Does Grace "Trample On God's Law"?

Does grace “trample on God’s Law”? A person I know thinks so. He said, “Of course we receive grace, but living contrary to God’s laws can keep us from salvation. You are trampling on God’s law! Paul said the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good” (Romans 7:12).
Am I against keeping God’s law? I am against the “obedience to the law gospel.” I am against the “if you don’t obey, then you are toast” gospel?
The message? Might as well face it, you are doomed if you don’t obey. Am I against that message? You bet. Why? Jesus is. And I want to be on His side. I choose Jesus over Moses.
On what basis am I against keeping God’s law? I am against being enslaved to the law. Why? I know its bitter fruit. I did 35 hard years in that spiritual dungeon. Of course I believe the law and the commandment is holy. God made it, therefore it’s holy. It comes from Him. It’s His.
Lots of things, according to the old covenant, are holy, in fact that very word is definitively used to describe “things” (see, for example Leviticus 5:15; Numbers 4:20 and Deuteronomy 12:26). Zechariah 14:21 speaks of holy pots. The old covenant list is endless about holy things. There are holy days, holy oil, holy people and holy places. Holy stuff in the old covenant does not mean that Christians are obligated to worship, follow and obey anything it describes as holy.
Neither are Christians required or obligated to obey holiness codes of behavior and separation that were given to the Hebrews, as if obedience to all that old covenant stuff will save us. I enjoy bacon and eggs, ham sandwiches and pepperoni pizza, but I am in union with Christ. I am still saved even though my wife and I don’t keep a kosher kitchen. I wear clothing with mixed fabric, we plant different plants or seeds in our backyard garden (Leviticus 19:19), we don’t have a battlement or parapet around our house (Deuteronomy 22:8), and there have been times when I have failed to rise when someone older than myself enters the room (Leviticus 19:32).
I’m being silly, you say? You want me to concentrate on the Ten Commandments only? Okay. Well, for starters, I do not believe that there are any days that are holy for Christians -- that is, more holy than another. But the Ten Commandments make it very clear. The day for worship is Saturday (Exodus 20:8-11). By the way, if you read these verses carefully you will find that the Ten Commandments demand that the seventh day Sabbath is holy.
Here’s the bottom line on all this “you have to obey the law to be saved” stuff. The law is impossible to keep. It’s obvious that the law, as given in the Bible, is impossible for Christians. The truth is that the law does not save us. Jesus alone observed the law perfectly. Jesus alone can save us. He does not save us, give us eternal life, and then tell us that if we do not perfectly obey the law (any law) we will lose our salvation. So what law, which laws, exactly, law-keepers of the world, are we commanded to keep and observe so that as Christians we might prove our worthiness to God and eventually earn our safe passage into God’s kingdom of heaven?
Matthew 22:37-40 is the key – love of God and love of your neighbor. Jesus said that everything that came before is based on this love. But do we love in a legalistic way to earn God’s approval? No – we are able to love as a RESULT of God’s approval! And we do it as a form of worship for what He has done for us in saving us.
What happens when our obedience becomes our focus and our priority? We start marching down the path that leads to religious bondage. We find ourselves deeply entrenched in systems that promise us God’s favor in return for our performance, a condition from which the gospel of Jesus Christ promises to liberate us. We find ourselves convinced that we are better than others who do not work as hard as we do to be saved. We find ourselves filled with religious pride, condemning those who do not measure up to the standard imposed by the particular religious doctrine that holds us captive.
But the gospel talks about a way of being a fool, which I believe is the root of this law-keeper’s concern. The cross of Christ is foolishness, says Paul (1 Corinthians 1:18, 21, 23). The perceived weakness of this act, of giving oneself as a lamb to be brutally beaten and crucified, is foolishness to the human mind. God’s grace, which tells us that we cannot earn God’s favor, is foolishness to the human mind. God’s grace is beyond foolishness, it is scandalous to the natural mind. This is the foolishness I recognize and embrace. The foolishness by which I want to be identified is found in Christ. I will gladly be found a fool for Him.
Law keepers find all this grace talk embarrassing, it’s not the stuff of hard working religious folks who are paying their own way. Grace to them seems like welfare and hand-outs, and belittles and demeans all of the hard religious work they do. Their fears are well founded. God’s grace says that our work has nothing to do with our salvation.
I believe the law is more like a curse -- a curse when people become convinced that any law deserves to occupy the spotlight in their lives. Law keeping turns us into religious slaves. Law keeping takes us captive into the world of religious legalism. Paul says that anyone who thinks that his or her salvation comes from keeping the law is under a curse (Galatians 3:10). I believe it. I experienced it for 35 years.
The law did not die on the cross for us, even though it was blotted out there. The law did not rise from the tomb. The law is not seated in heavenly places. The law is not the King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus alone is Lord. He alone is worthy of our worship. He alone saves us. Faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone.
When you come to really understand GRACE, you will know WHO YOU ARE – A CHRIST/PERSON – and you will LOVE because Christ in you is doing the loving.

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