19th Oct 2012. By Simon Yap –
Dear friends,
I had better write a note on the above question.
Many have written recently about some errors on people who are teaching grace. I do agree with them. Much of the misunderstanding is the failure to understand what it means to be “under grace” some have carried the notion means that “we can live as if we can live without morals” or that “God has swept your sins under the carpet.”
Such teachers go to the extend in saying that God would save everyone.
The other extreme would be to say “you can never be fully saved.” There is a need for continual repentance and you are judged according to the commandments. This I believe is erroreous.
Let me share with you my insights on this matter.
Romans 7
1 Do you not know, brothers –for I am speaking to men who know the law–that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
You cannot teach Grace without pointing to the cross. You cannot be set free from the Law without death. It is on the cross that you died. That is how you are set free. The law is fulfilled in you when you died with and in Christ. It has been fulfilled in you. To preach Grace as a “lovey dovey” thing is not preaching Grace.
We have to let people know Jesus fulfilled the Law in you and for you. God does not ignore the Law. The righteous requirements has been fully met in us. That is why we are saved. That is why we will never lose our salvation.
Romans 8:3-4
3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Note the righteous requirements of the Law has been fully and I repeat fully, FULLY, MET IN US!
This brings to mind 2 things.
I will never lose my salvation. This is because what the demanded from me has been fully fulfilled.
God’s requirement of holiness is also fully met by Christ!
Romans 3:25-28
25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
You cannot come to heaven without obeying the Law. The Law was kept for us by Jesus. In Him, we paid the penalty. Jesus provided the death that allowed me to die to the Law. Since I am dead to the Law, it is thus is fully satisfied in in me. Thus you cannot satisfy the requirement of the Law without faith in Christ. The teaching that God saves everyone is not true.
On the other hand to say you can lose your salvation is a failure to understand the Law has been fully in you. You can’t get out of your salvation. The Law has been fully kept for you, and incredibly when you have faith in Jesus, by you.
Let us praise Jesus.
Source :
Celebrating Jesus and the wonderful Grace of God
By Simon Yap
http://hischarisisenough.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/did-god-ignore-the-law-to-give-us-grace/
Disclaimer :
The views or opinions expressed by the columnists are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Christianity Malaysia.com
