The Law of Grace, and the Grace of Law

Some call them “Nice Nazis.” These are those stormtroopers, some professing Christians, some not, who can be counted to race to the aid of the accused. That is, if I say, “It is wrong to do X” the “Nice Nazi” alarm will go off, sirens will blare, until they show up on the scene and excoriate me for my failure to be nice, or, in the church, for failing to be all about grace. We’re all, especially we Christians, to refrain from judging others, damaging their self-esteem, making them feel less than welcome. So we are to refrain from mentioning their sin. If we fail, however, the grace purveyors judge us, destroy our self-esteem, make us feel unwelcome. The Law of Grace says that- “No one may ever judge another, and if they do, they will be severely judged.” The hypocrisy is laughable, but the terror and the dread that result are not. Christians, knowing we are to be humble, and forgetting we are not to be fearful, often are silenced, and the destruction of the sin not confronted escalates unabated.

Which brings us to the grace of the law. It is both tedious and necessary that we should recount how Jesus looked at the law. He said not one jot or tittle will pass away. He said that on our calling to love our Maker, and our neighbor hangs all the law and the prophets. He said if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. He said we are to disciple the nations, teaching them to obey all that He commanded. The law, in short, is clearly not something we are to discard. Neither is it merely something we are to do just because God says so. Rather, obedience to the law is how we know what love looks like. It is how we love our Maker, and how we love our neighbor.

Consider the Christian man intent on leaving his wife for another. It is not grace but hatred which does not confront him in his sin. It is love and law that says to him, “Brother, you must not do this, for you will be living in adultery and those who practice adultery will go to hell.” In turn it is not grace but hatred that simply lets him go, leaving children without a father and a wife without her husband. This kind of “grace” explodes bombs in people’s homes. Law, on the other hand, is gracious in that it protects the weak and the helpless.

The Christian life is not choosing grace over law. It is instead exhibiting grace by law. Love and obedience are one, just as love and calling for obedience are one. We will fail at love, which means we fail at grace. But in His grace He kept, and keeps, His law, the perfect law of liberty. Do not, beloved of the Lord, despise what our Lord loves. Pray for the grace to love His law.