Law vs. Grace

At first glance it does seem that law and grace are opposed. And even the bible seems to be divided into two books the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The Old Testament and especially the first five books are all about law. About how God expects righteousness from everyone. In fact God gives man the Ten Commandments in this section of the bible. Surely this means that God expects man to live up to the Ten commandments in an effort to please Him. Right?

Well if you take the Bible as a whole you begin to understand that The Ten Commandments were never given as a way to please God. They were given as a way to show man that he does not and can not measure up to the standards of a loving and righteous God.

Sound hopeless? It is hopeless to think that we can keep the Ten Commandments and Jesus showed us that in his teaching that "If a man hates it is the same as murder in the site of God." Think about it, if you want to live under the Law then a white lie has the same penalty as murder!

It is pretty obvious that it is mans pride that makes him think he can keep the Law!

Forget about the "old it means strive for perfection" try that in a court of law. Grin!

The Good News is that the law makes us realize our need for God! It is the righteousness of God's Son that makes us acceptable in Gods view, not anything we have done.
Ephesians 2:8

because of that we can concentrate on doing what God put us here on Earth for instead of being under the burden of striving for something just out of reach.

God loves his creation and wants us to be free and productive for Him. We do not need to worry about genes, heredity, sexuality or environment we just need to learn about who we are in God and let Him lead show us what is best for us.

Love.

Pastor Chris