Law vs. Grace?

READ: EXODUS 24:12; 34:6; ROMANS 7:1-22; GALATIANS 3

Kids under ten can be pretty blunt. While listening to the book of Leviticus, a freckled-faced girl commented, “I feel like the God of the Old Testament is so different from the New Testament. He’s sitting on a couch saying, ‘Bring me more grapes! Do this! Don’t do that, or you will be punished!’” While her words were startling, this nine-year-old made some sense.

Throughout the Old Testament, we find accounts of God punishing sin and disobedience—by death, fire, plagues, and the like. Where is the God of mercy who died on the cross to save us? Did God eventually soften up over the years? What was the point of giving us the law anyway?

First, it’s important to remember that, from before the beginning of creation until the end of time and beyond, God remains the same. Like a diamond, He has many facets. Not only is He completely loving and merciful but He is also fully holy and just. God in His goodness and holiness cannot be a part of sin, which breaks and destroys. And, sadly, we have all sinned.

Thankfully, God’s plan all along was to come to us in Jesus as “the sacrifice that atones for our sins” (1 John 2:2). The law is useful because it reveals God’s righteousness—and our inability to carry it out. All our good deeds will always be “nothing but filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). We need a Savior—the Son of God Himself who did no wrong. Only His sacrifice for us could make us truly right with God. The law is powerless to save us from sin and death, but in Christ Jesus, we receive the fullness of God’s mercy and new life. • Savannah Coleman

• Consider just a few examples of God’s mercy in the Old Testament: saving Noah’s family from the flood (Genesis 6-9), rescuing Lot’s family from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:1-29), delivering the Israelites out of slavery (Exodus 1-14), or calling Nineveh to repentance and showing them compassion, even though the city had been wicked to the core (Jonah 3–4). When we read the Old Testament, how could it be helpful to go into it expecting to see God’s rescuing love?

• Consider just a few examples of God’s justice in the New Testament: Ananias and Sapphira’s consequence for lying to God (Acts 5:1-11), the parable Jesus told of the widow and her adversary and how that relates to God’s justice on behalf of His children (Luke 18:1-8), and the defeat of Satan at the end of time (Revelation 19:11-21; 20:10). How could it be comforting to know that God does not turn a blind eye to evil and injustice, but promises to right every wrong?

But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes. Romans 7:13 (NLT)