Not under law but under grace

Law is a word with only three letters yet it is a very big word. And folks throw it around like a baseball. What do people mean when they refer to the law?

Just like in the New Testament, I think there are several shades of meaning:

The Ten Commandments
This is the beginning of the law. It has been said there are 613 commandments in all, covering all aspects of life and worship, but the 10 commandments are the core of the law.


The Old Covenant
The covenant between God and Israel made on Mount Sinai, the Mosaic Covenant, is marked by commandments, ordinances, judgments, and statutes, and the keeping of it set Israel apart as the people of God. This covenant is generally divided into three categories: moral law, ceremonial law, civil or judicial law. This division was established by the Jews. John Calvin (1509-1564), in The Institutes of the Christian Religion wrote, “We must attend to the well-known division which distributes the whole law of God, as promulgated by Moses, into the moral, the ceremonial, and the judicial law.”

Francis Turretin (1623-1687), one of Calvin’s successors at Geneva, wrote that “The law given by Moses is usually distinguished into three species: moral (treating of morals or of perpetual duties towards God and our neighbour); ceremonial (of the ceremonies or rites about the sacred things to be observed under the Old Testament); and civil (constituting the civil government of the Israelite people).”


A way of being justified by what I do
Galatians 3:11-12  But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

This contest between being made right with God by what I do and being made right with God by faith in Christ is often the underlying theme in Paul’s epistles. In Paul’s day the attempt to be justified by what I do is literally the belief that I can be right with God by my observance of the law, but I think it’s safe to summarize any and all attempts to be right with God by what I do as law.


So what does Paul mean by ye are not under the law, but under grace? Or very simply, how does not under the law apply to these three usages of law?

A way of being justified by what I do – clearly we are not under law when it comes to being made right with God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight...But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.

The Old Covenant – In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. We are not under the Mosaic Covenant. The worship, the sacrifices, the priesthood, the feasts, circumcision, the sabbath, the dietary restrictions etc are no longer binding on us, they belonged to Israel and we are not Israel. We are under the new covenant and that’s why it is called the Old Testament.

The Ten Commandments or the moral law – this is where it gets fun! Are those under the new covenant under any obligation to keep the moral commandments of the law?

I frequently hear people make disparaging comments about the Law. My conclusion? many people think of the Law as bad. But, is it really bad?

Ah, that’s my next post, So what’s wrong with the law?