There are some who argue that grace holds us to a higher standard than the law. This is done my pointing to the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. Here’s a brief quote from a Oneness Pentecostal writer on this topic,
“The Lord Jesus did not do away with the ten commandments. He magnified them. Let me give you an example of what I mean. One of them is, “thou shall not kill”. Jesus said in Matt 5: 22 "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment". There is another commandment, “thou shall not commit adultery”. Jesus magnified this and said, "if you look upon a woman to lust after her, you have committed adultery in your heart”. They were not allowed to steal but to us the commandment goes further and says, “do not covet”. So again, He did not remove the commandments but magnified them. What He requires us to live in this new era (after the death of Christ) requires more commitment than they had under the law. So, the Lord did not do away with the commandment, but added more to it in a sense. Under the law, you could not commit the act of sin, but under grace you cannot commit the act of sin, nor can you think about doing it.”
— THE ARGUMENT FOR HOLINESS: Holiness: Inside & Outside by Charles A. Rhodus, Pg. 30
As you can see, the writer argues that Jesus came to teach that under grace the standard is actually higher than the standard under the law. The way I’ve heard it argued in the past was that the Law required obedience to rules, but grace requires a heart change. This means you could hate your brother under the law, as long as you do not murder, and you could lust after a woman under the law, as long as you didn’t commit adultery with her.
Now, I am going to show that this not only misunderstands what it means to be under grace, but also that it is a complete misreading of Jesus and what he was trying to accomplish in this Sermon.
First, let’s look at the passage in question. It’s a lengthy portion going from Matthew 5:21 through Matthew 5:48. This portion of Scripture introduces the 6 antitheses. These are Murder, Adultery, Divorce, Oaths, Eye for an Eye, Love thy Neighbor.
Each antithesis begins with a form of the “It has been said” formula, followed by a legal point from the Mosaic code. Jesus then continues with “But I say unto you,” which introduces his clarification and intensification of the principle behind the legal proposition.
It’s called the 6 antitheses because many mistakenly thing these are contradicting the law of Moses. In reality Jesus is not changing or adding to the law of Moses, he’s showing the Jewish listeners just how impossible it is to live up to the demands of the law.
We are all law breakers, all of us are found guilty. Not one person, outside of Jesus Christ, can stand confidently and say they keep the law perfectly.
Matthew 5:21-22 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”
They Jews thought they were keeping the law because they had not murdered, Jesus is showing them the principle behind the law. It’s deeper than mere actions, it’s the heart behind it that he is after.
If you have been angry with a brother you get the same penalty as someone who murdered. Both will be subject to judgment.
Matthew 5:27-28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
The audience believed they were obeying the law by not committing adultery, but Jesus says, if you just look at a women lustfully you have already committed adultery in your heart. Ouch.
We won’t go through all the antitheses Jesus mentions in Matthew 5, but I want to show what he says about cutting out your eye and cutting off your hand.
Matthew 5:29-30 “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”
What does this mean? Jesus is saying that if your right eye is causing you to stumble, it’s better for you to go ahead and gouge it out and throw it away. Then he says, if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away.
What you see is eventually what you will touch, it’s a progression of sin. But here’s the problem. You see and lust so you cut out your eyes, you touch so you cut off your hands, you might take it further and cut off your eyes because you hear something and entertain it. You can cut off your legs because you keep going to places you shouldn’t go.
But you will never be able to cut off the source of your sinfulness, your heart. A blind man can still lust in his heart.
That’s what Jesus is trying to illustrate! It’s not just about our actions. He’s trying to get to our heart!
This is why we will never be able to obey the law perfectly, we have a sin nature that is naturally drawn to sin. We wrestle with our sinfulness every day.
Paul says in Romans 7:14-18,
14) We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
15) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
16) And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
17) As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
18) For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
So what’s the answer?
