What Do We Know About the Law and Grace?
Before going into this, it is important to distinguish between the Law and God’s moral standards and commands. By “the Law,” we are referring to the Mosaic covenant and, by extension, those rituals and observances that many people wrongly uphold as the means of earning salvation or obtaining right standing with God.
The first thing to note about the Law is that it is not a bad thing. God Himself established it and, even when Jesus came to earth, He stated clearly that He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it (Matt. 5:17).
The Law was necessary for its time and purpose. It was given to expose sin and create awareness of it. Through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20). Without it, humanity would have had no clear understanding of God’s standards or of what He calls right and wrong. In this sense, the Law served as a guide and a moral standard.
Moreover, the Law points us to our need for salvation. Through it, we discover that God has very high standards and that, left to ourselves, we can never attain them. Thus, it prepares us for the Saviour who would come to do what we could never do for ourselves. As Paul says, “the law was our guide to bring us to Christ” (Gal. 3:24).
But, long before the Law came, Abraham was justified by faith (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:1–3). This then tells us that salvation has always been by faith. The Law was never introduced as an alternative means of salvation.
We can understand that the Law itself is not sufficient to save. Interestingly, the poet Alexander Pope expresses a thought that captures this idea well in An Essay on Man. He writes:
“Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend,
A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend.”
An Essay on Man, Epistle II (1734).
In many ways, this describes how the Law functions. It can expose our condition, but it cannot heal it. It can point out danger, but it cannot rescue us from it. While the Law points us to what is wrong, it cannot empower us to do what is right. That is its limitation. It can only teach us what God requires, but it cannot produce righteousness within us.
However, the weakness of the Law was never the Law itself, but the flesh. As Paul explains,
“What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son”
Rom. 8:3 NKJV.
Because it depended on man’s ability to perform, the Law left room for self-righteousness and boasting. It could give the impression that man contributes something to his own salvation, when in reality, he does not. Only God could provide the perfect sacrifice for sin, and in Christ, He did exactly that.
Jesus not only fulfilled the Law (Matt. 5:17), He also redeemed us from its curse (Gal. 3:13) and supplied us with the righteousness it demanded. The sin that the Law could not remove, Christ did through His sacrifice, and He gave us access to all of this through faith, not by works (Eph. 2:8–9). This is grace. This is how we are saved.
The issue, therefore, is not with the Law itself but with treating it as a requirement for salvation. The Law says, “Do this and live.” Grace declares that, in Christ, we have already been made right with God.
This grace of God that has appeared to all men through Jesus Christ, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts (Tit. 2:11–12). Grace does not merely say, “This is wrong“; it empowers us to pursue what is right.
Now, the real problem many legalists have is the assumption that depending entirely on grace gives room for sin. But Scripture says otherwise. Titus 2:11–12 teaches that grace trains us to reject ungodliness, and Paul argues that we cannot continue living in sin and say we are covered by grace (Rom. 6:1–2).
Grace is not permission to live carelessly. If we claim to live by the Spirit, then we must also walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). Our outward conduct should bear witness to our inward transformation.
So, since grace is not permission to sin, God’s standard of holiness remains unchanged. What is different now is that we possess an advantage that enables us to pursue that holiness.
Hence, being saved by grace is not a call to careless living. Rather, it is a call to walk in the finished work of Christ. We are not trying to earn God’s approval by living right. Rather, we live right because we already have His approval in Christ. Salvation comes through faith in what Jesus has done for us, knowing fully that there is nothing we could have done to attain it ourselves.
Because of this, we must be careful not to mix the Law with grace.
Mixing the two implies that we believe there is something that must be added to complete Christ’s sacrifice. It suggests that the blood of Jesus is insufficient for our acceptance before God and that there are still certain things we must do to gain His favour. Yet Christ Himself declared, “It is finished” (Jhn. 19:30 NKJV). Nothing remains to be added.
Moreover, it is not possible to mix the two. Anyone who chooses to depend on the Law must keep all of it, not merely selected parts. “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (Jas. 2:10 NKJV). To rely on the Law is already to depart from grace (Gal. 5:4).
This was Paul’s concern with the Galatians. They had received the gospel by faith, but later allowed themselves to be persuaded that faith alone was not enough. They began adding requirements to what Christ had already accomplished. In doing so, they were implying that Christ’s work was incomplete. And Paul rebuked them strongly for it (Gal. 3:1–3).
In the same vein, we must understand that observing special days, praying, fasting, giving alms, and similar practices are not conditions for salvation. They never have been. Rather, they are things we do because we are saved, not in order to become saved.
The Law served its purpose for the season in which it was given. But under the new covenant, it would be a grave error to abandon the abundance of grace and return to dependence on the Law. As Paul spent much of Galatians explaining, salvation is by grace through faith, and the Law has no power to save.
Therefore, let us not go back to what Christ has fulfilled. Let us rest fully in His finished work, knowing that His sacrifice is sufficient, His righteousness is enough, and His grace is greater than anything our efforts could ever accomplish.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes
Rom. 10:4 NKJV .
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