Book 3 of Musings The Law and Grace

The Ten Commandments are a reflection of the eternal moral law of God.

Under grace we no longer are obligated to observe the Ten Commandments, but we are obligated to observe the eternal moral law of God. The difference between the two covenants is not that now we are free to sin. The difference is in how we go about keeping the law of God.

This is another subject that I have written a great deal about. I am referring to the transition from the Law of Moses to the grace of the new covenant. I am not certain the transition is clear in the minds of God's people: "Are we under any part of the Law of Moses? If we are, what part? If not, what do we do about the Sabbath day? What about adultery? How come we can't commit adultery if we are not under the Ten Commandments?

And if we are under the Law, how come we don't stop working on Saturday, for it is evident that Saturday is the seventh day of the week?"

If there has been a clear answer to these questions I have not heard it. Have you?

As I lay in bed last night the transition seemed clear to me, so I thought I had better write it down. It might be a help to someone. Then the thought occurred to me that perhaps the transition could be set forth in a series of questions and answers-questions that a believer might have.

First of all, are we bound by any part of the Law of Moses, including the Ten Commandments? The answer is, no, we are not under any part of the Law of Moses whatever.

We know we are not supposed to offer animals to make an atonement for our sin, and animal sacrifice is a primary part of the Law of Moses. We have no scriptural or logical basis for maintaining we are under one aspect of the Law of Moses and not another.

So let's have done with the Law of Moses once and for all. As soon as we count ourselves crucified with Christ and risen with Him, the Law has no authority over us. The Law has authority over us only as long as we are alive. The Law has no authority over the Lord Jesus Christ or anyone who has died and been raised with Him.

Let us assume this is true, that we have no more to do with the Law of Moses. Let us think about the consequences of our position.

On what basis are we righteous if we do not observe the Law? We are righteous because the Lord Jesus Christ kept the Law perfectly. Because He suffered and died for sin that He Himself did not commit, He is permitted in the justice of God to transfer to us His own righteousness-the righteousness of Him who kept the Law perfectly.

When we place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we are as righteous as though we have kept the Law of Moses perfectly. The Bible refers to this righteousness as imputed righteousness. We do not have to worry about the Law from now on because by imputation we have kept the Law perfectly.

Make certain this is absolutely clear to you before we proceed.

Can you see that any attempt we make to keep the Law is superfluous? In Christ we already have kept the Law perfectly.

Now we are faced with the problem of the Sabbath, with adultery, with stealing, and so forth. If we have been completely justified by our faith in Christ, are we free to practice immorality?

This is a terrible question in our day, and a wrong answer is being given. The answer being given is that we ought to stop sinning, but if we do not we are protected by "grace." The hastiest review of the New Testament will reveal that if we, as a believer in Christ, continue to sin, we are going to experience spiritual death. We shall reap destruction in the Day of Resurrection.

The prohibitions of the Ten Commandments are part of the eternal moral law of God. They are the same from eternity to eternity, because they are what God Himself Is. Any change in them would be a change in God Himself and the very worst of all possible calamities. We then would have no hope for the future.

You may point out to me that on the one hand I am saying we are free from the Law, and on the other hand I am saying we have to live according to the prohibitions of the Law. This seeming discrepancy may be at the heart of the confusion concerning the transition from the Law of Moses to the grace of Jesus Christ.

How are these two facts reconciled? If we have to keep the Ten Commandments, and yet don't have to keep the Ten Commandments, what are we talking about?

Notice that I have reduced the Law of Moses to the Ten Commandments. I have not mentioned the other ordinances, such as the kosher dietary laws, because these are not part of the moral nature of God. They were a covenant that applied to the Jews before the Lord Jesus came. We understand from the vision given to the Apostle Peter, revealing to him that there no longer is unclean food.

So by saying we have to keep the Ten Commandments, and do not have to keep the Ten Commandments, we are not including the other ordinances that are part of the Law of Moses.

Let's think for a moment about the Ten Commandments, the moral imperatives of the Law of Moses.

We are to have no gods other than the Lord
We are not to make idols.
We are not to misuse God's name.
We are to keep the Sabbath day holy.
We are to honor our father and mother.
We are not to commit murder.
We are not to commit adultery.
We are not to steal.
We are not to give false testimony.
We are not to covet anything that belongs to our neighbor.

Now I have said when we place our faith in Jesus Christ it is as though we have kept every one of these prohibitions perfectly. We now have the righteousness of the Law ascribed to us.

