The Law Sketches the Scope of Grace
From 1 Timothy 1 – 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for the righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate…
Charles Spurgeon reflects in his conviction and conversion in Grace Abounding, "God had a bigger mouth to speak with than I had a heart to conceive with."
Just so, Paul considers with Timothy as 1 Timothy 1:9 develops the real purpose of God's Law, and as it turns out, the variety of human substitutes we put in its place. God's Word, and especially its Law, can be seen as pervasive in its demands, or comprehensive in its all-encompassing picture of holiness. Holiness is the standard before us in our relationships. Holiness is the standard before us in our business. Holiness, it seems, is the standard before us in our kitchen. Every point of reference before practical holiness is also a point of confrontation and conviction. The Word, as demonstrated in the seamlessness of the Law, is, respectfully, God's big mouth to speak with.
Where the standard of the law convicts and breaks, there is already grace. It is, as Will Durant in The Age of Reason Begins said of Rembrandt, the beauty of representing ugliness truthfully. We need, Paul would agree, to begin to grasp the scope of our guilt routinely and cosmically before we can begin to understand the scope of God's forgiveness and the righteousness of Christ slathered on us.
The Law, convicting, painful, and exasperating as it can be, has its place in grace because, as Ashes Remain sings in "End of Me," "When nothing's wrong, nothing's okay." Because the Law did its work on me as an unbeliever, and its standard still remains stamped on my mind, I have something with which to measure growth in grace.
I can, in the most routine of payroll transactions yesterday, catch a whiff of Heavenly incense. If, my spirit more prone to guilt and anxiety reasoned God intervenes against those who get between the poorest workers and their prompt payment, the inverse rejoicing is that He is palpably Present in the joyful, faith-filled answering of our duties to one another. The Law as Paul elsewhere put it, told me I am a sinner. The Law, like marks on the doorframe of an old house, also confirms for me the transformation grace is working.
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for the righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate…
Charles Spurgeon reflects in his conviction and conversion in Grace Abounding, "God had a bigger mouth to speak with than I had a heart to conceive with."
Just so, Paul considers with Timothy as 1 Timothy 1:9 develops the real purpose of God's Law, and as it turns out, the variety of human substitutes we put in its place. God's Word, and especially its Law, can be seen as pervasive in its demands, or comprehensive in its all-encompassing picture of holiness. Holiness is the standard before us in our relationships. Holiness is the standard before us in our business. Holiness, it seems, is the standard before us in our kitchen. Every point of reference before practical holiness is also a point of confrontation and conviction. The Word, as demonstrated in the seamlessness of the Law, is, respectfully, God's big mouth to speak with.
Where the standard of the law convicts and breaks, there is already grace. It is, as Will Durant in The Age of Reason Begins said of Rembrandt, the beauty of representing ugliness truthfully. We need, Paul would agree, to begin to grasp the scope of our guilt routinely and cosmically before we can begin to understand the scope of God's forgiveness and the righteousness of Christ slathered on us.
The Law, convicting, painful, and exasperating as it can be, has its place in grace because, as Ashes Remain sings in "End of Me," "When nothing's wrong, nothing's okay." Because the Law did its work on me as an unbeliever, and its standard still remains stamped on my mind, I have something with which to measure growth in grace.
I can, in the most routine of payroll transactions yesterday, catch a whiff of Heavenly incense. If, my spirit more prone to guilt and anxiety reasoned God intervenes against those who get between the poorest workers and their prompt payment, the inverse rejoicing is that He is palpably Present in the joyful, faith-filled answering of our duties to one another. The Law as Paul elsewhere put it, told me I am a sinner. The Law, like marks on the doorframe of an old house, also confirms for me the transformation grace is working.
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