What the Bible says about Law and Grace Complementary
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Deuteronomy 10:16 This does not contradict Deuteronomy 30:6, where it is said that "the LORD your God will circumcise your heart." It is instead a clarification. The changing, the growing, the overcoming, the transformation of the heart, the writing of the laws on the heart, is cooperative. God does His part; we do our part. If God would do everything, then what would be the need of removing the fault? Why do it? God removes the fault so that we can do our part! It is a cooperative effort. How does God do His part? He calls us and gives us His Spirit. As John 14 tells us, the Spirit shall be with you and in you. The goodness of God by His Spirit leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). So God calls and opens up the mind, working with us by His Spirit in a way that He never did before. He makes things mean more to us in a far deeper and more meaningful way. He provides us with greater understanding and more passion so we desire to yield to Him. He begins His miraculous work of changing our hearts. What remains to be seen is what will we do with this altered situation? He does His part by giving us knowledge and increasing our faith. He reveals to us the true Christ, His law, and what the purpose of life is. He spurs an interest in His Word that we never had before. What are we going to do? We must respond. As we respond, changes begin to take place. Sometimes, Israel's attitude toward God was good, and He delighted in it. However, they could never sustain it. In the book of Judges, when Israel had an outstanding leader like Gideon, things went along smoothly for a good while. But Gideon died, and the country went downhill. God had to raise up another leader. Such is the gist of the historical relationship between God and Israel. We have had relationships with people that were similar—good for a little while, bad for a long while, good for a little while, bad for a long while. However, God does not want to marry someone about whom He must always worry whether or not He must fight with them. He wants to have a marriage with someone like Him—who thinks as He does, whom He can really be "one" with. He does not want a relationship that is "hot" one minute and "cold" the next, nor one in which the couple throws their arms around each other and everything is warm and fuzzy, but in an instant, one is giving the other the cold shoulder. That is the kind of relationship He had with Israel. He does not want that kind of a relationship with the "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16). Thus, there must be a cooperative effort between God and the believer to change our hearts. John W. Ritenbaugh The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Twelve) Related Topics: Building a Relationship with God | Change of Heart | Circumcision of the Heart | Cooperation with God | Gift of God's Holy Spirit | Grace and Law | Law and Grace | Law and Grace Complementary | Law Written on Our Hearts | Our Voluntary Cooperation with God | Responding to God | Responding to God's Call | Responsibility for Responding to God

Matthew 23:23 Why is mercy so weighty? Those who teach "grace only" apart from the law do not even see a need for mercy, since, to them, grace cancels any need for mercy. By their definition, mercy is automatic once they are "saved"! In theory, they can breeze through a "happy, happy, joy, joy" life with no fear of eternal consequences. If that were true, why did Christ not make "grace" one of the weighty matters and leave out mercy? The Pharisees believed in keeping the law perfectly and being saved as a result. Modern Christianity teaches the law is done away, and all they need is saving grace, given when they "accept the Lord." Neither of these opposing approaches will work! Staff The Weightier Matters (Part 3): Mercy Related Topics: Grace | Judgment, Mercy, and Faith | Justice, Compassion, and Faithfulness | Law "Done Away" | Law and Grace | Law and Grace Complementary | Law or Grace | Love as Keeping Commandments | Mercy | Mercy as Larger Obligation | Weightier Matters of the Law

John 1:17 What did Jesus Christ establish to be taught in the churches? What He brought - in what we consider to be the New Testament era - is not at all contradictory or fundamentally different from what the Old Testament teaches. His message is complementary, completing the teaching of the Old Testament, rounding out and finishing God's revelation to mankind. The word "but" in verse 17 has been inserted by the translators. In those Bibles that use the convention, it is in italics, which shows that it is a word added by the translators to clarify what they believe is the sense. Why did they choose "but"? The translators' fundamental belief is that Jesus came to change what was taught by Moses. However, if they had put together what the rest of the New Testament says, Jesus came and added to and completed what Moses and the other prophets preached. There is a better word to insert there: "and." Thus, "For the law was given through Moses and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." They are complementary, not contradictory. Perhaps the word "supplementary" would better explain it, though what Jesus brought is both complementary and supplementary. "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17). Consider a candy jar, which is filled only an inch. That represents what Moses taught, the law. But Jesus filled the rest of the candy jar full! Jesus brought the spirit of the law. He filled to the full the revelation of God. What Moses taught in the law is the law of the Kingdom of God. It cannot be separated from the gospel of the Kingdom of God that Jesus brought because the Kingdom of God needs law to function. God's Kingdom is a real entity. It is designed to function, and it will only function through law and, of course, grace, as they work together. Richard T. Ritenbaugh Itching Ears Related Topics: Grace | Itching Ears | Law | Law "Done Away" | Law and Grace | Law and Grace Complementary | Law and Prophets | Law Keeping | Law or Grace | Law, Intent of | Law, Purpose of | Lawkeeping | Letter of the Law | Magnification of Law | Magnification of the Law | Spirit of the Law

