Has God changed his mind?
That God by grace saves the one who believes is not a truth that first appears in the New Testament. Throughout the Bible, faith is linked to God’s salvation initiative: the sacrificial lamb. Faith connects the old and the new covenant. It is therefore wrong to put a contradiction between Law and Grace.
The Law or The Gospel
In recent years, we have seen the emergence of a preaching, often called hyper grace, which sets the law and the gospel against each other as if they were two paths to salvation. After this preaching, the law belongs in the Old Covenant and therefore it no longer applies. Now it’s faith that counts. Such preaching is based on a superficial analysis of the Bible.
The righteous by faith shall live
When Paul took a stand against the Jewish tradition, he did so by putting his finger on the Jews’ understanding of the Old Covenant. They believed that the law should be kept so that they could glorify themselves before God. “See how righteous we are”. They sought to establish their own righteousness based on the works of the law. But Paul elegantly and convincingly shows that God never intended to save because of man’s own works. In Romans 3:21 he says that the righteousness that is now revealed through Jesus Christ is the same righteousness that the law and the prophets testify to – the righteousness of faith. One of the prophets, Habakkuk puts it this way: “The righteous by his faith shall live”.
The law reveals God’s good will and is therefore an expression of His holiness (Romans 7:12; 1 Timothy 1:8-9). The Jews tried to achieve righteousness by works of the law but stumbled against the stumbling block that is faith. In the Bible’s prophetic perspective, the stumbling block is Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. The Jews are not unique in this respect. Deep in man’s fallen nature lies the urge to justify himself. Then we can boast of what we ourselves have done. We can manage without God’s help. But with God, all human praise is excluded. We cannot save ourselves.
What Paul Never Did
Therefore, when you abolish the Law with reference to several of Paul’s scriptures, you are doing something that Paul never intended to do. Paul attacked the Jews’ understanding of the Law. He attacked the justice they put their trust in – a justice based on works of the law. But he never attacked the law. He held it up as holy and righteous and good. The law is never meant to be the basis for our justice. It is an expression of God’s righteousness. The law came in to make the fall greater. It was added for transgressions (Galatians 3:19). Therefore, the law is not annulled by faith. On the contrary, the law is confirmed by faith (Romans 3:31). The law is not contrary to God’s promises, as there has never been a law given that has the power to give life (Galatians 3:21)
God has not changed his mind
God has not changed his mind. It has always been God’s plan by grace to save those who believe. From the first man to the end of time, this will be God’s plan. But we humans have not always understood this. The revelation of His salvation was previously lacking. Therefore, in the fullness of time, He sent His Son to atone for all the sins of the world. Jesus fulfilled the law and revealed to everyone God’s righteousness. Therefore, Christ is the final goal and fulfillment of the law (Romans 10:4). When we walk in the spirit, the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us (Romans 8:4). We have received His righteousness by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. It is the same justice God shows us in the Old Covenant. After God previously spoke through the prophets, he has now spoken through the Son (Heb. 1:1-2). But he has always said the same thing. The fact that the Bible is divided into two parts – the Old and New Testaments – must not lead us to believe that God’s plan for salvation is divided into two parts that are also in opposition to each other.
God’s Justice
Throughout the book of Romans, the message is that God’s righteousness has always been received by faith, not by works of the law. Justification by faith, then, is nothing new. In Romans 9:30-32, Paul says that the Gentiles received righteousness because they had faith even though they did not seek righteousness. The Jews, on the other hand, did not grasp the law of righteousness, which is the law of faith, because they sought the law of righteousness, i.e., righteousness based on works of the law.
Paul goes further in Romans 10 by explaining that this was due to the Jews’ ignorance of God’s righteousness. He is not talking here only about the Jews of his own time. His reference to Moses in verses 5ff shows that he was thinking about the Jews’ ignorance of God’s righteousness all the way back to when the law was given. Because of this ignorance, they sought to establish their own righteousness based on works. This led to a hardening so that they did not submit to God’s righteousness which is of faith.
His reference to 5. Mos 30 is particularly interesting. He takes what Moses says about not having to go up into heaven or into the abyss to get the commandment, and interprets it to mean that one does not have to go up to heaven or into the abyss to get Christ. And he continues in Romans 10:8 by quoting verbatim from Deuteronomy 30:14, “The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart.” Thus, God’s justice requires no effort on our part. We don’t have to go up or down or do any other work. The Word is close to us. We can only believe it and accept God’s righteousness by grace.
In this way, Paul establishes that there is no contradiction between what Moses preached and what he himself preached. There is not one righteousness in the Old Covenant and another righteousness in the New. Christ is the ultimate goal and fulfillment of the law.
Good Testimony Because of Faith
Hebrews 11 is the great chapter of faith. The persons mentioned here lived in a period that covers the time both before and during the Old Covenant. None of them are praised for their deeds as if this were the basis of their righteousness. The Old Ones gained good testimonies because of their faith. And this faith is behind their works. Faith was the foundation of their righteousness. Throughout the history of salvation, it is faith that has given favor with God, and the works have sprung from faith and made it perfect. It is never a question of righteousness of works, but righteousness because of faith.
Law and Gospel
There is, therefore, no contradiction between the Law and the Gospel, since they were never intended to lead to the same result, namely, salvation. The law shows us that we are sinners. The gospel points to the Savior. The law is a chastener. The gospel is a father’s embrace where we find peace both with God and with ourselves. If you take away the law, you lose the perspective of salvation. Then one also forgets the fact that all who do not accept the gospel and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ are still living under the law and therefore will one day be judged according to their works.
From before the creation of the world, God has had one plan for the redemption of mankind. It has never changed. This plan was obviously gradually revealed, but it was always about the same thing. When Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law through his life and atoned for the sins of the world at his death, the message was the same as when God sacrificed an animal after the fall in the Garden of Eden to hide Adam and Eve’s nakedness. It is God who justifies. Therefore, we do not need to introduce contradictions into God’s plan of salvation, a contradiction that is not there. It has always been by faith that man has been justified. Without deeds of law. All is by grace.