was from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday. I think I got that right? How many New Testament denominations are still trying to hold to the Sabbath and meet on Saturdays. On the other side of the coin, many believe God moved the Sabbath to Sunday under the New Covenant. Neither one is correct! Under grace, Jesus is now our eternal rest. We rest on the finished work of the cross of Jesus. Jesus is the Sabbath!
The Christian Church by “tradition” meets on Sunday, I believe this is because so many great things happen on Sunday, like the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. But it is not a holy day, nor is it the traditional Sabbath day. Jesus is our Sabbath and everyday is a day of worship.
Everyday under the New Covenant, we Christians should get out of bed and enjoy the presence of the Lord and worship and give thanks to God. Everyday we should be reading our Bibles and devotionals and spending quality time with God, while one day of the week or more, we should gather as a community of believers and give worship as a family before God.
The Gentile “Church” (body of believers) traditionally meets on Sunday, but a church as a body can meet anytime they decide. On Tuesday night, Saturdays, it makes no difference. We gather as a family weekly and give worship, but like I said, individually we should be worshipping God daily. Everyday a believer should set aside time for God.
Conclusion
I know I do not write with much grace, I write more like James in the Bible. Do not believe me, read the Book of James. James is straight to the point and very opinionated according to todays standards. In no way do I want to put you in any bondage to the Spirit of Grace in this article. I only want to show those who feel or still hang tight to legalism or the law, that the Law is limited. Read the Bible, how many times did men think they were keeping the Law only to have Jesus show them their folly? But under Grace, living under the Spirit of God and His guidance, God can show us and teach us so much better. I like this example:
You go for a job and when you complete the interview, you get the job. Then you ask for the “employee handbook.” They give it to you but then say, read it over quickly but you will not be needing it. You look puzzled and they say follow us and they take you to the Owner of the companies office. You sit down and he explains; yes read over the employee handbook but for the greater part you will be working with me personally. I will teach you all the ins and outs of my company. I will show you personally how I like my company run. I will teach you all that you need to know personally. Everyday I will be you working side by side with you.
What do you think is the better way? Sitting down reading a handwritten book or having the owner personally teaching you all that you need to know of His company and his heart.
That my friend is my conclusion to this!
Everyday we can wake up with the Spirit of Grace and be guided by His Spirit and the Word of God – the Bible. This is where He teaches us the most. Yes I do know that “do not steal” is written in the Law, but how many times have I done something like that and the Holy Spirit would ask me if this is how I should conduct myself? For example, the Holy Spirit would convict me of taking extra pens from the bank lobby. How many times has the Spirit of God showed me things in my marriage, or raising my children that is not written in the Law or the Bible?
The Holy Spirit does not contradict the Word of God, rather, the Holy Spirit explains the Word and guides us in following the Word. Living this way, through Grace is a far better way to live! It is a much more intimate and personal way to relate and interact with God. We have a loving God who lives and breathes in our hearts.
Written by Dennis Stauffer
Edited by Gary Green (Omega House)
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