CHEAP LAW

“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!