When I was younger, I was told that while I had received my salvation by faith in Christ, I had to perform certain 'Christian duties' so as to maintain my salvation. I was especially terrified by Mat 5:28 - 29 regarding sins and ways to avoid eternal damnation by removal of our body parts that caused us to sin. To make the matters worst, this are the sayings of Christ! Despite my best efforts, I can never measure up to the requirements, especially in the areas of casting of eyes on girls when youth hormone was raging. I simply did not (and I still don't) have the courage to pluck out my eyes though they were causing me to sin and be damned in hell!
Feared that I had lost salvation and feeling of hopelessness eventually caused me to leave church and stop reading Bible totally. My logic then was that if I did not hear or read the Bible, at least I can try pleading ignorant for lighter sentence when I was judged by Christ!
Finally after many years, through divine intervention, I was brought back into His fold and this time I heard the good news - I am saved permanently and eternally by the finished work of Christ, His resurrection and ascension to heaven. Hallelujah!
I was then taught that in Mat 5:28-29, Christ was upholding the perfect standard of God's Law for anyone who trust in his/her own ability to justify his/her righteousness, rather than rest in Christ on His Righteousness. These verses does not apply to me, who by myself would not be able to meet God's unbending Law but has been persuaded to rest in Christ's Righteousness.
While I thanked God for His restoration, I lamented for the lost years with Christ. The mixing of law and grace is truly wicked and destructive! Jesus used the analogy of new wine in old wineskin in Mat 2:22 to demonstrate the destruction of the new redeemed man by the bondages of old law.
Lately I was alerted to accusation of antinomianism leveled on preachers of grace, and that really grieved me. These accusers claimed that when someone is preaching pure grace, he/she is preaching lawlessness, and they call this person an antinomian.
Apostle Paul, in Gal 3:1 hit hard on these accusers. He called these people "foolish" and "bewitched"! He also went on in Gal 3:10 to say that as many are of the works of the law are under curse, the law here refers to the Mosaic law (the Ten Commandments).
Jesus Himself in Mar 2:22 warned about the destructive power of mixing law and grace, where the new wine (new man in Christ saved by grace) was put in old wineskin (Mosaic law). New wine (new man in Christ saved by grace) should only be put in new wineskin (the grace of Christ).
In fact, Paul in Gal 6:2 challenges Galatians who were advocating obedience to the Mosaic law to fulfill the sum of all Commandments, the law of Christ (that is to love others as if loving oneself). In a nutshell, what Paul was saying there was in effect challenging those who accusing of others been antinomian to fulfill the law of Christ, the sum and most supreme of all laws.
However, there is good news for us who relied solely and completely in the grace of God and none of the law is that Christ in us has Himself fulfill the law (Mat 5:17), and we also partook in this fulfillment in Christ, AMEN.
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