GRACE - 2

WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO

In a very good attempt to understand the power and the importance of Grace, we shall consider by contradiction what the law could not do. Since the law is the sponsor of works. We sometime interchange the word “law” to mean “works” and to mean the opposite of “Grace”

This is because the law requires your good and righteous works in order for you to be justified, while Grace does not. Grace is a free thing.

Paul said in Romans 8 “For WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”

Now, when we talk of “law”, we do refer to the laws given by Moses and all DOs and DONTs that is required for salvation or justification.

See how John puts it…

“For the law was given by Moses, but Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”

Renowned teacher, Pastor Joseph Prince once emphasized on the presence of “Truth” on the side of Grace in the passage above, and I will also like to point further that “truth” was not just on the other side of the law but also that the law has no partner. This is because the AIM of the law was to bring us to the need for Grace.

So what the law could not do is exactly what Grace has done for you and me, defeating sin and justifying us without any of our righteous works.

See how Paul puts it in Galatians 3:24, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith”

You see that?

So the law does not have any good to offer mankind. It was mainly given to mankind, in order for us to acknowledge our weaknesses and our need for Grace. What we need is Grace, but we will not appreciate Grace if we were not first given the law. So Paul said; the law was our school master.

Other versions said…

“So the law was put in charge TO LEAD US to Christ that we might be justified by faith” NIV

“So the law served [to us Jews] AS OUR TRAINER [our Guardian, our guide to Christ, to lead us] until Christ [came], that we might be justified declared righteous, put in right standing with God, by and through faith.” AMP

You see that? (KJV) said the law was our SCHOOL MASTER, (AMP) made it clearer that the law was our TRAINER, and then the (NIV) explains it all by saying that the law was given to LEAD US TO Christ (Grace).

Below are few SHORTCOMINGS and INADEQUACIES of the law;

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•   The law is an unbearable yoke. (Acts 15:10)
• ·         The law reveals sin but cannot fix it. (Romans 3:20)
• ·         The law brings wrath upon those who follow it. (Romans 4:15)
• ·         The purpose of the law was to increase sin. (Romans 5:20)
• ·         The law which promises life only brings death through sin. (Romans 7:10)
• ·         The law makes you sinful beyond measure. (Romans 7:13)
• ·         The law is weak. (Romans 8:2-3)
• ·         The strength of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56)
• ·         The law has as a ministry called the ministry of death. (2 Corinthians 3:7 - verses 7-11 are an explicit reference to the Ten Commandments)
• ·         The law is a ministry of condemnation. (2 Corinthians 3:9)
• ·         The law has no glory at all in comparison with the New Covenant. (2 Corinthians 3:10)
• ·         The law has faded away. (2 Corinthians 3:11)
• ·         Anywhere the law is preached it produces a mind-hardening and a heart-hardening veil. (2 Corinthians 3:14-15)
• ·         The law justifies nobody. (Galatians 2:16)
• ·         The law curses all who practice it and fail to do it perfectly. (Galatians 3:10)
• ·         The law functioned in God’s purpose as a temporary covenant from Moses till John the Baptist announced Christ. (Galatians 3:16 & 19, also see… Matthew 11:12-13, Luke 16:16)
• ·         If the law worked, God would have used it to save us. (Galatians 3:21)
• ·         The law was our prisoner. (Galatians 3:23)
• ·         The law makes you a slave like Hagar. (Galatians 4:24)
• ·         The law is weak, useless and makes nothing perfect. (Hebrews 7:18-19)
• ·         God has found fault with it and created a better covenant, enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:7-8)
• ·         It is obsolete. (Hebrews 8:13)
• ·         It is only a shadow of good things to come and will never make you perfect. (Hebrews 10:1)
• ·         Although the law is good, perfect and holy but cannot help you be good, perfect or holy. (Romans 7:7-12)
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When you consider all these things above, you will agree that the law is not the plan of God for man.

God’s desire is not for his people to be ruled by the Law which has no good thing to offer, it has been producing worse results than when it does not exist. When there was no law, there was no sin. The entrance of the law gave sin more power, although sin was already in the world. The law was the sponsor of sin, it published sin the more.

This however does not mean that the law is bad. The law is perfect and good as said above, but it does not make its doers perfect and good.

So what the law could not do is what Grace has done.

Grace was the answer that mankind needed. Grace is the solution to sin, death and hell.

Grace is the provision for the problem of SIN. The law cannot save anyone from sin, only Grace can save.