A fellow grace believer on the Internet, known only as "Dano," shared with me an article on grace he put together for a Pentecostal friend who insists on adding works to faith for salvation. I'll put a link to the document here so that you can read it at your leisure and rejoice once again in the awesome grace we are offered by God today through the work already accomplished for us by his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!
Frustrating The Grace of God:
The Law in the Gospels
The purpose of this paper is to open and allege, from Scripture itself, that those who claim they believe they are “not under the law but under grace,
have no business turning around and violating the grace principle by also believing the books of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John are instruction in righteousness for the Body of Christ.
Those who disagree, simply because this does not agree with their beliefs and or convictions, might do well to follow Acts 17:11, “searching the Scriptures daily, whether those things are so.”
According to Scripture, the purpose of the Law was “the knowledge (awareness) of sin, (so) that (by that awareness) every mouth might be stopped, and all the might world become (aware of its sinful condition) before (a just and Holy) God.
God having both proven by the law what he’d meant to prove, that all the world is guilty of sin, as well as having provided someone able to keep the law on our behalf – the Lord Jesus Christ - for any believer to then turn around and put either their self or another believer under the law either for their righteousness/ salvation, or as a means of maintaining that righteousness, is said by Scripture itself to “have fallen from grace”
Galatians:
{5:4} Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Galatians
{2:21} I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness [come] by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
{3:1} O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? {3:2} This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? {3:3} Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
In other words, having begun your new life in Christ by what God alone, through His Spirit did for you, declared you righteous the moment you believed Christ died for your sin, placed you in His Son, sealed you there until the day of His redemption of you, His purchased possession, a possession He purchased with His own Son’s blood, are you now going to frustrate God’s grace by somehow adding to it your works (Paul was speaking to saved people).
Romans 3:
{3:19} Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. {3:20} Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law [is] the knowledge of sin. {3:21} But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; {3:22} Even the righteousness of God [which is] by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: {3:23} For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; {3:24} Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
{3:25} Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation
Romans 4:
{4:4} Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. {4:5} But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Let’s take a look at the law in Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, through the eyes of Scripture itself:
Galatians 4:
{4} “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, {5} To redeem them that were under the law.”
According to Scripture itself, Jesus was made under the law, while the Law was still in effect.
Luke
{2:21} And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. {2:22} And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present [him] to the Lord; {2:23} (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) {2:24} And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.
If you’re interested, that law is found in Leviticus 12.
Moving on, we see these people under the law in the soon to be parents of John the Baptist, who was born six months before Jesus (Luke 1:36):
Luke:
{1:5}There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife [was] of the daughters of Aaron, and her name [was] Elisabeth. {1:6} And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
Note Deuteronomy 6 on this:
{6:24} And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as [it is] at this day. {6:25} And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.
Okay, so when did being under the law end for these people in Mathew, Mark Luke and John?
In Mathew 8:2 - 4, the Lord heals a Jew of leprosy. According to Luke 3:23 “Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age” when He began His ministry. Meaning that His healing of this man of leprosy took place some 30 years after Galatians 4:4 says Jesus was made under the law.
Here is that account - note carefully what the Lord then tells this man to do:
{2} And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. {3} And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. {4}And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Mark 1:44’s account of this event adds one more detail, “And (Jesus) saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.”
The Lord’s instruction to this man is straight out of Leviticus 14: 1-7. Verse 5 is the gift Jesus is talking about – an animal sacrifice – while verse 7 is the testimony:
{1}And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, {2}This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest: {3}And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper; {4}Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: {5}And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: {6}As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: {7}And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.
That was Mathew 8, note the how law is still in effect in Mathew 23:
{23:1} Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, {23:2} Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: {23:3} 23:3} All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, [that] observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
That’s right, as far as Mathew 23, in the very same chapter in which He later lays out both the Tribulation and His Second Coming to them, and just three chapters before He dies on the Cross, “to redeem them that were under the law” (Gal 4:4), He is seen still teaching His disciples to obey the law of Moses.
By the way, perhaps you will notice how all that effects the meaning of the Lord’s words to His disciples, in Mathew 24:20’s, But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day,“ during the “great tribulation” (24:21) He had more than once told them they would could expect to be going through prior to His Second Coming (Matt. 10:23, Matt. 24 and 25, Acts 3:19 -24) but for an interruption of events He kept to Himself (Acts 1:7) until He later revealed why to Peter through the Apostle Paul (Gal. 2:1, 2, 9, Rom. 9:22, 24; 2 Peter 3:15, 16).
Anyway, to wrap this up John 1:17’s “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” is a reference to
1 Peter’s the {1:10} “salvation” (which) the prophets (all of which were under the law, had) enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: {1:11} Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
It’s a reference to that truth which would one day replace the law, the old covenant, with a new, prophesied covenant of grace promised to the house of Israel (Jer. 31:31 – 4; Rom. 11:26 – 27; Heb. 8:8 -13), made possible only after Calvary, “the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.”
In short, number one, “if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Two, “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? {3:3} Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”
Problem is, many believers have been taught poorly. As a result, not “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man,” (1 Tim. 1:9) exactly whoGod has made them in Christ – righteous – they do not know that {2:11} “the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, {2:12} Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11, 12), they do not know that God’ has provided, within His grace a teaching for dealing with sin which has nothing to do with the law, which Christ “took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Col. 2:14).
Understanding all this, I recall how that once, once, while sharing the gospel with someone, when I asked him a few questions afterwards, as I normally do, I asked them, “okay, now what happens when you sin?” Being a new believer not yet confused by all the religion out there which merely poses as the grace of God, he simply responded, ‘Well, Christ died for my sin, so that means I’m forgiven.’ Just as quickly, though, he grinned and said, ‘Oh, so that means I can do anything I want…”
At which point God’s way of teaching us – through grace - that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” came to mind.
Right there in Romans {6:1} What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? {6:2} God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? {6:3} Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” {6:14} For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
Together with Galatians 5:16’s “walk in the Spirit and ye shall not obey the lusts of the flesh” and 5:5’s “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” And 5:6’s “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision (a work of the law) availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision (nor not works); but faith which worketh by love” faith motivated by an attitude of gratitude, itself motivated by the love of God, by a focus on both what He did for us in Christ, and what He wants to do in us, in Christ.
Of course, this individual was fortunate. Not full of ideas, he heard out this message about God’s grace principle – His means of enabling us to “walk in newness of life” by that very principle
Something which the law was neither never meant for (Rom. 3:20; 7:7-13), nor ever able to do, in that “the strength of sin is the law” (1 Cor. 15:56).
I’ll end this paper with Acts 17:11, 12, praying that you do this much, where the assertion of this paper is concerned:
{11} These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. {12} Therefore many of them believed.
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