God’s Amazing Grace
Treasures
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God created human beings in His image with free will and the majesty of choice to choose to love and obey Him as His grateful children. However, the first human beings fell into sin through their choice to disobey God (Genesis 3:1–19). Through this entrance of sin into the world, all people became sinners by nature and separated from God (Romans 5:12–14). But God, in His infinite love and mercy, reconciled humanity to Himself by giving the world His only Son, “so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Anyone who accepts God’s pardon for sin through Jesus Christ is not only forgiven and redeemed, but will live forever in God’s presence.
Salvation is a gift of God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness, and can only be attained through belief in Jesus. Once we receive God’s gift of salvation, we have the sure knowledge that after death, we will live forever in heaven. “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28). We continue to be fallible people in need of God’s forgiveness, but despite our shortcomings and sins, we will never lose our salvation.
According to the Mosaic law (revealed to Moses by God), every one of us is a sinner, because not one of us can keep it. “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin” (Romans 3:20). In fact, it is impossible for anyone to live up to the standard set in the laws God gave in the Old Testament.
The law was our guardian or “schoolmaster” to show us that we’re sinners, to bring us to God for mercy, and to show us His absolute perfection and perfect righteousness, which was impossible for us to attain. “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24).
The law was a gift to God’s people to learn to walk according to His truth and holiness, and to keep them from the destruction of sin. In Psalms we read, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether” (Psalm 19:7–9). By the old law, God taught us that we could never attain to His holiness and perfection. The Old Covenant served its purpose for its time, and has been replaced by “a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22).
When Jesus came to earth, through His life and death He became the mediator of a new covenant of God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness, love, and truth—our salvation by faith in Jesus: “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Jesus came and gave His life for us on the cross, and now salvation comes “not by works of righteousness which we have done,” but by His grace and mercy (Titus 3:5).
God’s grace and salvation through faith is the end of the Old Covenant for all who receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. Paul preached sermon after sermon teaching that the old law was finished for the Christian who is living under God’s grace. “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6).
This became a raging controversy in the early church with the “concision,” the converted Jews who said, “We believe in Jesus, but we still have to keep all the old law. We still have to keep the Mosaic laws and rituals under the Old Testament covenant.” (See Galatians 3.) However, according to the New Testament, God’s children today are no longer under the old covenant of the Old Testament with its many ritual and religious laws.
As Paul proclaimed, “Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith” (Galatians 3:23–26).
God’s Law of Love
When the religious leaders questioned Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” He replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:36–39).
He then shocked them by continuing to say, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:40). “The Law and the Prophets” encompass the entire Old Testament. They had numerous religious and ritual laws, but Jesus said that all the Law as well as all the Prophets depend on this one law—love of God and love of neighbor. In other words, if you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and you love others as you love yourself, you will fulfill God’s law.
Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). As the sinless son of God, Jesus fulfilled the commandments and requirements of the law. And by fulfilling it, He ended it for all who believe in Him and accept His sacrifice on the cross for their sin. Therefore all who receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior are no longer required to keep the laws of the Old Testament. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4).
When the religious leaders of Jesus’ day questioned why He was eating with sinners, Jesus replied, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). In other words, God’s idea of righteousness is not about earning merit with God through dutiful keeping of the law. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). Through Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection we are freed from the bondage of sin. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1–2).
Jesus told His disciples in John 13: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). In His famous “golden rule,” Jesus taught: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). The apostle Paul echoed this principle when he wrote: “The entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:14).
What about the Ten Commandments?
In the Gospels, Jesus reaffirmed many of the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20:1–17, which contained the moral code of God’s law. For example, when a rich young ruler asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life,” Jesus repeated many of the Ten Commandments to the rich young ruler. “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother’” (Mark 10:17–19). Nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament in numerous places. The only commandment not repeated in the New Testament is the fourth one regarding keeping the Sabbath.
Loving God first and foremost and loving others will result in the ultimate fulfillment of the Ten Commandments. If we as Christians love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves, we will naturally fulfill the spirit and intent of all the other laws. For example, we won't put other gods before Him or take His name in vain. To love our neighbors as ourselves precludes murder, stealing, slander, or coveting what others have.
The motivation for us—as Christians—to obey these commandments is because we are compelled by our love for God and others to be examples of His love and kindness to our neighbors (2 Corinthians 5:14). We refrain from activities forbidden by the Ten Commandments because they would not be in accordance with our love for God and others.
In many ways, the new covenant Jesus ushered in requires a stricter code of conduct than the old one under the Mosaic law. The Ten Commandments required that people act justly and refrain from activities that would dishonor God or harm others, but under the new covenant, much more is required of us—sacrificial love and mercy. We are to “owe no one anything, but to love one another: for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8). “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well” (James 2:8).
Through Jesus’ fulfillment of the old law, we are no longer bound by it and have been granted grace and freedom. But God’s Law of Love is the most binding law of all and can be much more difficult to keep—in fact, it is humanly impossible. That’s why He taught that “apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5). But the Bible also teaches that we “can do all things through Christ who strengthens us” (Philippians 4:13). For “His grace is sufficient for us; His strength is made perfect in our weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
You can’t possibly keep Jesus’ commands unless you have accepted Him as your Savior and God’s Spirit dwells within you, to give you the power and the strength to love others as you love yourself, and to “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
As Christians, we have received eternal salvation and a life filled with God’s love—full of grace. It has nothing to do with our own sinlessness or any kind of perfection or works or law-keeping of our own. We all make mistakes and fail, we all sin, and any righteousness we have is only the grace of God. But we have been freed from the bondage and condemnation of sin by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Jesus “canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). It was on the cross, at the very end of His ministry on earth, that He proclaimed, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
God’s Law of Love as explained in Matthew 22:35–40 should govern every aspect of a Christian’s life and interactions with others. The biblical passages “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “love your neighbor as yourself” express the heart and soul of God’s laws and should guide all our actions and interaction with others. As Christians, our actions should be motivated by unselfish, sacrificial love—the love of God for our fellow man.
From an article in Treasures, published by the Family International in 1987. Adapted and republished November 2024. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.
