Orientation: Law, Grace, and Integration
Paul {supposedly} writes to Timothy, his young preacher project, and gives him a quick education on the rule of God's Gospel. He states, "the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient (1Tim.1:9-10)." As I get to thinking about this, and it could be an infusion of our culture of Christianity that realizes it's brokenness and sinfulness or simply an overuse of imperfection, but we all need the law! Law orients right from wrong, separates the good from the bad; but the natural progression of this thought should incline us to think about "who" is making what law and to what end? Politicians make laws in their own image to create a world of their choosing. With God's law, it's truly there to lead us from death to life. Harsh at times, much like discipline, but necessary.
My next school of thought, which stems from the culture of embracing failure as ok, naturally progresses to grace. As Paul writes, the "law isn't for the righteous," who am I to say I'm righteous? Yet, I freely receive grace. By definition, I receive something that is not fair and that is not mine to take but only to receive. So we ought to be oriented as people of grace, generously giving to others and graciously receiving from the giver of all good things...right? Give to those who ask of you: questions, time, space, answers, explanations, grace. Law orients good from bad, it is not there to segregate humanity, but to separate light from darkness. We are the variable that is available for use; we are not the law, we are not grace, we are recipients of both - shaped by the law and revealers of grace.
The issue is that we give "law" a bad name, with legalistic connotations and overtones, and we give "grace" a hipster-like status that loves peace and rainbows. Extremes. Why Paul instructs Timothy on these words about "who" the law is for is because the righteous ought to be integrating a lifestyle of love, peace, and generosity daily that bears witness of God, not cast his judgments. Are believers being created in our own images or into the likeness of a God that is bigger than our imaginations? Recreate in us an imagination of hope.
Do we represent a colonial God that seeks to conquer territories and force belief through fear, or do we represent a God who IS the creator of life that accepts people as they are and transforms them by the power of grace?
My next school of thought, which stems from the culture of embracing failure as ok, naturally progresses to grace. As Paul writes, the "law isn't for the righteous," who am I to say I'm righteous? Yet, I freely receive grace. By definition, I receive something that is not fair and that is not mine to take but only to receive. So we ought to be oriented as people of grace, generously giving to others and graciously receiving from the giver of all good things...right? Give to those who ask of you: questions, time, space, answers, explanations, grace. Law orients good from bad, it is not there to segregate humanity, but to separate light from darkness. We are the variable that is available for use; we are not the law, we are not grace, we are recipients of both - shaped by the law and revealers of grace.
The issue is that we give "law" a bad name, with legalistic connotations and overtones, and we give "grace" a hipster-like status that loves peace and rainbows. Extremes. Why Paul instructs Timothy on these words about "who" the law is for is because the righteous ought to be integrating a lifestyle of love, peace, and generosity daily that bears witness of God, not cast his judgments. Are believers being created in our own images or into the likeness of a God that is bigger than our imaginations? Recreate in us an imagination of hope.
Do we represent a colonial God that seeks to conquer territories and force belief through fear, or do we represent a God who IS the creator of life that accepts people as they are and transforms them by the power of grace?
posted by Levi at
9:13 AM
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