It is not by our human effort, but by the sacrifice of His precious life and blood. The operations of Law, with all its practices of animal sacrifices, cannot do away with our heinous sins. It only would and constantly reminded us of our human shortcomings in adhering to the commandments of God. Not one can say that He has obediently followed the ordinances to the letter. No not one! The rich young ruler who came to Jesus arrogantly claimed that he has kept the commandments of God since young. But he left with his head hung low when Jesus urged him to part with his riches to give to the poor.
The Ten Commandments were important and necessary for two purposes. First, it reminded us that we have and will fall short of its expectations. We cannot claim that we have faithfully kept all of the commandments. The rich young ruler, the religious leaders of Jesus’ times, and every one of us are good illustrations of those shortcomings. Second, the Ten Commandments were important to show men that there is one perfect Lamb of God, who not only wrote its contents on Mount Sinai, but also, kept and fulfilled every one of the commandments. Jesus Christ’s claim to be God’s perfect Lamb will be demolished if He fails to keep one or any of its ordinances. Perhaps, this was the true reason of its importance. After that, salvation through Grace, the person Jesus, is the only way to God and eternity with Him.
Sadly, even today, there are churches who believe that the Ten Commandments were important to the saving of our souls, negating the importance of Christ’s sacrifices on the cross. The proponents of that belief for the saving of souls, up- held the teaching on the assumption based on Matthews 5:17. This verse specifically stated that Christ came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Indeed, He did not come to abolish it. After all, He was the One that wrote its contents on Mount Sinai. On top of that, God’s word remains forever! 1 Peter 1:25 stated that everything would fade. The grass and flowers will wither and fall. However, the Word of the Lord endures forever. So, He cannot contradict His own word by abolishing it. Instead, He came to fulfill every iota of the Law. Only Jesus who knew no sins can do that. No one else can stand up to God defiantly to claim that he has kept every law that was written by the hand of the Almighty God. No, not one! Beyond any shadow of doubt, Ephesian 2: 8-9, clarified that it was by Grace that we are saved through faith in the finished works of Christ, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. Galatians 2:15 reiterated the truth of our salvation through faith in Christ Jesus and not by the works of the Law, because by the works of the Law no one will be justified. Many verses, in Acts 13: 38-39, Romans 6:14, Galatians 2: 21, 5: 4-5, Titus 3:5-7 & etc. supported the works of Grace which again, are ignored by the proponents of salvation through the Law. But the Law was and is a yoke that perpetually tied us down to defeat and failure. Eventually, it will lead us into a false sense of security and hell that we are saved and heaven-bound if we obey all the Ten Commandments.
By fulfilling every demand of the Law, He therefore, qualified Himself to be the perfect sacrifice, the perfect unblemished Lamb of God.
There was another verse that the proponents of salvation through Law strongly entrenched their belief on is found in Romans 6:1-2. In Romans 6:1-2, Apostle Paul asked, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Here, Paul was asking, do we continue in sin after being saved through grace? Paul definitely was not saying will we still fall into sin after being saved? It is two different things altogether. The former sought to know whether we will continue our life of sin after we accepted salvation through Grace. The latter, sought to know will we fall into sin after we are saved by the Grace of God. We will. We are after all in the flesh; we need to constantly come before the Throne of Grace to seek forgiveness. Our God looked on the finished works of Calvary, and not on us. That is the beauty of the works of Grace. And to disperse confusions laid by the proponents of Law, we shall delve deeply into His words to fully grasp the true sweet amazing Grace of God.
