Keywords of Grace and Law

Every Bible teaching, sermon or message you have ever heard has been one of three kinds: law-based, grace-based, or a mixture of grace and law.

A law-based interpretation puts the emphasis on you and your works, while a grace-based interpretation puts the emphasis on Christ and his work. Law- and grace-based interpretations can be recognized by their different vocabularies.

Keywords of law

Words that often appear in law-based messages include; you must, you should, work, duty, debt, obligation, perform, produce, lack, service, strive, struggle, suffer, obey, sin, confess, convict, judgment, commandment, guilt, condemnation, penalty and punish.

Keywords of grace

Words that often appear in grace-based messages include; love, faith, rest, forgiven, favor, receive, believe, righteous, justified, accepted, abide, abundance, fullness, fellowship, beloved, sons, children of God, good news, hope, blessed, freedom, spiritual, new creation, life, light, truth, power and Jesus.

(What keywords did I miss? Let me know in the comments below.)

The best kind of message is grace-based. The grace of God is what makes the good news, good news. The gospel of grace reveals the unconditional love of your Father and empowers you to partake in his whole and godly life.

What is the worst kind of message? It is not the law-based message, because any teaching that pushes pure law will soon have you running to Jesus in desperation (see Gal. 3:24).

The most dangerous teaching is the one that mixes grace and law. Such a message will leave you muddled and lukewarm. It will cause you to strive in the flesh and fall from grace. A message of mixture dilutes the law emptying it of its power to condemn our self-righteousness. And mixture also prostitutes your Father’s love by saying you must work to receive what God has freely provided.

New Testament examples

Believe it or not, but examples of all three messages can be found in the New Testament. Before the cross, Jesus preached LAW to those who lived under the law. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preached a law of conditional forgiveness. “If you do not forgive, God will not forgive you” (Matt. 6:15). Jesus took the diluted law preached by the scribes and Pharisees, and elevated it. “You have heard it said… but I say unto you…” (see Matt. 5:27ff). Jesus magnified the law so that those who were under the law might see their need for a Savior.

After the cross, we got a new covenant and a new message. On the night he rose from the dead, he instructed the apostles to proclaim the forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47) which underpins the gospel of GRACE. “All is forgiven. God holds nothing against you. Receive his righteousness and be reconciled to God.” (see Acts 13:38, Rom. 5:17, 2 Cor. 5:19–20).

Law, then grace. Old covenant, then new. That’s the Biblical progression. Because of the cross we are no longer under law but grace (Rom. 6:14). In the new covenant of grace, we have no relationship to the law (see Rom. 7:6, Gal. 2:19).

But some New Testament figures missed the transition. Even though Christ’s death on the cross rendered the old covenant obsolete, they acted like they were still under the law.

At the Council of Jerusalem there were some Pharisee-believers who insisted the Gentiles must live under the Law of Moses (Acts 15:5). They preferred law to grace.

In Galatia there were false teachers who insisted the Gentiles keep parts of the law, namely circumcision and special days like the Sabbath (Gal. 4:10, 5:2). The false teachers of Galatia were the first preachers of MIXTURE, and Paul said they were accursed (Gal. 1:9).

The falsest of false gospels

The message of mixture is the worst of all the false gospels. If someone came preaching immorality, you would reject it as licentiousness. If someone came preaching law, you would reject it as legalism. But mixture is subtle. Mixture has enough grace to be appealing and enough law to sound convincing.

The problem is grace and law don’t mix. Mix hot with cold and you’ll end up with something that is neither, and this is what makes mixture a false gospel.

Make no mistake, the message of mixture has been wreaking havoc for 2000 years. Mixture is poison passed off as medicine. Mixture is a ticking bomb wrapped in ribbons. If grace is God’s best idea, mixing grace with law is the devil’s best idea.

Mix the good news of grace with the bad news of law and you end up with a cheap law that nullifies grace and is no gospel at all (Gal. 1:7). The message of mixture is a distortion of the true gospel of Christ.