Mixing Law & Grace
Few issues cause more confusion in the church today than mixing the Old Covenant of law with the New Covenant of grace. Some hold that we are justified by grace alone through faith alone. Others insist we must keep the law to be justified. Who is right, and does it really matter if we believe differently? It mattered enough to God that He had the Apostle Paul pronounce a double curse on anyone who mixes law and grace.
In Galatians 1:6-9 Paul wrote: "I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who in His love and mercy called you to share the eternal life He gives through Christ. You are already following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who twist and change the truth concerning Christ. Let God's curse fall on anyone, including myself, who preaches any other message than the one we told you about. Even if an angel comes from heaven and preaches any other message, let him be forever cursed. I will say it again: if anyone preaches any other gospel than the one you welcomed, let God's curse fall upon that person."
Many Christians shrug at this mixture, or simply don't recognize it in their own lives. But our response should match Paul's. He was appalled that the Galatians were blending the Old Covenant with the New. In Galatians 3:1 he wrote: "Oh, foolish Galatians! What magician has cast an evil spell on you?"
Most believers readily agree that they were saved by grace, yet many are still living under the law. They depend on their obedience to earn God's blessing. When they do well, by their own estimation, they expect to be blessed. When they fail or fall short, they expect punishment and carry the weight of shame and guilt. That system is not the New Covenant at all. It is the Old Covenant wearing New Covenant clothing.
God wants to bless us because of what His Son Jesus did for us, not because of what we do for Him. Those who look to their law-keeping for justification still carry an Old Covenant mentality, even while professing they are saved by grace. They have drifted back to a covenant built on works and obedience to the law, rather than resting in the New Covenant built on faith in the New Life.
The Christians who benefit most from understanding God's grace are those who have come to the end of themselves, to the end of their own efforts to live the Christian life. They have tried again and again, until they finally gave up trying and admitted they cannot meet the law's unyielding standard of perfection. Only then do they discover that all of God's standards and Jesus' teachings were meant to be applied to the New Life, His life, that He places within us at salvation. Jesus lives the Christian life through His body of believers.
LIFE LESSON: Mixing law and grace is dangerous. It will keep you living in confusion, and our God is not the author of confusion. It is time to stop the mixture. Choose to live under the Old Covenant of law or the New Covenant of grace, you cannot live under both. You choose! You decide! Don't be a lukewarm Christian by…
MIXING LAW & GRACE
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