Law and Grace

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If God deals with men through law, does this exclude God’s grace? If God is gracious toward men, does this mean that men are not under any law to God? Probably the first man among us to give wide circulation to this pernicious Calvinistic view that law and grace exclude each other was the late K.C. Moser through his books and through his tenure in the Bible department at Lubbock Christian College. The late Glen Owen, long time preacher and Brazilian missionary, an elder in the Highland Church in Abilene at the time (1982), stated: “Nobody has any right to preach anything other than the Gospel of pure grace. We are saved by grace plus nothing. You are saved by faith period . . . serving Jesus Christ.” This doctrine is not only false, but it is deadly and destructive.

Man has always been “under law” from God (Rom. 4:15), but God has also extended his grace in every age. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Elijah and several others received God’s grace (Mat. 8:11; 17:3; Heb. 11:4–32), yet they all lived under law to God. Grace and law are not mutually exclusive—God’s grace operates through His Law (Tit. 2:11–12). We will do well to notice some of the dreadful implications of this error:

1. Since the New Testament constitutes the “rules and regulations” of Christ, if we are under no rules or regulations (because we are under grace), the New Testament is rendered utterly unnecessary.
2. If grace excludes law, since there is no sin in the absence of law (Rom. 4:15), then there are no sinners. In the absence of transgression of law, grace itself is superfluous.
3. If grace excludes law, Universalism is the correct view of things and always has been. All men will be saved unconditionally, whether or not they choose to be.
4. If law is inoperative because of grace, man has no restraint from any evil thought, vile behavior, or false doctrine. In fact, in absence of law, there can be no identification of that which is evil, vile, or false (cf. Rom. 4:15), much less transgression.

Men are under law to Christ (Rom. 8:2; 1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2; Heb. 7:12; Jam. 1:25, etc.). Still, all who are saved will be saved by grace (Eph. 2:8). God’s grace through Christ is given only to those who, through faith in the Son of God, fulfill the Divinely ordained conditions of His law (Mat. 7:21-23; Heb. 5:9; 1 Pet. 1:22, etc.). Grace and law are not mutually exclusive, but mutually dependent.

[Note: I wrote this article for and it was published in The Edifier, weekly bulletin of Pearl Street Church of Christ, Denton, TX, February 18, 1988, of which I was editor.]

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