Welcome listeners, brothers and sisters in Christ and friends to this series of 16 talks on God’s law vs grace. Today is our first Talk. I would like to introduce the series. This is a 16 part series in 15 minutes segments on the major theme of Law vs Grace. We have entitled our series “Law vs Grace” because, in the mind of many, the two are in contradiction, conflict or competition. We will be exploring their relationship over the 16 sessions. We should be able to cover a good range of this topic to enable us to have a clear and firm grasp of the matter. In this first Talk, we want to trace out for us the Big Picture Outline. In each subsequent segment, we will fill in the different parts of this Big Picture. By the series conclusion, we aim to give us a Good View of the Big Picture.

Let me just give us a heading of each of our talk. Today of being the very first Talk, it is the introduction. In our second Talk, we will look at what is law; in the next one, what is grace; in Talk 4, how do law and grace relate.  In the subsequent talks, we will cover different parts of Bible. In Talk 5, we will look at law vs grace in the Law of Moses; and then law vs grace in the Old Testament history, followed by law vs grace in Old Testament Wisdom & Prophecy. In Talk 8, we turn to the Gospel, the Prophecy and fulfilment in terms of law and grace in the Gospels, and also the highest standard of grace as Jesus taught the Gospels, and then the death and resurrection of Christ and its significance of law and grace in the Gospels. Thereafter, we will look at the teaching from the Ephesians, beginning with Christian baptism, and then we will focus on Paul’s teaching on law and grace, before we turn to the book of Hebrews in 2 parts. In the first part, we will look at what Hebrew tells us about law and grace; in the second part, in terms of sacrifices of the OT on how does it relate to law and grace. In the final 2 talks, we will have an overview of law vs grace in God’s design. Finally, in conclusion, ‘grace’ will be seen as the ‘new law’ in God’s design. This gives us an overview of all the 16 talks that we will be covering.

In particular, we want to state in the very first talk, that in this series, we are looking into the Bible as the Word of God for its answer to this question.  The relationship between Law and Grace in the Bible is deep and important, but multifaceted and complex.  Therefore it is not surprising that there are many different views of how law and grace relate.  Many of these are oversimplified to the extent that they are inaccurate and misleading.

The Aim of this series is to help us come to a fuller and clearer understanding of Law and Grace in the Bible, and so guide us to a biblically accurate grasp of our topic. So, what is in the Bible that matters the most in the series, is of course what in the Bible that speaks to us in real life. But it is the biblical perspective that guides us in terms of how we should understand and apply what it teaches in real life. That is the guiding principle for us. But, we note that many people's idea of Law and Grace are not formed by the Bible, since many in society today do not read Bible, even many Christians do not really dig into the Bible. So many people’s idea of Law and Grace are formed by the thoughts and trends of the society today. So, it is not surprising that there is a significant difference between what the Bible says about law and grace, as compared to what people think about law and grace.

Therefore, there is a need for us to differentiate, compare and contrast between the popular ideas and the Biblical meaning to see what is different; what may agree and to weight out what is not important; what is the correct meaning and what are the wrong ideas.  While there are overlapping ideas between the biblical and the popular views of Law vs Grace, there are significant differences that require us to firmly distinguish between them.

Let us look at what are the popular Ideas of Law and Grace. We typically see both Law and Grace in terms of human conduct and society. Law in terms of human conduct and society is often seen in terms of what is black or white, right or wrong, justice & enforcement, penalties for wrongs & rewards for right, societal code of ethics we are to uphold. Grace is often seen in terms of forgiving people even though they have done wrong; doing good to others even when they have done wrong to us; or overlooking wrongs done against ourselves to still be kind and good to the other. It is a kind of what we call the behavior and value of human kindness. So, it is not surprising that in popular understanding, law and grace are often seen in conflict. Therefore, not law and grace, but law vs grace, or the other way grace vs law, rather than grace and law.

So, is it Law vs Grace or Law AND Grace? In the light of these typical ideas of Law and Grace, when people discuss or debate their relationship, they frequently think of how Law and Order contradicts forgiveness and kindness, or vice versa. But, is it possible that the Two may work together in some way?  This is an option we CANNOT ignore. As we continue in our series and as we look into the Bible, we will find many very relevant revelation and insights for us into their relationship. It offers us new perspectives into this matter. Ultimately, it may radically change the way we understand both Law and Grace, and therefore, how they are related.

In the Next Talk, we will look into the definition of Law, and in the Talk after that, we will look into the definition of Grace. Thank you.