But are we to have gods other than the Lord? We American Christians have numerous gods other than the Lord, such as people we worship, money, sexual lust, drunkenness, violence, entertainment, professional sports, and so forth. We honor these god and spend our time, strength, and money on them.

Are we to misuse God's name? Christians often do.
How about the Sabbath day? I will deal with this later because of its unique importance.
Are we to murder, commit adultery, honor dishonor our father and mother, steal, give false testimony, covet?
The Apostle Paul wrote that if we are covetous we shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.
We are under the Law but not under the Law. What is the answer?

The answer is found, not in doing away with the Law, but in how we keep the Law.

The Law was to be kept by Jews who had not been born again; who did not have the Holy Spirit living in them as we do. They did not have the body and blood of Christ to strengthen them. Their sins had not been forgiven on the cross.

The Jews had to keep the Law by will power. They had to learn the prohibitions and directives and observe them carefully.

As Paul pointed out, this was extremely difficult. Yet as we read the Old Testament we see that numerous Jews delighted in the Law and practiced the commandments.

We Christians have gone too far in declaring everyone is a hopeless sinner. This is not true. In fact, most of the sins we Christian commit we could stop if we wanted to. It is not often that we have such a bondage we cannot confess it and turn away from it. But even in this case we can gain deliverance through the prayers of the saints, once we are certain we want to gain victory over the particular behavior.

Our teaching in this regard is incorrect. The Christian churches in America could gain victory over most of the sins they commit if they were exhorted to do so.

In fact, God is insisting that the Christians in America repent and cease their sinning. If we do not, our nation is going to be judged severely.

As we said, the Jews did not have the grace that has been given to us. They had to keep the commandments by will power.

What about us Christians? We no longer are to refer to the Ten Commandments. We turn to the New Testament and obey the commandments of Christ and His Apostles.

How many times did the Lord Jesus tell us to keep His commandments? His commandments continued to be given through His Apostles. In fact, the Great Commission is to make disciples and tell them to keep Christ's commandments. Isn't that so?

How far we have drifted from the New Testament!

So we are not under the Law as such. It is the approach that is different. The change from the old covenant to the new covenant is in the approach to the eternal moral law of God. The moral law never changes. But the approach is different enough that we can say we no longer are under the Law of Moses.

The approach to moral behavior under grace is different from the approach under the Law of Moses.

As we stated previously, the Jew had to learn the precepts and obey them through will power.

We Christians start off in much the same way. We have to read the commandments found in the New Testament and obey them. But we have grace that helps us-grace the Jews did not have.

First, our conscience is clear. Our sins have been forgiven.

Second, we have been born again. Christ has been born in us, and we are given His flesh and His blood to drink.

Third, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

Fourth, we can go directly into the Holy of Holies to obtain strength to help us resist sin.

The Jews under the Law of Moses did not have these four elements of Divine grace to enable them to refrain from transgressing the moral law.

However keeping the commandments found in the New Testament is not the new covenant. But let us emphasize that we will not make any progress into the actual new covenant unless we begin to read the New Testament and obey the commandments of Christ and His Apostles.

I think this is why Satan has pressed so hard to convince Christians that they do not have to keep the New Testament commandments in order to be saved. Satan knows that believers who are continuing to sin are not accepted by the Lord.

Now we come to the part of grace that actually is the new covenant, the aspect that has no counterpart in the Law of Moses.

The foundation of the new covenant is our death and resurrection in Christ.

When we are baptized in water we are testifying that we have taken our place on the cross with Jesus Christ. We take this position by faith. We also declare that we have risen from the dead with Christ and have ascended with Him to the right hand of God. We declare these two positions to be a fact.

Now, do we feel any different? Perhaps not. But we have established our position once and for all.

Now what happens?

God begins to make our crucifixion and resurrection an experience in our life.

We learn from Paul that we have a sinful nature. I don't see anywhere in the Old Testament that a sinful nature was discussed at length and emphasized as it is in the New Testament. Under the new covenant the fact of the sinful nature becomes all important We come to understand under the new covenant it is not primarily a matter of not committing murder or adultery, or honoring our father and mother. Rather the emphasis is on the destruction of the sinful nature.

You can see from how infinitely superior the new covenant is. Actually, the new covenant, while it includes the forgiveness of our sins, consists of engraving the eternal moral law of God on our mind and on our heart. This is another way of saying Christ, the Word of God, is formed in us.

The new covenant consists of at least six major elements:
The complete removal of the guilt of our sins.
The complete removal of our sinful nature.
The forming of Christ in us.
The abiding of the Holy Spirit in us for eternity.
The abiding of the Father and the Son in us for eternity.

