The understanding concerning the difference between Mosaic law and Christian Grace being of the utmost importance, the devil has ensured that subject has been thoroughly confused and darkened behind a mist of religiosity. The bible teaches clearly that Christ has fulfilled the law. But through the backdoor it has been earned again. Others, on the other hand, abuse grace as a pretense for their own aims.
Scripture itself states: "You are saved by grace through faith and that not out of you; it is the gift of God." Luther unearthed that clearly. We cannot save ourselves through our good works. One sin is sufficient to precipitate you into hell, for God is totally holy and cannot have anything to do with sin. It is therefore not at all a concern of the great outweighing the bad. We're sinners to the bone and need the grace of Christ. We can only be saved by virtue of His sacrifice on the cross of Calvary.
Abraham was not under the law of Sinai. He was under God's mercy, a grace within view of Grace following the Cross. David understood that there surely is a higher law, the one of grace, when he pronounced that "blessed is the person whose sins have now been forgiven, whose transgressions have now been atoned for." He was twice guilty of death under Mosaic law, but the Spirit of God gave him a vision of God's Love.
Israel was under the law by their own choice. "All that God demands, we will do." Mosaic law was never imposed upon the heathen. In case a gentile wished to approach God, he had to become Jewish. The temple was meant to be always a light for the nations, but the Jews--certainly in the full time of Jesus--wanted to keep it for themselves.
The negative side of the law was that it only exposed sin like a light uncovers vermin. Mosaic law does not save. All of the sacrifices earned ancient times were but pictures of Christ's sacrifice. "The blood of goats and rams does not atone." The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, calls the items of the law simply "the principles of the world" ;.All philosophies and man-made theologies are kinds of law. And the proponents themselves couldn't keep them in a consequent fashion.
The positive side of Mosaic law was that it gave one wisdom, knowledge and insight and up till today, somewhat, the moral laws of for example Leviticus 18 remain binding; minus the punishment of death of course on adultery, homosexual practices and other sins.
The apostle Paul writes in chapter 8 of the epistle to the Romans: "Regulations of the spirit of the life in Christ Jesus has saved me from the law of sin and death." Grace, then, is its law, the law of Christ. For "Regulations came through Moses, but grace and truth through Jesus Christ" ;.Regulations of Moses may be the harbinger of sin and death. It provokes to sin and its judgment is death. It proclaims: "Cursed is he that does not stay in most that is written in the law." Certainly, so far as Mosaic law is worried, we're all accursed and doomed for eternity. Alone already due to the tenth commandment. The entire world thinks: "It's OK to consider the menu, provided that you eat at home." But when you are angry along with your fellow man, then you definitely have previously murdered him in your heart, as Jesus explains in the Sermon on the Mount.
So far as the concept is worried any particular one must first become proven to oneself through the law of Moses and then, hopefully, find grace; that goes too far. The murderer on the cross got converted simply by witnessing Christ Himself. Personal injury One must go straight to Christ as soon as possible, not via a (long) way of gloom and doom. That is actually the message to the Galatians. Actually, Paul states, if you want to keep the law (also in addition to grace) then you definitely preach another gospel and you bring yourself not merely under the curse of the law, but in addition under the curse of Christ. (That does however not show that everybody that believes this, is lost. But definitely are, because their theology prevents them from true conversion ((which in a way they confirm themselves))... )
Christ is exactly the same Person, both in the O.T. as in the N.T. So He was for Abraham and Enoch before that. Abraham, Jesus said, looked for His glorious Day and for the City built without hands and he found it. Nevertheless the Israelites, in their pride and false self-assurance, boldly proclaimed that they would fulfill God's holy demands. They fell from grace, because it were. Paul warns and convicts the Galatians of the same thing. He points them the best way to the fruit of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, forbearing with emotions, usefulness, goodness, faith, humbleness, temperance. Against such things there's no law, but those of Christ have crucified the flesh (that may be the 'old man, the initial Adam') with the passions and (wrong) desires." Elsewhere he states: "Love may be the bond of most laws" ;.Combined this holds out for people that after we've the love of Christ in our hearts we fulfill all laws and nothing can be held against us. Of course this was primarily true of Jesus Himself, but we could study on Him.
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