Law/Gospel Distinction
I struggled to understand what all this meant when I first left the Oneness Pentecostal Faith. I was convinced that grace required more than the law did. That we had needed to work harder than ever to make sure we weren’t breaking the law through our hearts.
It didn’t register with me for a while that I was expecting myself and others to live to a standard higher than the standard that was already impossible for us to live up to. Jesus is the only perfect law keeper.
After struggling with that, I found some teaching that really resonated with me. It was saying that Christ abolished the law, including the 10 commandments and we are free from any law or rule, we just accept his grace. This led to a pendulum swing where I went from one extreme to the other.
I rejected the works based salvation I was leaving and I almost embraced an antinomian position that didn’t believe anything was sinful in Christ. Luckily I was able to find someone who correctly pointed out that both legalism and antinomianism are two sides of the same coin. Both dangerous and both wrong.
All that to say, the reason so many are struggling with this tug of war between legalism and antinomianism is because we don’t do a good enough job of explaining the law/gospel distinction.
This view puts things into perspective, it shows that the Law isn’t bad, it’s actually good. We are just unable to keep it due to our sinfulness. The law shows us what God demands, driving us to Christ.
While the Law is what God demands of us, the gospel is what Christ has done for us. While we cannot live up to the standard of the law, Christ fulfilled it perfectly. Not only meeting the demands of the law through perfect obedience, but also by taking the punishment the law demands on sinfulness by taking our place on the cross.
Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”
Christ took our sins to the cross, in doing so he canceled the debt and fulfilled the legal requirements of the law.
It’s why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
In Galatians Paul takes it further and says now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
Galatians 3:23-26 “Now before faith came we were held in custody under the law, being kept as prisoners until the coming faith would be revealed. Thus the law had become our guardian until Christ, so that we could be declared righteous by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.”
This is why salvation comes through faith.
Ephesians 2:8-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
We are not saved by our works, but this doesn’t mean we don’t walk in them. They just aren’t the basis of our standing before God.
We are no longer under the law, this means the promises of God are not conditional. Under the law, God’s promises were conditionally attached to our obedience. If you, then I statements are found throughout the book of Deuteronomy. In Christ the promises of God are unconditionally given through faith.
Now, we don’t do good works to earn anything, instead we do good works out of gratitude, it’s faith working through love.
Galatians 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision carries any weight – the only thing that matters is faith working through love.”
1 Thessalonians 1:3 “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Good works are produced by faith, our labor is motivated by love, and our endurance comes from our assurance and hope in Christ. None of this earns any favor or merit, all of our assurance is in Christ.
Holiness
Ok, so we see the distinction between the law and the gospel, but what does holiness look like then if it’s not what the original quote said?
1 Corinthians 1:30 “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”
If we understand that justification and sanctification both are found in Christ, in other words, what justifies me is His righteousness, and what sanctifies me is His Spirit working through me. We should also have the understanding that it is Christ that is the source of my holiness, not my actions.
2nd Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
This means that we are changed by the Spirit of God to be more like Him. Our mistakes and failures pass away under the blood of Christ and we are brand new.
What this doesn’t mean is that my actions play no part. Of course true holiness is evident in how we life and interact, but the source comes not from my own effort but his Spirit at work in me.
Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
The very reason I desire to do good and to please God is because it is Him who is working in me to will and to act. The NET translation says it like this,
“for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.”
This keeps the focus of my entire faith journey on Christ. He’s the one who is working in me, he’s the one bringing the desire and the effort to do good works and to be pleasing to him.
it’s all in Him. My righteousness is not my own that was earned through my performance, it is given to me in a glorious exchange. His righteousness for my sin. He took my sin, and the sins of the whole world, and offers us the free gift of salvation that comes through faith.
Don’t ever fall for the trap that he saves us through his work, but we maintain salvation through our own.
Paul clearly shows this is flawed in Galatians 3:1-3 “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?”
We start in the Spirit and we finish by the same Spirit.
Hebrews 12:2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
he not only starts our faith journey, he completes it.
NASB “looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
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