No Grace....No Salvation
"For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 2:20).
"By works of the law shall no one be justified" (Gal. 2:16).
"I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were through the law, then the Messiah died for no purpose" (Gal. 2:21).
"Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the law" (Gal. 3:11).
The law had a weakness: it could bring death, but not life. It made nothing perfect (Heb 7:18f). It promised life but proved to be death (Rom 7:10) because a person was required to keep all the law or be cursed (Gal. 3:10f), and none could keep it all. So all had the sentence of death.
That same weakness prevents any law from saving. Law has no power to save. John assures us that all of us sin (1 John 1:8f).
"For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it" --(James 2:10).
If we keep 99% of the law but fail in the remaining one percent, what happens? The Torah spells out that there are 613 that we are required to keep. If we fail in one point we are guilty of the other 612 also. We are back to zero! So it is all by grace! If one is to be saved, it must be totally by grace. One cannot be saved partly by law keeping and partly by grace. If grace saves only to the extent that one is able to keep law, then none can be saved. If one could keep all the law, he would need no grace. Our traditional exhortation to the one who fails to keep all the law is "Try harder!" While giving lip-service to grace, we frustrate disciples by urging that they must attain it by keeping all the law - or making a passing score, whatever that may be.
"By works of the law shall no one be justified" (Gal. 2:16).
"I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were through the law, then the Messiah died for no purpose" (Gal. 2:21).
"Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the law" (Gal. 3:11).
The law had a weakness: it could bring death, but not life. It made nothing perfect (Heb 7:18f). It promised life but proved to be death (Rom 7:10) because a person was required to keep all the law or be cursed (Gal. 3:10f), and none could keep it all. So all had the sentence of death.
That same weakness prevents any law from saving. Law has no power to save. John assures us that all of us sin (1 John 1:8f).
"For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it" --(James 2:10).
If we keep 99% of the law but fail in the remaining one percent, what happens? The Torah spells out that there are 613 that we are required to keep. If we fail in one point we are guilty of the other 612 also. We are back to zero! So it is all by grace! If one is to be saved, it must be totally by grace. One cannot be saved partly by law keeping and partly by grace. If grace saves only to the extent that one is able to keep law, then none can be saved. If one could keep all the law, he would need no grace. Our traditional exhortation to the one who fails to keep all the law is "Try harder!" While giving lip-service to grace, we frustrate disciples by urging that they must attain it by keeping all the law - or making a passing score, whatever that may be.
Comment
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Comment by James Pierce on May 10, 2009 at 7:20am
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Mark,
The Torah spells out that there are 613 that we are required to keep. If we fail in one point we are guilty of the other 612 also.
613 commandments are not for one person to keep. There are commandments for men, women, and unisex. A man is not gonna keep a commandment that is geared towards a woman, and vice versa. A man will keep the laws required of him, and also of the unisex, and vice versa. Obedience of the law still counts, even in the midst of grace. Grace or faith does not trash the law(Romans 3:31)
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