We are under Grace and not the Law!

I originally wrote this to a friend of mine. I believe that it came out well and so I have modified it a little bit and turned it into a blog entry. I hope that you guys enjoy it! =)

Paul said that Nothing is forbidden to those under Grace, meaning those who have accepted His salvation. He goes on to say that just because it is not forbidden, does not mean that it is edifying for either the believer or those who look at the believer.

When Jesus died for our sins, he died for all of our sins. Not just the sins of the past and present, but also the sins of the future. His sacrifice spreads His cleansing blood over all of them. You see, God exists outside of time and can look at the whole of time at the same time. Therefore, when He gives His salvation to a believer, then He gives it to them knowing all of their sins including their future sins, and He upholds us in that salvation by His strength and not our own.

Are we then able to commit sins such as lying, murder, adultry, idol worship and the like? Yes we 'can' commit them and still be forgiven. Because God has already seen that we have committed them in our future when He accepted us into His salvation in our past! That does not mean that doing those things is good for us or for those who look at us. Paul goes on to say that our transformation into Christlikeness and our character should prove the Law! This means that He changes us over time, and we all change at different speeds, but we continually progress becoming more Christlike by His work. In this respect, our very character establishes the truth of the Law.

See the Law went from being a manditory thing for us to enter into God's presence to being more of a teacher and guide, the actual Greek term is translated more along the lines of a person hired by the family to follow children around and keep them out of trouble as they play or work at whatever the parents have given them to do. See, the Law has become, for us believers, a. a knowledge base for us to know that we have sinned against God and fall short giving us the knowledge that we need Salvation. Then after salvation, it becomes b. a guide to help us correct or steer us in our walk with Christ along the narrow path.

Under the Law, God required a blood sacrifice in order for man to enter into His presence. This blood sacrifice usually came in the form of a ram that had no visible fault in it. Now this blood did not remove the sins from the man but only covered them so that man would be able to enter into His presence. Then God became man, in the form of Jesus Christ, or Jeshua which is a much more accurate translation from the Greek. Yes, I can read and write in Greek and have an actual Greek version of the New Testament. When Jesus came, He lived the sinless life that was required of man in order to show the world that it was only Him that could bring about Man's redemption to God! For He became the Lamb of God which was without blemish and a fitting sacrifice to God for the washing away all of man's sins for those who believe in Him.

All of this goes back to the Abrahamic Covenant which existed before the Law that was given to Moses! In the 4th point of the Abrahamic Covenant, God told Abraham that 'through you all of the people of the world will be blessed', this was fulfilled in the form of Jesus! In those days, when two rulers or even two people made a covenant with each other, they would prepare the sacrificial animals just like it states in Geneses. The blood of those animals would flow down into the small valleylike area where the animals were prepared and there would be a gathering of blood there. It always started with the more powerful person in the covenant going through the blood first. As they walked through the blood of the animals, they would vow that 'If me and mine break this covenant with you and yours, then may you and yours do this to me and mine'! Then the lesser of the two entering into the covenant would do the same thing, saying the same vow. Now when this happened between God and Abraham, God passed through the blood and consumed the blood with His passing not allowing Abraham to walk through the blood but taking the full penalty on Himself! Meaning, God was saying to Abraham that if Me and Mine break this covenant, or if you and yours break this covenant, then may you and yours do this to Me and Mine!

God was preparing the way for Jesus to come. He knew that Abraham and man would fail in the covenant that God made with him. He also knew that it would have to be up to Himself to bring the punishment onto Himself in order to fulfill that covenant punishment of the breaking of the covenant. It was by God's hand that Jesus was crucified, through the hands of the men who crucified Him, in order to bring salvation to mankind. Don't get me wrong, those men who crucified Jesus are fully to blame for their sins in what they have done, yet it was God's orchestration that brought it about!

Now as to how I explain Matthew 24:20, that passage is referring to the time of the tribulation. I am a firm believer in the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Meaning that the Rapture of believers in Christ will happen before the Tribulation starts. So that when the Tribulation starts, all who remain on Earth will be non-believers. Yet these non-believers will have the bible, the writings of those who were raptured, and the evidence of creation to come to know the Lord and find His salvation. Those who accept salvation during the time of the Tribulation are referred to in Revelation 6:9-11. It talks about how they ask the Lord how long will He refrain from judging and avenging their blood on those who dwell on the Earth. These are those who stood for Jesus during the Tribulation, after the Rapture, and who lost their lives due to the persecution of believers on Earth. You also have to know that this text is also speaking to those who still practice the Law, meaning Jewish people who have not accepted Jesus as their savior yet. They are still under the Law until they accept Him as Savior.

Now I have to ask if you are Jewish in your heritage. If you are, then you are correct in assuming that you are under the Law until you accept Jesus as Savior. However, once you accept Him, you are then under Grace! Yet for the Gentile, which is defined as anyone who is not born a Jew through direct relation to Abraham, then the Law does not apply to them other than to show them that living a perfect life sinless before God is impossible! Therefore the Gentile was never under the Law but went from being lawless to under Grace when they accept Jesus as Savior! Either way, if you are a Gentile by heritage, then the Law never applied to you except for giving you the knowledge of sin and your need for Salvation! For the Law was given only to those related to Abraham and specifically only those of Abraham's children through which the blessing passed. Meaning that the Law was not applied to Ishmael, Abraham's first son by Hagar, or to Esau, Isaac's first son by Rachel.

Remember, we are under Grace and not the Law. Yet our very living a Christian life should establish the Law in other people's eyes!