T HE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S (Rom. 3:19); grace, of forgiveness (Eph. 1:7). Law curses (Gal. 3:10); grace re deems from that curse (Gal. 3:13). Law kills (Rom. 7:9,11); grace makes alive (John 10:10). Law shuts every mouth before God; grace opens every mouth to praise Him. Law puts a great and guilty distance between man and God (Ex. 20:18,19); grace makes guilty man nigh to God (Eph. 2:13). Law says, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth (Ex. 21:24); Grace says “Resist not evil; hut whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to -him the other also” (Matt. 5:39). Law says, “Hate thine enemy;” grace, “Love your enemies, bless them that despitefully use'you.” Law says, do and live (Luke 10:26-28); grace, believe and live (John 5:24). Law never had a missionary; grace is to he preached to every crea ture. Law utterly condemns the best man (Phil. 3:4,9); grace freely justifies the worst (Luke 23:34; Rom. 5:15; 1 Tim. 1:15; 1 Cor. 6:9,11). Law is a system of probation; grace, of favor. Law stones an adultress (Deut. 22:21); grace says, “Neither do I condemn thee” (John 8:1-11). Under law the sheep dies for the shepherd; under grace the shep herd dies for the sheep (John 10:11). The relation to each other of these di verse principles, law and grace, troubled the apostolic church. The first contro versy concerned the ceremonial law. It was the contention of the legalists that converts from among the Gentiles could not be saved unless circumcised “after the manner of Moses (Acts 15:1). This demand was enlarged when the “apostles and elders” had come together at Jeru salem to settle that controversy (Acts 15:5,6). The demand then made put in issue not circumcision merely, or the ceremonial law, but the whole Mosaic system. “That it was needful to circum cise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses” (Acts 15:5). The decision of the council, as “it seemed good to the Holy Ghost,” neg-
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“But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared” —the positive aspect; “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” —the negative aspect.. Grace, then, characterizes the present age, as law characterized the age from Sinai to Calvary. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” And this con trast between law as a method and grace as a method runs through the whole Biblical revelation concerning grace. It is not, of course, meant that there was no law before Moses, any more than that there tfras no grace and truth before Jesus Christ. The forbidding to Adam of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17.) was law, and surely grace was most sweetly man ifested in the seeking, by the Lord God, of His sinning creatures, and in His clothing them with coats of skins (Gen. 3:21)—a beautiful type of Christ “made unto us......................righteous ness” (1 Cor. 1:30). Law, in the sense of some revelation of God’s will, and grace, in the sense of some revelation of God’s goodness, have always existed, and to this Scripture abundantly testi fies: But “the law” as an inflexible rule of life was given by Moses, and, from Sinai to Calvary, dominates, character izes, the time; Just as grace dominates, or gives its peculiar character to, the dispensation which begins at Calvary, and has its predicted termination in the rapture of the church. Law and Grace Diverse. It is, however, of the most vital mo ment to observe that Scripture never, in any dispensation, mingles these two principles. Law always has a place and work distinct and wholly diverse from that of grace. Law is God prohibiting, and requiring (Ex. 20:1-17); grace is God, beseeching, and bestowing (2 Cor. 5:18, 21). Law is a ministry of condemnation
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