Dear Amy,
What does it mean in practice to be a people not under law but under grace?
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
― Romans 6:14-15
Law and grace: are these in opposition? Jesus sets the highest standards in the Sermon on the Mount, then freely forgives and restores, refusing to let law limit grace.
Let’s consider a couple of contemporary issues.
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
― 1 Timothy 2:12
Surely this was a cultural thing that no longer applies, and so surely these days women are free to pursue a preaching ministry? Surely? Except for the very next verse.
For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
― 1 Timothy 2:13-14
Oh dear. Paul is making a creational argument here, which seems to be as clear as it is harsh. Not something that can be so easily brushed aside then!
I choose however to hold no opinion about this, and instead I choose to honour those women who have wrestled with this themselves and are honouring and serving the Lord through a preaching ministry. Wrestling is certainly required, but who am I to seek to impose my own view into someone else’s life?
Besides, I have my own issue.
Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
― Matthew 19:8-9
Does this prevent the Lord from rescuing me from the shame of my own life after a failed marriage? Is grace trumped by law here?
How tempted we are to be black and white about the lives of others, yet rather grey about our own. Show me the one who does not find themselves on the wrong side of particular verses in the Bible, and does not have to cast themselves upon God’s mercy even to live their life. Does such a one exist?
Jesus himself faced a law versus grace issue in relation to the Fourth Commandment, and on one occasion when confronted by the Pharisees, he related the story of David apparently breaking the law by eating with his men consecrated bread from the temple, before concluding:
“I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
― Matthew 12:6-8
Does this mean that under grace everything is in fact somewhat grey? By no means!
Everything rather is lit by a dazzling technicolour explosion of grace and redemption from the Lord, and that particular mercy which triumphs over judgment. This enables some women to pursue a preaching ministry for his glory, some divorced men to remarry by his grace, and others to live their lives in dependence on the riches of his mercy. Praise the Lord!
Know that this in no way removes or diminishes our call to live as slaves to righteousness, fully surrendered and walking in obedience with the Lord. (I will undoubtedly have to revisit this aspect of “not under law but under grace”.)
Live your life for his glory, Amy, as one not under law but under grace, and praise the Lord! 🙏🙌