Law and Grace

August 13, 2014

Law and Grace

“Everyone who believes in (Jesus) is declared right with God—something the law of Moses could never do.”

Acts 13:39

There has always been a bit of a conundrum for the Christian in achieving a Godly balance between law and grace. For some, the appeal of grace made the law irrelevant. Saint Paul addressed this issue in his letter to the Romans: “What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?” (Romans 6:1-2 NRSV). Yet in the account of his preaching in Antioch, Paul said that through this man Jesus, there is forgiveness for your sins . . . something the law of Moses could never do. If the law cannot make us right with God, if the law cannot provide for the forgiveness of our sins, where does it fit into our life in Christ?

The story of the healing of General Naaman in 2 Kings 5 provides us some insight to this question. Naaman was the commander of the armies of the king of Aram. “But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy” (2 Kings 5:1b). Naaman went to Israel and asked the prophet Elisha to heal him. Elisha instructed Naaman to wash himself in the Jordan River seven times. “And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed!” (2 Kings 5:14b). In response to his healing, Naaman pledged, “From now on I will never again offer burnt offerings or sacrifices to any other god except the Lord” Naaman then made this request to Elisha, “However, may the Lord pardon me in this one thing: When my master the king goes into the temple of the god Rimmon to worship there and leans on my arm, may the Lord pardon me when I bow, too” (2 Kings 5:17b-18).

The law gave Naaman the awareness of his sin: “You must not have any other god but me” (Exodus 20:3). Because of his desire to worship only the Lord, his awareness led him to seek forgiveness when he sinned. That’s the balance between law and grace. Grace makes us right with God; law keeps us ever close to God’s throne of grace.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.