The resurrection of our flesh and bones and the clothing of them with a body from Heaven that has been fashioned from incorruptible resurrection life.

The end result of the process of redemption is a new creation in which all the old has passed away and has been replaced with that which is of God.

We see, therefore, that we have to begin our Christian walk by obeying the commandments of Christ and His Apostles. Some of these are the same commandments found in the Law of Moses, such as the New Testament warnings about the consequences of immoral behavior. But other directives of the New Testament are commandments not found in the Law, such as denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Jesus every day. Also, the commandment to present our body a living sacrifice.

As we diligently observe all that Christ and His Apostles have commanded, praying without ceasing as we seek to do God's will in every detail, the actual work of the new covenant begins to take place. The Day Star arises in our heart. The Nature of Christ in us helps us live according to the moral law.

Under the new covenant the old nature is destroyed and the new nature comes into existence. Can you see why the Law of Moses no longer is applicable, once we deem ourselves crucified, risen, and ascended with Christ?

I said I would discuss the Sabbath day separately because of its unique importance.

The holiness of the Sabbath day goes back to the seventh day of creation, the day on which God rested from all His work.

Under the Law of Moses the Jews were commanded to not do any work on the Sabbath.

Under the new covenant, however, the Sabbath commandment goes to the heart of God's intention concerning man.

God has two main intentions concerning man. First, that man be fashioned into the moral image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, that man find his place in untroubled rest in the heart of God, where the Lord Jesus always dwells.

The second intention is the meaning of the Sabbath. It is that we cease from our own works and enter that rest of God which dates back to the beginning of the creation.

The Lord Jesus Christ always lives in the Sabbath rest of God. When the Lord expressed His desire that we be with Him where He is, He was not referring to Heaven as a place. Christ was referring to His rest in the center of God's Person and will.

When Christ said He did nothing apart from the Father, that it was, and always is, His Father who does the works, Christ was telling us that He was living eternally in the Sabbath rest of God.

How wonderful, how utterly marvelous, to come to the place where we are not pursuing our own ambitions but are seeking that place in God where we are doing only that which God has planned for us from the beginning of the world. We have to labor to enter that rest, because so many forces motivate us to seek our own way, our own betterment.

The Ten Commandments speak of the moral image of the Lord Jesus. The fourth commandment does not refer to the moral image of Christ but to His, and our, rest in God's Person and will.

This the Jews could not countenance. Even though the Lord Jesus, moving in the Sabbath of God, healed an afflicted person, the Jews could see only the seeming violation of the letter of the fourth commandment. As the Holy Spirit exclaimed in Stephen, the Jews could not grasp God's ways. They could not understand God always would rejoice over the healing of an afflicted person, whether the individual was healed on Friday or Saturday.

I hope I have added some clarity to the issue of the transition from the Law of Moses to the grace found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me answer one more question that might arise, and then I am through.

Think about the following verse.

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

Now, the current interpretation of this verse might be that since we are under grace, nothing we do is counted as being actually sinful. Grace covers our sin, so we can forget about the guilt imposed by the Law of Moses.

Even though the other verses in the sixth chapter of Romans would reveal that this could not be what Paul meant, let's think about what it does mean.

First of all, the expression "sin shall not be your master" fits what Paul went on to say in the seventh chapter. Under the Law of Moses, Paul was convicted of his covetousness. The Law did not help Paul, it brought his sinful nature to life. Sin was Paul's relentless master.

But how does grace keep sin from being our master. Certainly not by excusing our conduct perpetually. This would contradict the whole sixth chapter of the Book of Romans.

Grace keeps sin from being our master by:

Forgiving our transgressions completely so our conscience is clear.

Giving us the power, through the Holy Spirit, to confess the works of our sinful nature and to put them to death.

Forming Christ in us.

All the Law can do is to point out our sin, then provide atonement through animal sacrifice. Now that there is no temple, those under the Law do not have even the provision of atonement through animal sacrifice.

New-covenant grace, however, brings to us the Life of God through the Lord Jesus Christ so we can be forgiven and then overcome the lusts of our sinful nature.

Sin can master us under the Law of Moses, but grace gives us the power of God in Christ so we can throw off the mastery of sin.

Does this make sense to you?

I hope so. I see no reason why the Christian churches should be confused over the transition from the Law of Moses to the grace given us through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The eternal moral law of God always must be obeyed, whether under the Law of Moses or under the grace of the new covenant.

The difference is in the approach, and in the Divine power that is available to us through Jesus Christ.

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)