Grace is a game changer and often misunderstood! Many people think of grace as God’s response to our shortcomings and sins, amounting to no more than mercy at best and some sort of divine cover up at worst. This leads to the false belief that grace must be balanced with law. We need law to know and do what is right and we need grace for when we mess it up. But the bible speaks of law and grace in contrasting ways, not compatible ways!
“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:14 (emphasis added)
God told Paul that, “My grace is sufficient for you”. We don’t need law to balance grace, because grace is much more than just mercy…not getting what you deserve, and it is certainly not a divine “cover up”. Whereas the law expects, grace empowers! The law ministers condemnation and death no matter how good you think you are but grace ministers life no matter how bad you think you are. The law is a sin revealer but grace is a Savior revealer. The law calls for servants and doers but grace calls us sons and daughters. The law leaves us frustrated while grace leaves us free!
Just to be clear, all of this is what the law is designed to do! It is designed to show us our need of Jesus, who is grace. Once done, we thrive in grace alone and we see that grace is more than just mercy, not getting what we deserve, but giving us what we could never deserve…union with Jesus! May you enjoy Him as you realize by grace, His life in you!
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.