Welcome listeners. Today we are covering Talk 4 on how law and grace relate. To make a quick recap, in our first Talk, we defined Law and Grace based on how they are commonly understood.  In the last two Talks, we defined what is Law and what is Grace according to the Bible. Today, we will consider the different possible ways that law and grace may be related.

First, let us lay out the Logical Possibilities. The logical possibilities of how Law and Grace relate may be grouped into two groups: Law Vs Grace OR Law And Grace.

Law vs Grace

Let us first look at Law Vs Grace. This is a common perception or assumption of many.  So, we use it as the title of this series.  There are 3 variants in this group:

1. It can be All Law, No Grace – we get what we deserve, whether for good or for ill.
2. All Grace, No Law – God forgives everyone and every wrong to the extent that it does not matter whether we do right or wrong, and God forgives us for everything and to everyone.
3. Law and Grace contradict each other. That is Law vs Grace.

Let us consider Each Option in turn:

1. All Law No Grace – this means that every good and every wrong we do get their due outcome irrespective. But, if we were to take this position, do its logical conclusion. It means that there is no forgiveness, no mercy, no leniency, whatsoever. In real life, we sense that even though there is a lot of harshness and even cruelty, but still there are some measures of leniency, some measures of occasions of forgiveness and mercy. So this position does not square with reality we experience.  In spite of the fact that there is much wickedness in this world, there are times when people forgive, or require less than what is due.  Even in crime, not every crime is fully punished to the utmost. Often there is some form of leniency. So in the real life experience, it can be not true that there is all law, no grace.

2. All Grace No Law – this means that no matter what wrong is done, no penalty is sought; every wrong is ignored or left to be repeated without consequence. If we look at our own human experience, this position also does not square with reality.  Even though there is plenty of wrongs and injustice in this world, at least some get punished.  Criminals do get caught and penalised.  No one can keep doing wrong without any penalty whatsoever. In fact, in criminal phycology study, people often have a guilty conscience that needs them to punish themselves. So all grace no law, like its opposite—all law no grace, does not really square with the reality of life we face as human experience.

3. Law and Grace contradict each other. If Law is applied, there is no Grace.  If Grace prevails, no Law applies. There is some truth to the fact that the two may sometimes be mutually exclusive in application.  If one wants to apply the Law to the full, no Grace can be allowed.  If one wants to be totally gracious, then the Law has to be set aside. So in that sense, it is either this one or the other. They can be mutually exclusive. But it is not true that they are irreconcilable opposites, in a sense that, there is no situation whereby both can be applied.

The reality is that one can apply the Law to a certain extend but allow for leniency without applying it to the full.  It is possible to forgive a wrong and not apply the Law or require only minor penalties. This is often the case for legal judgement, that there is application of law with a little of leniency, decided case by case, or lot of leniency with just a little of penalisation. In practice, this is often the case. Therefore, while law and grace may be mutually exclusive, it is not true that they must contradict each other. Each may be applied to a certain extent more or less. In other words, Both Law and Grace can be applied together. It is only a question of the relative priority that we may give to each one.

Law And Grace

That brings us to the next group. Instead of law vs grace in which the two must be in conflict in some way, there is the second group that tells us that law and grace in fact may be applied together in some way. Like the first group, there are also 3 variants in this group:

1. Law is primary, Grace is secondary
2. Grace is primary, Law is secondary
3. Law and Grace work together equally

This still leaves us with large area of exactly how law and grace correlate. This still needs to be worked out, that these 3 options need to be defined in greater exactness. It is fair to say that some versions of these combinations are most reflective of reality. In the Bible, the law and grace do relate to one another in some particular ways.

At this point, we want to remind ourselves that our Aim is to study what the BIBLE says of Law and Grace.  We are not simply exploring logical possibilities or generalised ideas of Law and Grace.  Therefore we are working to discover from Bible study on how Law and Grace are related to each other in God's Action.  It would be fair to say, as we pursue this study, that the Bible shows us that God acts by Law And by Grace.  Therefore the Bible's position would be a variation of the second Group of possibilities i.e. Law AND Grace. So to repeat the 3 possibilities: 1) Law is primary, Grace is secondary; 2) Grace is primary, Law is secondary; 3) Law and Grace work together in equal priority. When we go on to look at the content of what the Bible actually says, we will be working out the details of how the Bible which represents God’s revelation, therefore how God uses law and grace in His action and design. 

So let me quickly remind us the aspects of the books of the Bible that we are looking into. We will be looking at law and grace in the law of Moses, law and grace in terms of Old Testament and wisdom. Then we come to the New Testament where we will look at the gospels, and we have 3 dimensions in the gospels in relations to the law and grace—prophecy and fulfilment; the higher standard of grace; and Jesus’s death and resurrection. After that, we will look at the epistle in terms of what the bible teaches us about Christian baptism—in Paul’s epistle and in the Book of Hebrews. In our Next Talk, we shall look into the Bible, beginning with the Old Testament -- the Law of Moses.

Let us pray, “Father, as we look at the options of how law and grace relate, lead us to search into Your scripture, the revelation You have given us, so that we may understand not only law and grace in general or popular thinking, but most of all law and grace in Your action and Your design, even in Your being and Your character. Open our eyes to see wonderful things. In Jesus name, Amen.”