Are Christians "Under the Law"?

Are Christians “Under the Law”?

One of the last things any Christian would want to believe is that he is “under the law.” Surely any Christian person knows that “a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28). But does this mean Christians do not have to obey the Ten Commandments?

Are Christians “Under the Law”?







What is it about older people that makes them tend to be proud of. some of their youthful days when they were “sowing their wild oats” and engaged in gangland activities, street fights, violent escapades involving vandalism, malicious mischief and high-speed flights away from uniformed policemen?

What is it in human nature that makes us resent authority?



A Lawless Age


Increasingly, government leaders, like the biblical descriptions of “wild beasts” of the gentile nations, are becoming laws unto themselves, brutally ignoring human rights, due process, and international law.

The rise of despotism—that is, the takeover by “strongman” dictators in nation after nation around the world—continues with scarcely a whisper of protest heard in Washington or anywhere else.

“Human rights” are applied on a selective basis with the self-righteous leaders in government decrying the lack of human rights in one country while cheerfully turning their backs on the grisly spectacle of mass murder in another part of the world.


Teenage gangs wage street war against one another with guns and grenades, and various ultra-nationalistic or fascist organizations cache stockpiles of weapons and ammunition toward that day of revolution (or, as they usually preach, their last-ditch defense against the various real or imagined conspiracies, from Zionists to the “Illuminati,” communism or one of the councils of churches) they say is coming.

The world in which you live is a world of violence. Because of the many heartrending abuses of power, many Christian-professing people tend to “throw out the baby with the bath water,” turning away from any and every kind of authority.

We have all seen the comedies portraying southern sheriffs as “rednecks” who mercilessly pistol-whip itinerant blacks, the sadistic prison guard who beats a helpless inmate, the husky nurse who brutalizes the new patient in the state mental hospital.



The automatic tendency on the part of those who feel they have just “escaped” such violations of governmental power is to reject all forms of government, all of officialdom.

In the midst of all of this, it is quite simple for any professing Christian person who embraces the gentle teachings of Jews Christ of Nazareth concerning love, forgiveness, faith, and mercy to abandon belief in day-to-day requirements and to live instead as a “free spirit,” blissfully unaware of the requirement to obey the Ten Commandments!

It is no wonder, then, that millions believe “God is dead,” and other millions who may believe and accept that God is alive seem to imagine that His law is dead.



What Is Grace?


But what is grace? When one is “gracious,” it usually connotes being gentle, kind, and good. Many a parent has named an infant daughter Grace, as one of the virtues of a meek and quiet spirit. But what is the meaning of the word as set forth in the Bible-especially with regard to “not under the law but under grace”?

First, does it mean permission to sin?





Then grace means more than just possessing a kind, good, and gentle spirit; it connotes the favor and mercy of God—divine mercy or being forgiven.

But being forgiven of what?

Why, being forgiven of having sinned!




Technically the word sin from the Hebrew language means “to miss the mark” or “to err.” There are sins of commission and sins of omission. A sin which is “committed” is an act of some sort- which is directly contrary to the Ten Commandments of God or any of the greater magnifications of the Ten Commandments as illustrated by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, as well as by His life and His teaching.








Grace is God’s mercy: the undeserved, unmerited, and unearned pardon which God grants us upon our acceptance of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, our confession of our personal sins, and our acceptance of Jesus as our personal Savior.



‘This is very clear in Scripture. Yet millions remain confused.


Grace Becomes “Permission”


In order to “turn the grace of God into lasciviousness,” the false teaching must be perpetrated which implies that God’s goodness, greatness, and forgiveness are so boundless as to virtually encourage a person to live carelessly—living, as it were, in a life of sin—but constantly dwelling on the greatness, goodness, and mercy of God, believing in his heart that he will be forgiven no matter what!

This insidious teaching started before the Bible was even finished.

There were false teachers creeping into the ranks of some of the newly converted gentile converts in such cities as Thyatira, Corinth, and Rome itself who began urging some of the newly converted heathens to revert to some of their age-old customs which included sex practices as spiritual “rites” in the temple worship of some polytheistic gods, and telling these people that God would bless this activity, that it was not really a sin!

The church in Thyatira was criticized by the glorified Jesus Christ: “...thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols” (Revelation 2:20).

No doubt there were any number of people in that church congregation who were willing to follow the false teachings and wicked actions of this prophetess.

Today there are millions and millions of “Christian folk” who, while they would abhor such practices, nevertheless believe in other, more subtle ways that one may live a Life of disobedience to God’s perfect Ten Commandments and still be “Christian” in some loose or casual way.

