What We Call Balance, God Calls Mixture

Friday, 11th September 2009

Last week, Ps Reuben was not preaching so my wife and I went to NewCre.

Back in my own home church, a ROOTSS subscriber informed me that Rev Peter Koh mentioned during his sermon that there should be a balance between law and grace. I would have agreed with his position even as recent as 5 years ago. But I now realise that what we call balance, God calls mixture.

That would actually be putting it very mildly. There are stronger words used to describe this.

In Romans 7, Paul describes such a mixture as spiritual adultery.

In Galatians 4, Paul quotes from Genesis where Sarah told Abraham to "cast out the bondwoman and her son".

In Revelations 3, Jesus considers such a condition as lukewarmness and He would vomit such out.

Anyway, it is my turn to lead the Word at my cell meeting tonight, and I asked my cell leader permission to change the discussion questions. I then sent out the following email:

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

I understand that Rev Peter Koh mentioned during his sermon that we should find a balance between His law and His grace.

This is a topic that is very close to my heart, so if you folks do not mind, please allow us to discuss the following questions instead:

1. Can we balance law and grace?
2. The Law is good, but is it good for man?
3. Did God mean for the Law to be one composite whole, or can we divide it into moral, civil and ceremonial components?

I have included below relevant passages in scripture to facilitate this very interesting discussion.

Question 1: Can We “Balance” Law & Grace?

Consider the following 3 passages:

Romans 7
An Illustration From Marriage
1Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?
2For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
3So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
4So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5For when we were controlled by the sinful nature,[a] the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.
6But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Galatians 4
Hagar and Sarah
21Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?
22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
23His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
24These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.
25Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.
26But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
27For it is written:
"Be glad, O barren woman,
who bears no children;
break forth and cry aloud,
you who have no labor pains;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband."[b]
28Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.
30But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son."[c]
31Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Revelations 3
To the Church in Laodicea
14"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation.
15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
16So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Question 2: The Law is good, but is it good for man?

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was part of the vegetation that God created on the 3rd day and He saw that it was good, viz

Genesis 1
11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so.
12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

But was this tree good…….. for man?

Genesis 2
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

By the same token, God’s laws are good and perfect.

Psalm 19
7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.

But are they good…… for man?

Romans 7
Struggling With Sin
7What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."[b]
8But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.
9Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
10I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

Paul also calls it “the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones” (2 Cor 3:7)
and also says that “the strength of sin is the law” (1 Cor 15:56)

Question 3: Did God mean for the Law to be one composite whole, or can we divide it into moral, civil and ceremonial components?

10For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (Js 2:10)

7For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another (Heb 8:7)
13By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. (Heb 8:13)


Will let you know how our discussion went. Meanwhile, do keep my cell in prayer :-)