Are believers free from the law?
Answer: It's a 'YES' and a 'NO'.
In a sense, the answer is ‘YES’ in that we need not arduously keep the law in order to earn our ticket to heaven. As Scripture says, "You are not under law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14).
We are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law” (Romans 3:28).
The paradox is this: “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law (Romans 3:31).”
Certainly it doesn’t mean we can do whatever we like. We are never meant to live our lives in lawlessness. That is why the answer is a 'NO'. We are still held accountable under moral law as revealed in the Ten Commandments.
Jesus puts it succinctly: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).
“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
Warnings against lawlessness addressed to believers saved by grace
Implicit in embracing grace is the fact that we must renounce ungodliness and live righteously, staying within the ambit of God’s moral laws:
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”
(Titus 2:11-14)
Warnings against lawlessness addressed to believers saved by grace
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).
“For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:5-6).
“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).
“When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die” (Ezekiel 18:26).
Furthermore, we have been warned not to pervert grace by using it as a license for immorality, implying that the moral laws are still applicable to us (Jude 4). If these laws are no longer relevant to believers today, and grace is all that matters, why is grace perverted when we sin (break God’s moral laws)?
“For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 4).
“We are NOT SAVED by keeping the law but by grace through faith. Even though we have been saved, we are subject to God's moral laws but NOT the ceremonial and ritualistic laws. The foregoing sums up, in essence, the sticky debate on the role of the law in the life of believers. Unless one can differentiate between God's moral laws and the ceremonial laws, one can be pretty confused. The ceremonial laws of God's special people, such as circumcision, are no longer binding on modern-day believers.”
— Porridge for the Soul
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Grace does not imply lawlessness. In fact, we have to submit to God’s moral law when we embrace grace:
ReplyDelete“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all LAWLESSNESS and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11-14).