The proponents of such theology assumed that those saved through grace and not by works or Law are inclined to continue in their sinful lives. There were three separate incidences that were recorded in the gospel that talked about the anointing of Christ’s feet. Did Mary Magdalene or Mary of Bethany or Mary (sister of Lazarus) continue in their sinful lives after they knew Jesus and had a personally encounter with Him? Mary Magdalene was delivered from the clutches of evil or the scourge of seven evil spirits. One of the Mary was a sinner, probably the woman that was caught in the act of adultery, or the Mary that loved seated with Jesus to enjoy Christ’s presence. None of them went back to their sinful lives after their encounter with the most High. Let’s talk about the little short man called Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector and was filthily rich. Curiosity got the better of him that he climbed up a sycamore tree to see who Jesus was. Jesus called out to him and had tea with him at his house. That one encounter with Grace changed him completely, that he was willing to repay the people he cheated. Most significant evident that was recorded in the bible suggested Zacchaeus was a changed man. Because as Jesus put it in Luke 7:47, “Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to who little is forgiven, the same loves little.” Clearly, when you are forgiven of your sins, be it as gross or not, we tend to love Jesus more for His intervention into our lives and saved us eternally. We would, in our relationship with Christ just as in a marriage, to forsake others, devoting ourselves only to him/her. There will still be temptation to sin, but the love that we have for our spouse will stop us from sinning. Likewise, there will be challenges, temptations and obstacles to sabotage our relationship with Christ. On some occasion, we may or will stumble and fall into sin, but now, if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father as stated in 1 John 2:1. We need to come back to the fountain filled with blood to seek God’s forgiveness. God will not look at us, but at His precious Son who has paid the ultimate price for our trespasses, past, present and future, while on earth. It is all about Jesus. In eternity, it will still be Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7 beautifully summed up the duplicity of the flesh; our sinful nature vs. the redeemed nature. The Apostle bemoaned the fact that we always do the things we do not want do, and we do not do the things our redeemed nature wants to do. That is the works of flesh, inevitable, a part of being human. We will always struggle against it despite being saved through grace. This point further demonstrated why we will never be able to be good under the yoke of the Law. More “rules” given will not fix us but only condemn us. It is only through the work of grace that we rest from striving and warring within ourselves.
Grace is resting on the works of Christ’s on the cross which differ greatly from the operation of Law. The operation of the Law is stoic and demanding. Law is based on us working, to try to fulfill every expectation of the Law. History had shown, and our own experiences tell us too often, that men failed miserably trying to adhere to its demands. We cannot succeed in claiming that we have through our own effort attained the expectations needed to be saved. No man can. At Mount Sinai, Moses smashed the two tablets of God’s Commandments at the sight of depravity and wickedness of the children of Israel. At that moment, it already hinted to us at the fragility of the efficacy of the Covenant of Law. The power of the Ten Commandments did not have the substance to save men. It was never ever to be kept as easily as the elders of the Israelites would claim. We refer to the book of Exodus 19:8, it stated, “Then the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
However, we who are under the Covenant of Grace, it is all about Jesus. It is no longer us trying to do or work for our salvation but Christ who did the work for us. We only have to rest in the finished work of Christ at Calvary. Jesus claimed in the book of John that He came only to do His Father’s wills and not His own. He also claimed, unlike the Israelites, that He always does the things that please His Father in same chapter of the gospel.
If man can, then, Christ had died in vain. We need the robe of righteousness given by Christ through the operation of grace, and not our “filthy rags of self-righteousness” through the operation of Law. That was what the parable in Matthews 22: 11 meant when the King was indignant towards the man who came to the wedding feast, not dressed in the robe provided by the King but his own filthy rag of self-righteousness.
Finally, embracing the fact that we are saved through the works of Grace, and not by works or Law, does not mean that we are disposing of the Law and all that was in the Old Testament. Those were other misguided views of the proponents of the Law. Rather, on the contrary as I have mentioned earlier. The Old Testament and the Ten Commandments served as prelude to the dispensation of Grace. Both assisted and assured us to know that we are bought with a priceless ransom. Our debt to sin was over-paid with the precious blood shed by the beloved Son of God. Jesus Christ being the perfect Lamb of God.
Apostle Paul in Galatians 5: 4-5 warned us that if we try to make ourselves justified with God by keeping the law as the sole source of redemption, we are cut off from Christ. We have fallen away from God’s grace.