“Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who
slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they
might bring us into slavery—to them we did not yield in submission even for a
moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.” Galatians 2:4-5
I’ve heard a lot about Cheap Grace, but what is Cheap Law? There are some Christians who believe that
God is too nice to punish anyone for not being “good”. Their vague notion of Christianity is that they
just need to try to be nice moral people and God will be happy with them. That is cheap Law.
There are other Christians who consider themselves to be
scrupulous about their own obedience to the Law and in their pursuit of
righteousness they are equally passionate about trying to make those around
them scrupulous as well. Their
interpretation of Christianity is that if they try zealously to be good moral
people by keeping the Law and get others to do so, God will be happy with them.
That is also cheap Law.
The first group views the Law as a set of guidelines for moral
living which helps humans to live with each other in harmony. There is no
concept of the holiness of the Law.
There is no sense of the Law’s demands or requirements. The Law is
reduced to the Ten Suggestions for Your Best Life Now. It is rather easy to see how this viewpoint
cheapens the Law; but what about the second group? On the surface they seem to have a very high
view of the Law. They appear to have a
strong sense of the Law’s demands or requirements; so why do I say this
viewpoint is cheap Law?
In the verses above, from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the
term “false brothers” is referring to people representative of the second
group. Paul had encountered them on his
earlier visit to Jerusalem and had resisted their false gospel specifically so
that his ministry to the Gentiles would not be corrupted by it. He wrote his letter to the Galatians because,
despite his efforts, they had been bewitched by that group, to the point where
Paul said in Galatians 5:4, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be
justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” What strong words! The Galatians were in
danger of being “severed from Christ”, not because they refused to keep the
law, but because they were trying to be declared righteous by keeping the law! Contrary to popular belief, to have “fallen
away from grace” does not mean being disobedient to the law, it means depending
on your obedience to the law, rather than grace, for justification!
This false gospel, which as Paul says in Galatians 1:7 is no
gospel at all, is attractive and compelling to humans because of our
Action/Consequence nature. It is natural
for us to base our worth on our performance; therefore we assume that God has
the same criteria for us. We reason that
the evidence of this is the very fact that God gave us the Law. It seems logical to conclude that the Law was
given for us to obey; so, let’s look at what Scripture has to say about the Law.
In Matthew 5:18 Jesus says, “For truly, I say to you, until
heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Jesus’ opinion of the law was that every
dotted I and crossed T of the law would remain in effect as a requirement until
heaven and earth passed away, when everything which had to be accomplished was
accomplished. By this he indicates that
God takes obedience to the law very seriously and will continue to take it
seriously until the end of time.
How seriously does God take obedience to the Law? Romans
2:13 tells us, “…it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified”; in other
words, hearing or knowing the Law counts for nothing because only those who keep the Law will be justified before
God. “Justified” is a legal term
indicating not only a status of “not guilty” but, in God’s eyes, a declaration
of righteousness. If keeping the Law is
necessary for justification, the next obvious question is, how well would we
have to keep the Law in order to be declared righteous?
Jesus, in Matthew 5:48 said, “You therefore
must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Most of us have found ways of watering down
that verse, but scripture indicates that when we realize what the standard is
and that we are not able to do what is required, we have actually reached the
exact conclusion God intended for us to reach.
This verse comes at the end of a section in Jesus’ Sermon on
the Mount where he had just been showing the people that the requirements of
the Law are much broader and deeper than they thought. The scribes and the Pharisees were meticulous
in their Law keeping, but they had shrunk the requirements of the Law to a
point where they believed that they were actually capable of keeping it, and
they made sure that everyone was impressed by their accomplishments. Jesus told the astonished crowd that, if they
wanted to go to heaven, their righteousness would have to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees!
He then said, in essence, you think you’re keeping the Law because
you’re not a murderer, but if you’ve ever been angry and called your brother a
fool, as far as God is concerned you are a murderer deserving of hell. And, if you think you’re keeping the Law
because you’ve never cheated on your spouse, but you’ve had even one lustful
thought about another woman, it’s the same thing as adultery in God’s
eyes. After several more distressingly
convicting illustrations, to be certain that no one missed the point, Jesus finished
with this impossible expectation of our needing to be as perfect as God is
perfect, knowing full well that the objection would be, “Well, no one can do
that! How is anyone supposed to get to heaven?”
And that is the point!
As Romans 3:19 says, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are
under the law, so that every
mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.” Once we have a right understanding of how
seriously God takes obedience to the law, and how impossible it is for us to
meet the standard, we stand before God with nothing to say. We are all undeniably guilty and deserving of
his condemnation.
Even though Romans 2:13 said that only those who keep the Law
will be justified, chapter 3 verse 20 tells us, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight”. The Law must be
obeyed, but not one of us is able to sufficiently obey it!
As a matter of fact, Galatians
3:10 says, For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who
does not abide by all things written
in the Book of the Law, and do
them.” We gain nothing but a curse for
all of our striving to keep the law, because we are unable to continuously
abide by, or do, all things written
in the Law. We are helpless to meet the
requirements of the Law, and because of that we are cursed!
But the next verse
offers a glimmer of hope in our seemingly hopeless situation, “Now it is
evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” (Galatians 3:11) The
answer, then, is not found in Law keeping, it is found in faith.
And Romans 3 verse 21 finally tells us how we actually can
obtain God’s own perfect righteousness, “But now the
righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law
and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in
Jesus Christ for all who believe.” God commands us to be perfect as he is perfect,
and then he credits his perfect righteousness to all who believe, through
faith in Jesus Christ!
As the end of Romans 3:20 says, “…through
the law comes knowledge of sin.” The Law
can only show us what we should be,
but we cannot do it; we can only learn from the Law what sin is. The Law cannot provide us with the ability we need to obey
it.
Galatians 3:21-24 explains, “For if
a law had been given that could
give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything
under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those
who believe. Now before faith came, we were held
captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order
that we might be justified by faith.”
The Law could not give us life.
It was given so that we would have a clear understanding of our sin and
our helplessness. We were imprisoned under
sin, held captive by the Law which had to be kept, but which we were unable to
keep. This Law held us prisoner until Jesus came and gave us his righteousness
which was the only thing that could set us free.
At one extreme Cheap Law says, “God doesn’t
care what I do, he loves me just the way I am”; and on the other it says, “I
can and will be good enough to earn God’s favor”. Both are wrong. The correct view of the Law
says, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my
mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of
death?” And the answer is and always
will be, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:22-25) He has set us free!
