As a born gentile turned Messianic one of the most common statements brought up is "You're putting yourself under the Law and not Grace!" Or some variation of it. This morning it was "Are you under Law or Grace?" I answered Grace, as it's entirely accurate. Sola Gratia, but immediately got to thinking about it. While I was entirely accurate was I presenting a false idea to the one who asked me since her idea of the Law is different than my own? After all, while my answer was accurate, even to us both, the question was entirely different in context! So I felt it was time to elaborate upon such a statement and fully explain my answer and why this question may not be so simple for both sides of the discussion.
The question comes from a number of places in the bible which speak of Law and Grace, but are read with a mindset apart from the original audience. I hope to show that the scriptures in fact teach the opposite of what many are taught to see within them, and to show that Grace by no means removes obedience to the Law, further explaining what is going on.
The question is mostly directed off of one primary verse in scripture, Romans 6:14. The NASB reads, For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. And thus begins the questions. What exactly does 'Under Law' mean in in this reference? What is it to be 'Under Grace'? Context is key, as it always is with scripture. So let's look at the whole paragraph first, Romans 6:12-24, Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting [g]the members of your body to sin as [h]instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as [i]instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. We can then clearly make out that to be 'under law' is to be more accurately under the curse of sin. Not that being under God's Law is the issue. The CJB reads instead, Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal bodies, so that it makes you obey its desires; 13 and do not offer any part of yourselves to sin as an instrument for wickedness. On the contrary, offer yourselves to God as people alive from the dead, and your various parts to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will not have authority over you; because you are not under legalism but under grace. Removing the idea altogether that it is the Law that is the issue. And of course the very next verse fixes such a concept anyways, no matter your translation, Romans 6:15 says in the CJB, Therefore, what conclusion should we reach? “Let’s go on sinning, because we’re not under legalism but under grace”? Heaven forbid! That Grace is by no means a reason to dismiss the Law of Yahweh! It is by no means an excuse to sin.
Hebrews 10:26 goes so far as to say, For if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, That if we use Grace as an excuse to sin, to do things we know are sin, we do not even receive that very Grace! To continue to willfully sin as a Believer is inexcusable. John 14:23 reads, Yeshua answered him, “If someone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Someone who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words — and the word you are hearing is not my own but that of the Father who sent me. Wow, Yeshua himself states that if we do not seek to keep his commands we don't love him! That's a pretty big deal to any believer. This makes the Grace vs. Law discussion a very big deal for everyone to then understand when discussing it. How then do we understand those commands, what makes sin that Grace does not excuse? 1 John 3:4 tells us, Everyone who keeps sinning is violating Torah — indeed, sin is violation of Torah. The Law of God is how we know sin, and Grace does not excuse sin, thus Grace does not remove the Law of God. Further showing us that the concept of being under law as an opposition to under grace simply does not comply to what the scripture is saying; but that the difference is a slave to sin over set free in Yah's ways.
We see this elaborated further in the remainder of Romans 6, verses 16-23, Don’t you know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, then, of the one whom you are obeying, you are slaves — whether of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to being made righteous? 17 By God’s grace, you, who were once slaves to sin, obeyed from your heart the pattern of teaching to which you were exposed; 18 and after you had been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 19 (I am using popular language because your human nature is so weak.) For just as you used to offer your various parts as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led to more lawlessness; so now offer your various parts as slaves to righteousness, which leads to being made holy, set apart for God. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relationship to righteousness; 21 but what benefit did you derive from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end result of those things was death. 22 However, now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you do get the benefit — it consists in being made holy, set apart for God, and its end result is eternal life. 23 For what one earns from sin is death; but eternal life is what one receives as a free gift from God, in union with the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord. Showing us that indeed it is a matter of either being enslaved to sin, condemned by the Law which points out what is sin, or enslaved to Righteousness, to receive Grace in following Yeshua. In which we are to be made Holy, which comes partially from the Holy Spirit helping us to obey God's Law. Ezekiel 36:27 makes this clear, I will put my Spirit inside you and cause you to live by my laws, respect my rulings and obey them. If we are following the Holy Spirit, he is leading us to Obey the commands of God, not leading us away from them. Grace does not then remove those commands.
So what then is it to be under grace if the law remains? What then is it to be Free when we have been taught that the Law was a heavy yoke? In Matthew 11:30, For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light, Yeshua himself shows us the error in such thinking. To follow the Law is easy, a light burden, and freedom from sin. The Law is a blessing. But the Law was never meant for salvation! The law was never the complete plan for salvation!
Instead the Law is very much a way to show our appreciation to Yahweh for our salvation through Yeshua. Never the means to that salvation. All of Hebrews 11 shows us this (Linked for shorter form). Salvation has always come through faith in the Messiah, be that a a faith for the future Messiah before Yeshua's crucifixion or the faith in the Messiah who has come after the crucifixion. As everyone's favorite verses say, Ephesians 2:8-9, For you have been delivered by grace through trusting, and even this is not your accomplishment but God’s gift. 9 You were not delivered by your own actions; therefore no one should boast. It is by Grace Alone that we are saved. Not by following or not following the Torah. But that very grace is not a reason against the Law of God!
James 2:10-11 says, For a person who keeps the whole Torah, yet stumbles at one point, has become guilty of breaking them all. 11 For the One who said, “Don’t commit adultery,”[b] also said, “Don’t murder.”[c] Now, if you don’t commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the Torah. Showing us that to sin once is to be guilty of breaking the law of God. Many will use this verse to say that if we are putting ourselves 'under the law' we will be judged in this manner but that is not at all what James is saying. He is making it clear that even a single sin is what separates us from Adonai. In which we can all agree that this is why Grace is necessary! Nobody can follow the entirety of God's Laws perfectly, but we can follow the Holy Spirit in an effort of obedience out of love for Yeshua. We all fail, and this is why we need Grace, Yahweh's free gift to us. something none of us deserve nor can earn. James does continue however, again showing us that that very grace is not excuse to sin, to break God's Law or dismiss it, James 2:14-19, What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such “faith” able to save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, 16 and someone says to him, “Shalom! Keep warm and eat hearty!” without giving him what he needs, what good does it do? 17 Thus, faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead. 18 But someone will say that you have faith and I have actions. Show me this faith of yours without the actions, and I will show you my faith by my actions! 19 You believe that “God is one”?[d] Good for you! The demons believe it too — the thought makes them shudder with fear! The grace we receive is by a faith that saves, and a faith that saves produces works. This is not works For salvation but works Because of Salvation. Likewise the Law does not Surpass Grace for Salvation but the Law is obeyed Because we have received Grace, and further received the Holy Spirit to help us obey that Law.
To return then to the basic question presented this morning, "Are you under Law or Grace?" I am wholeheartedly, entirely, unabashedly under the Grace of my Lord and Savior. I would have it no other way! I am eternally grateful for his amazing gift of salvation that I could never deserve. By his Grace alone can I face him upon the Day of Atonement and see Yeshua stand for me and give me a robe of white. It is because of this very grace that I make an effort to obey my Elohim's commands out of my love for him and my gratitude for all that he has done for me and will continue to do for me and through me. It is because of his Amazing Grace that I seek to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to follow the will of Yahweh and obey his instructions, laid down so many years ago for all his believers.
In closing, I repeats Romans 6:15, Therefore, what conclusion should we reach? “Let’s go on sinning, because we’re not under legalism but under grace”? Heaven forbid!
