Only the humble can recognize their need for it and realize the need is so great there is only One who can meet it, and thus God gives grace to the humble, but He resist the proud.
Harry Gilreath said it best when he stated, “grace is God’s ability made available to us through the pipeline of faith.”
Insisting on the pacemaker of the law to complete what Christ has already done for us will disrupt our heartbeat for God. This is why the Scripture calls it falling from grace.
Galatians 5:4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
James says this about the Law. James 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
Have you ever heard of the rule of non-contradiction. It is the rule that something cannot be both true and not true at the same time when dealing with the same context. For example, this table in front of me, cannot be made of wood, and not made of wood at the same time. For example, in the gospels we have two statements about Judas’ death. (1) Judas hung himself. (2) Judas fell down and his bowels spilled out. Neither statement about Judas contradicts the other. That is, neither statement makes the other impossible because neither excludes the possibility of the other. The statements can be harmonized by stating: Judas hung himself and then his body fell down and his bowels spilled out. In order to make the set of statements contradictory, we would have something like: (1) Judas hung himself. (2) Judas did not hang himself. Since either statement excludes the possibility of the other, we would then have a contradiction.
If you believe the Scriptures are inspired by the Holy Spirit, and you should. Do you think He would contradict Himself concerning law and grace, or would He make the gospel clear?
About The Author
- Tim Atchley
- Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
- I currently serve as Senior Pastor of Harvest Church in Knoxville, Tn. I was sent out from Trinity Chapel of Knoxville in 1993 accompanied by my wife Sheila our four children Sarah, Hannah, Josiah & Isaac and a handful of bold, brave and committed believers determined to plant our first church. Pioneering is hard work but well worth the journey. That is why we desire to make disciples of Christ who will, like us, also embrace the call to plant churches.
