Removing God's Law: Is that Grace OR ANTI-Grace?

By Brother R. Michel Lankford

When You Try to Obey the Commandments of God, You Are Rejecting Grace

This is by far one of the most pervasive FALSE accusations made against Whole Testament Theology by traditional Babylonian Christianity. There is a pervasive belief among modern Christians that if you try to obey the Commandments of God, that this automatically means that you are rejecting or forsaking grace through Messiah. The list of problems with this false doctrine are probably as long as your arm, but we will try to unpack this issue into bite-size and digestible pieces.

 

The Old Testament Was All about Law, but the New Testament Was Only about Grace

Bust the Myth: There is a myth within modern Christianity that the Old Testament is all about Laws, Commandments, and regulations, but supposedly the New Testament is all about Grace, and not God’s Law or His Commandments at all, but this is a HUGE misnomer. The fact is that by sheer mathematics, the concept of grace is mentioned FIVE TIMES MORE often in the so-called Old Testament, rather than the New Testament. Equally important is the fact that within the pages of the New Testament there are MORE Commandments than in the Torah. Within the Torah there are between 613-650 imperative Commands that various individuals are commanded to do before YHWH, (remembering that not every command is applicable to every person; (some are only applicable to priests some only two women; some only to farmers etc.). Within the so-called New Testament, there are 1050 commandments, which are generally applicable to all believers. So the idea of a grace free Old Testament, and the idea of a Law free; only Grace New Testament is completely false by sheer numbers.

Failing to Define Grace Biblically

Many false doctrines occur when people drift away from God’s biblical definitions of key terms and when we allow the sinful world to re-define key concepts for us, instead of remaining true to God’s definition for terms such as love, truth, mercy etc. The chameleon phenomenon, (adapting terms to fit our culture, instead of adapting terms to fit God’s definitions) is alive and well when it comes to defining grace almost completely incorrectly. The opposite of God’s Law is NOT God’s Grace. BOTH God’s Law AND God’s Grace come from the SAME source – God. So, God’s Law CANNOT be the opposite of God’s Grace, because both come from God, and God cannot deny or contradict Himself, (2 Timothy 2:13). The opposite of His Law is NOT His Grace. The opposite of Law is lawlessness.

 

The Modern Hebrew Language

In modern Hebrew the term has come to mean to be considerate and to show favor, but in ancient Hebrew, (according to what words meant when the Scriptures were written); the term grace had a much deeper picture than what we are commonly accustomed to hearing.

The Ancient Hebrew Word Pictures

 

According to the ancient Hebrew word pictures USING THE ORIGINAL LETTERS, GRACE literally means: The fence, the border, or the boundary, that guards or protects your life, your actions, and your movements.

CRITICAL: When people try to remove the Law of YHWH, they are in fact removing the guardrail. They are removing the instructions of God that are intended to guard our lives. According to the ancient Hebraic mindset, when you remove the law of God, you are also removing the Grace of God at the same time, because you are then removing the fence, the boundary, and the border that God has provided to guard your life.

Today, we often teach a definition of the term GRACE that is actually the OPPOSITE of God's original definition.

Unfortunately, today many people MISTAKENLY believe that GRACE is about REMOVING the borders, the boundaries, or the fences that God placed there to guard our lives, our actions and our movements. In reality however, according to God's definition, when you remove the borders you are actually REMOVING GRACE,

SIGNIFICANT ISSUE: We know of course that God does not change, (e.g. Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Isaiah 40:8; Psalm 33:11; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). Nevertheless, did you notice the radical change in meaning from the ancient Hebrew word picture to the modern Hebrew understanding of the term? That means that HUMAN BEINGS have changed the meaning of the word over time.

If you look at the ancient Hebrew word meaning for the term grace, and the modern understanding of the term grace, it means that human beings have actually REVERSED the meaning of the term grace, compared to its ORIGINAL intent.

So How Does Paul the Apostle Define Grace and What Grace Came to Accomplish?

If we look carefully at Titus 2:11-15, we see a very clear description of how Paul the apostle defines GRACE, and the FUNCTIONS OF GRACE in the New Testament:

As it is written:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.” (Titus 2:11–15, NKJV)

According to Paul, WHAT DOES THE GRACE OF GOD ACTUALLY DO?

·        Grace brings salvation.

·        Grace makes salvation appear, (or evident, or visible) to all mankind.

·        Grace teaches us to DENY or in other words to REJECT ungodly or worldly lusts, passions and desires.

·        Grace teaches us that we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. So according to Paul, God's TRUE Grace actually teaches us to come back within the fences the boundaries and the borders which God established.  Isn't that interesting?

·        Grace teaches us to actively look for the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ.

·        Through Grace, Christ gave Himself up to REDEEM us FROM EVERY LAWLESS DEED. So Grace through Messiah appeared in order to REDEEM US FROM every lawless deed, NOT to cause or to permit more lawlessness. That's critical. So, living outside of God's Laws Commandments and Instructions is what Jesus Christ and the Grace of God came to save us FROM doing. Therefore, continuing to live in lawlessness; continuing to live outside of God's Laws Commandments and Instructions CANNOT POSSIBLY be what it means to live under Grace, because living outside of God's Laws Commandments and Instructions; that is the very lawless lifestyle that the Grace of God and Messiah came to SAVE US FROM continuing to do, according to Paul.

·        God's grace came through Yeshua the Messiah, to make us God's own special people; a people ZEALOUS FOR GOOD DEEDS, (which is the very OPPOSITE of sin and lawlessness).

·        And Paul specifically tells us to speak these things. He tells us to exhort and to rebuke with all authority in the context of these things. And he tells us to NOT allow anyone to disregard us concerning this teaching about Grace. I find verse 15 very telling because obviously God understood that people would be tempted to disregard this New Testament definition of Grace, so the Holy Spirit obviously directed Paul to write the specific instruction in verse 15. So we are called to speak, to exhort, and to rebuke using this definition of grace, and not allow anyone to disregard us, (Titus 2:15). That's interesting.

Isn't it intriguing that when we hear many modern Christians talk about Grace today, there is almost never any self-restraint, self-denial, rejection of ungodliness ever mentioned? Did you notice though that according to the definition that Paul used, rejecting sinful passions and worldly lusts is part of the very definition, part of the very essence of what grace is and what Grace does?

Note: Did you notice how the ancient Hebrew word picture for the word GRACE, and Paul the apostle's description of the Grace of God in Titus 2:11-14, actually MATCH and perfectly coincide together? In effect, it could well be argued that Paul the apostle was actually trying to bring people back; he was trying to RESTORE people back to the ancient Hebraic understanding of the term GRACE. in his description of the term in Titus 2:11-14.


Taking away the borders and the boundaries and the fences that God has established to protect our lives is actually the OPPOSITE of Grace. That's actually Anti-Grace. Think about it.

I want to live by the true grace of God, and I challenge you to do the same.

As it is written:

‘For My people have forgotten Me, They burn incense to worthless gods And they have stumbled from their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in bypaths, Not on a highway,” (Jeremiah 18:15, NASB95)

As it is written: 

Thus says the Lord, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” (Jeremiah 6:16, NASB95)  

Brother R Michel Lankford