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LAW AND GRACE VERSES
What is "the law?"
I Corinthinans 14:21 - "In the Law it is written: 'through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord."
Galatians 4:21,22 - "Tell me, you want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman."
Galatians 3:10 - "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."
Leviticus 23 - Sabbath, Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles
Leviticus 7:19-24 - "Meat that touches anything ceremonially unclean must not be eaten; it must be burned up……If anyone touches something unclean---whether human uncleanness or an unclean animal or any unclean, detestable thing---and then eats any of the meat of the fellowship offering belonging to the Lord, that person must be cut off from his people….."
Exodus 25:8,9 - "Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishing exactly like the pattern I will show them."
Romans 13:10 - "Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."
Ephesians 6:1,2 - "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother'---which is the first commandment with a promise"
Deuteronomy 19:15-21 - "One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse a man of a crime, the two men involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be to a liar, giving false testimony against his brother, then do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from among you. The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."
Romans 5:20 - "The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,"
Romans 7:5,13 - "For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death…Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful."
Romans 5:20,21 - "The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 7:5 - "For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death."
Romans 3:19, 20 - "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin."
Galatians 3:10 - "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."
I Timothy 1:8-10 - "We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers---and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine."
Galatians 3:23-25 - "Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under supervision of the law."
What is "being under law"?
Romans 7:24 - "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"
What is "grace"?
I Peter 1:18,19 - "For we know that it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish of defect."
Psalm 103:10,12 - "he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities……as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."
Isaiah 38:17 - "…..In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back."
Isaiah 43:25 - "I, even, I am he who blots out your transgression, for my own sake, and remembers you sins no more."
Micah 7:19 - "You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl our iniquities into the depths of the sea."
Romans 4:7,8 (Psalm 32:1,2) - "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."
Colossians 1:21,22 - "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation---"
What is "living under grace"?
Philippians 1:6 - "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
Living under grace compared to living under the law:
1. How do we gain God's acceptance?
Under law:
Exodus 19:5,6 - "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation….."
Galatians 2:16 - "know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Christ Jesus. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified."
James 2:10 -"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."
Under grace:
Romans 5:1,2 - "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand."
2. Where is the law written?
Under law:
II Corinthians 3:3 - "You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts."
Under grace:
Colossians 3:10 - "and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."
3. When are we blessed?
Under law:
Deuteronomy 28:1,2 - "If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God."
Under grace:
Ephesians 1:3 - "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."
Ephesians 2:4-10 - "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgression…… For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
4. What is our incentive for obeying God?
Under law:
Deuteronomy 27:26, 28:15 - "Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out….However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you."
Under grace:
I John 4:10,11,18,19 - "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another….There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment……We love because he first loved us."
5. What do we depend on?
Under law:
Romans 7:6 - "But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code."
Romans 8:3,7,8 - "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,…the sinful mind is hostile to god. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."
Under grace:
Romans 8:9-11 - "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit, who lives in you."
II Corinthians 3:5,6 - "Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant---not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."
Gal 5:18 -"But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law."
6. Who gets the glory?
Under law:
Luke 18:9-12 - "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men---robbers, evildoers, adulterers---or even like this tax collector. I fast twice and week and give a tenth of all I get."
Under grace:
Ephesians 2:8-10 - "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith---and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."