Sin Law and Grace

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In this important interlude, I will attempt to deal briefly with the subject of sin, Law and grace. These are very extensive subjects and I will try to get the balance right especially as I am attempting to be concise.

Sin 
I have attempted to define sin as: ‘living a life less than the one God has planned for us’. The bible’s way of saying this is: 
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

Here is a little more biblical detail describing what sin is: 
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4) 
everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23) 
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
(James 4:17)  

From this we can deduce that sin has 3 aspects: 

  1. living without divine rules, 
  2. making choices from unbelief 
  3. not living with a clear conscience. 
What I want to emphasise is that God’s work in us is bespoke – it reflects our spiritual maturity, personality and situation in life. This is a consequence of all being on the Narrow or Difficult Way at different stages (see Matthew 7:13-14). This does not mean that God is happy with lower standards for some of us. It is the principle that more is expected of those who have greater faith and maturity (see for instance the parable of the minas in Luke 19:11-27). 

barrier

It is good to maintain the perspective of how sin affects our connection with God. An exciting event to look forward to this year (2021) for astronomy enthusiasts is the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. This is due to take over from the Hubble Telescope and it is much larger. It will reveal yet more secrets of God's amazing universe. But if you see pictures of it being worked on, all the engineers are suited and masked to prevent contamination. But the contamination is the other way round: it is to prevent contamination of the purity of the telescope - the telescope must be protected from people. 

The bible gives instances of people having a glimpse of God but never coming close. Sin is contamination and God cannot be exposed to it - there is a barrier between us (I will look into this more in other parts of the website). Jesus has made a way for us to be accepted by God through faith. But in this present life, because of sin, we do not yet see him face to face. This not only increases our reverence and fear of God, but also inspires praise as we are astounded by God's love to us in Christ: 
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Law

The Law that Paul refers to in his letters can be described as: “the 613 commandments of the Jewish Law in the Old Testament”. These laws can be divided into three different types of commandments: ceremonial laws (which governed the Temple and its sacrifices), civil laws (which determined how they should live together in their own land) and moral laws (which deal with relationships). If you study all 613, you will notice that they specifically separated the people of God from the surrounding nations in the way they should behave. The laws would enable them to be a strong, healthy people.

As the church became established, they came to see that the requirement to keep every single one of these detailed laws ended. The Jewish people had failed to keep them. It was understood that Christ, as the only one who kept the law completely, did so on our behalf. This achievement was imputed to us through faith in him. However, this did not remove the requirement to live by the divine moral laws of love. 

We understand that the moral laws were configured specifically by God for the benefit of all humanity. It is not that they were specifically religious laws only for believing people. They are constructed to help us express genuine love to one another which is why this part of the Law has not been abolished. We see them particularly expressed in the 10 commandments. 

Grace

Grace means 'undeserved favour' from God (God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense). Grace was not something which the Law offered: the law demanded that you obey every single commandment or you had failed. Inflexible law is what makes religion what it is. But although God’s Old Testament people failed this religious test, they did find mercy – that is God overlooking and forgiving their failings to give them another chance. This happened many times until they finally rejected Christ as their Messiah.

God's benevolent expression of mercy became, through the gospel, the proactive understanding of grace. Grace adds so much more to mercy. Grace encompasses all the good things which God does in us. These things are necessary to create a redeemed humanity who can populate the New Earth. Grace brings righteousness through faith, redemption through Christ’s blood and the removal of God’s anger through propitiation. It encompasses the giving of spiritual gifts for ministry, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the intercessions of Christ as High Priest, the trials that perfect our faith, and the presence of God living within our hearts. Here it is explained in Romans: 
and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement (propitiation), through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:24-26) 

apportioned

I have heard it said that grace is not a thing, it is only God's attitude towards us. But grace can be measured, and increase as seen here: 
But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.’ (James 4:6) 
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. (Ephesians 4:7)

Sadly, God’s grace can easily be perverted by those with compromised consciences: 
For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a licence for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. (Jude 1:4) 

true grace

Here are a few more thoughts on grace from Christian writers. First of all, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (the famous German martyr of World War II) helps us appreciate what grace is not. He coined the phrase ‘cheap grace’ and defined it as follows: 

“That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs.” (where there is no moral change in the person – they are not being renewed in their humanity)
“ Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves” (which amounts to ‘confessing the power of grace’ without being changed in character).
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate”

And from Peter Saunders:

“The current misunderstanding about grace amongst evangelicals results from a lack of understanding of the true nature of repentance and faith. Furthermore, this misunderstanding of the true nature of repentance and faith is built on a failure to appreciate the holiness of God, seriousness of sin and the necessity of judgement.” 

The bible speaks of growing in grace as its effect increases positively in us: 
But grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3.18) 

Bishop J C Ryle reckoned these are the signs of growing in grace (from his book 'Holiness'): 

types

There are different types of grace: 
Common Grace 
Common Grace is God’s goodness to all humans whether Christians or not. It manifests itself in many forms. The world in which we live would not work without this grace. It includes environmental factors which make our planet habitable. It probably even includes simple human communication such as smiling!

Jesus spoke of Common Grace in this way: 
‘(God the Father) makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.’ (Matthew 5.45)

Other aspects to it are God’s gift of marriage and the family which leads to stable communities and societies. There is the complementarity of men and women. When men and women work together there is human benefit. It is well-known for instance that life outcomes are much improved through stable marriage. And children too have much better outcomes in life when brought up in a family with their own parents who are married.

Also the rule of law enables communities to live in peace and reduce the damage of self-interest or rule by the ruthless: 
‘there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God’ (Romans 13.1)

The Puritan writer, John Owen, introduces two other aspects of grace: 
Restraining Grace
This is an interesting observation. In some ways it ties in with Government Laws which are designed to reduce bad behaviour and so restrain the destructiveness of sin. Civic laws do not remove sin, they only restrain it. Only the work of grace in us by the Holy Spirit will remove the power of sinning. But if civic society breaks down, then sin will rise up destructively again.

It could also encompass social stigma towards certain sinful behaviours. The change in attitude to drink-driving is an example. There is fear too: if we are fearful of being caught doing a particular thing, then its expression may well be restrained in us – restrained but not removed. Fear of Hell may be a restraining influence as well.

Renewing Grace 
This is only experienced by the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Not only is sin restrained but it is methodically ‘mortified’ (that is ‘put to death’ to use the traditional word). The Spirit changes our heart towards sin in that it is first hated and then dealt with. This was the experience of David in Psalm 51. It is what Jesus referred to in his teaching: 
‘and does not … hate his own life … he cannot be my disciple’ (Luke 14.26)

Renewing grace is motivated by the fear of God. This healthy fear produces a loving, spiritual response to becoming holy; in this it differs from the fear of Hell; although the two fears are connected as Jesus taught: 
‘fear him (that is God) who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.’ (Matthew 10.28)

The fear of the Lord operates through love and produces a healthy knowledge of personal sin: 
‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction’ (Proverbs 1.7)

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