IT Has Always Been By Grace -- Qohelet Web Ministry

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Date Posted: 21:06:44 05/13/02 Mon
Author: Jay Dee
Subject: IT Has Always Been By Grace
In reply to: Richard 's message, "Baptism--Law or Grace or?" on 07:23:38 04/17/02 Wed

Okay, now it is my turn to put my two cents worth in here.

First of all, there has NEVER been a time when people have been saved by anything OTHER than God's grace. The Law was NEVER intended to be a means for justification. Even though a person was to offer a sin offering to God when he committed an accidental sin, it was still God who "accepted" the offering and forgave their sins. The very fact that God instituted the provision was in itself an act of grace.

If you go back to Exodus, God redeemed a people who were not a people on the basis of his grace, not on the basis of their merit. Moses reminds the people in the book of Deuteronomy that their own greatness had NOTHING to do with God's choice of them. They were in fact the least of all the peoples. God remembered the promise he had made to Abraham, and it was on the basis of the unconditional promise that God redeemed them. WHen they sinned at the foot of mount Sinai, God forgave them at Moses' bidding, so they came to Canaan as both the redeemed and the forgiven people of God.

God did not give the people the law until AFTER he saved them. It came at Sinai. God "gave" them the law, so it could be seen as a gift. It provided guidance to a newly formed people. It was supposed to make them wiser than their enemies. It was supposed to make them great.

Time after time, they disobeyed, and time after time, God forgave. He never gave up on them. It wasn't because of their obedience, but because of God's grace.

Later, pious Jews finally became serious about obedience, which gave rise to Rabbinic Judaism. Law keeping was seen as a means of salvation through merit. This is what Paul writes against. It makes sense since Paul himself was raised in the Rabbinic tradition. Torah was never meant to save. Throughout the Old Testament, the call was for God to save. Even DAvid recognized this in Psalm 51. God is not interested in sacrifice, but a clean heart. A broken and contrite heart. The prophets spoke of the necessity for heart felt repentance, not rule-keeping, ritual obervances, or simple knowledge.

How does Christian baptism fit into all of this? It is not much different in some ways than some Old Testament observances. The big difference is that it is based on faith in the Gospel of Jesus. It is a demonstration of faith, similar to the way bringing an offering to God in the Old Testament was a demonstration of faith. God has always justified those who have faith, not those who merely keep rules. This is why Paul uses Abraham as an example of this. Abraham himself was justified by faith.

Well, that's my two cents worth

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