John 14:6 Jesus announces to them that He is leaving. Because they want to be where He is, they want to know the way to get there. When He says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," He is basically saying that it is through a unique combination of a relationship with Him, which consists of being justified through Him, following His example, and obeying what He commands. Christianity is a way of life. The disciples ask, "Show us the way." Where was Christ going to be? In the Kingdom of God. How does one get to the Kingdom of God? There is a way! It is not "all roads lead to heaven," but there is one way to get there. John W. Ritenbaugh The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Two) Related Topics: Christ's Example | Jesus Christ's Example | Law and Grace | Law and Grace Complementary | Law or Grace | Obedience | Obeying | The Way | Way of God | Way of Life | Way, The

Romans 6:12 Paul is not saying the law is done away. Nor is he saying that grace gives us the right to live apart from the government of God. He really nails this down. John W. Ritenbaugh Grace Upon Grace Related Topics: Cheap Grace | God's Law Done Away | Grace | Grace, Cheap | Law and Grace | Law and Grace Complementary | Law Defines Sin | Law Keeping | Sin is the Transgression of the Law

Romans 6:14-15 What does it mean to be "under the law"? The apostle Paul says that we are "not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14). "Sin is the transgression of the law" (I John 3:4, KJV), and every human being who has ever lived—except Jesus Christ—has sinned (Romans 3:23). Once the knowledge of the law comes, there is no excuse, and the law condemns all who break it to eternal death. Paul personifies the law as the instrument that points the finger of condemnation at each of us: "I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died" (Romans 7:9). Therefore, to be "under the law" means to be "under the condemnation of the law." The phrase "under the law" is also used in Romans 3:19; I Corinthians 9:20-21; Galatians 3:23; 4:4-5; 4:21; 4:18. Earl L. Henn Was Jesus Christ Born Under the Law? Related Topics: Antinomian | Dead to Sin | Dead to the Law | Death Penalty | God's Law | Grace | Law | Law "Done Away" | Law and Grace | Law and Grace Complementary | Law as Standard of Judgment | Law Defines Sin | Law Illuminating Sin | Sin | Under the Law

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Paul is paraphrasing what Jesus said: "Obey the laws of God. Don't steal. Don't lust. Don't covet. Don't be a drunkard - because you are justified."Paul gives justification as the very reason they should obey the law of God - because they had been justified. He says, "Choose life because you have been justified." Justification is given as the reason - indeed, the obligation - for voluntarily choosing life, for choosing not to sin. John W. Ritenbaugh The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Four) Related Topics: Choices | Choosing Life | Justification | Law "Done Away" | Law and Grace | Law and Grace Complementary | Law Breaking | Law Keeping | Law or Grace | Lawkeeping | Obedience | Obeying | Obligation | Obligation, Sense of

2 Corinthians 6:1 J.B. Phillips' New Testament in Modern English renders this verse, "As cooperators with God Himself we beg you, then, not to fail to use the grace of God." The apostle Paul warns us against receiving grace with no purpose in mind for making the very best use of God's wonderful gift. God gives grace to be used by those who receive it. The sanctification process that follows justification requires our cooperation with Him so that the right qualities, understanding, and sensitivities are produced by His creative efforts. This cooperation produces Christian works. We must stop resisting Him through neglectful drifting—thus receiving God's grace in vain. John W. Ritenbaugh Seeking God (Part Two): A Foundation Related Topics: Cheap Grace | Cooperation with God | God's Grace | Grace and Work Complementary | Grace, Cheap | Law and Grace Complementary | Sanctification | Sanctification as Growth | Sanctification as Process | Work and Grace Complementary

2 Peter 3:15-16 No law/no works advocates "credit" the apostle Paul for teaching that God's law is done away. However, notice that Peter says all of Paul's epistles had things in them that people twisted! This happens because people frequently will not take the time to study deeply, and at the same time, lack the humility to admit the truth. John W. Ritenbaugh Is the Christian Required to Do Works? (Part One) Related Topics: Antinomian | Antinomianism | Law "Done Away" | Law and Grace Complementary | Law Keeping | Works | Works and Faith Complementary | Works, Paul's Emphasis Upon | Works, The Necessity of Good

 

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