Millions of professing Christians are convinced they should live a “righteous life.” But the guidelines of what constitutes this “righteous life” are usually the guidelines of their own particular part of society. That means their church, club, lodge, social group, immediate or extended family.


To these same people, a “sinful life” would probably mean indulging in various “worldly” habits and interests such as going to too many or the wrong kind of movies, attending honky-tonks, drinking, gambling, carousing, or “cussing” a little too much.





Instead of coming to understand the real meaning of the word grace as revealed in the Scriptures, many come to feel that grace is a term which only means that a Christian is in a “saved condition.” It means God has smiled on such an individual, that he has been called and placed “under grace” and made into a Christian!

But grace is also the undeserved forgiveness Jesus Christ stands ready to lavish upon you if and when you repent of sin!


What Is Repentance?


Later he said, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted” (Acts 3:19).

Jesus began His ministry by commanding people to repent!

“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent: for the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).

Any dictionary can tell you that repent means to be deeply sorry, to be broken up and ashamed of oneself for transgressions and sins! It is not only an emotional experience of contrition, of a state of being deeply sorrowful that a person has done wrong (sinned, erred, made mistakes, and done evil), but the acceptance with the mind of a higher and a better way of life; repentance includes the resolve to do better in the future-not to sin any more!



(Write for our free booklet, Why Should You Repent?)

Jesus said, “Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish’?!

When one repents and calls out to God for forgiveness of sins, he automatically tells God that he intends obeying God’s law henceforth, for repentance means not only being deeply sorry you have sinned, but also means turning to obedience!

Sin is the breaking of God’s law. Repenting of sin means being sorry you have broken God’s law. If you are sorry, it means you do not intend breaking His law any further! Let’s illustrate it this way: You live in a society which must be regulated according to various laws. There are federal, state, county, and local laws which regulate practically every act and deed. Whether we are speaking here of federal laws, civil codes, or simply traffic laws, the same principle applies.


Breaking others can be far more serious. Grand theft, larceny, arson, robbery, burglary, auto theft, or murder could get you thrown behind bars (not withstanding the terrible laxity of the courts today).

Let’s suppose you have done precisely this:




Then the judge may look at you, the person who has been arrested, tried, and sentenced, and say, “You are free to go. But don’t ever get caught up in that kind of a situation again!”

Do you see?


In the case of God’s divine laws, you are required, whether you know about them or not (ignorance of the law is no excuse), whether you are a Christian, a professing Christian, or whatever, to obey God’s Ten Commandments.

Though people by the millions freely break the Ten Commandments every single day, they are unknowingly coming under the penalty of the law, which is death (Romans 6:23)!



Then, just as Jesus said to the woman taken in the very act of adultery, God will say the same thing to you: “Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more!”

True repentance, then, means being deeply sorry you have broken God’s Ten Commandments, resolving through the power of God’s Holy Spirit and the help of Jesus Christ, your daily High Priest and Intercessor, not to break the Ten Commandments henceforth.




He said later, “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97).



Do you see? A person who has truly repented is sorry he has sinned, meaning sorry he has broken God’s law, His Ten Commandments. He is now determined that with God’s help he will nor break those Ten Commandments again! He knows sin will no longer “rule” over him, that the appetites of his own flesh, the wiles of Satan the devil and his influence, and the evil influence of this world all around him, will not make him live a life of sin any further! He knows that he is not “under the law” (meaning under the penalty of the law), but is under God’s unmerited grace and pardon!


He says, “What then? Shall we sin [that is break the Ten Commandments], because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid!” (Romans 6:15).


To obey the law is to be “within the law,” but to sin is to “come under the law.” But there is a simple difference which we can understand by applying the earlier analogy of the courtroom scene.




There’s nothing sinister or evil in being a “law-abiding citizen” when we apply it to a country. If you feel as many do, you prize very highly your freedoms granted you by those documents which are virtually on a sacred level called the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, with its amendments.

It is no different with God’s law. Why should any Christians feel as if they are under a horrible burden, like a grinding, heavy weight, to be constrained to obey God’s law?



What’s WRONG With God’s Law?

Can you find anything really wrong with God’s Ten Commandments? How long has it been since you have read the Ten Commandments? For a refreshing experience do the following: Turn in your own Bible to Exodus 20 and read the entire chapter slowly.





Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount equated hatred, bitter anger, and murderous thoughts with murder itself! Therefore, anyone who is “angry with his brother without a cause,” and who would say “drop dead” or “you useless wretch,” has actually broken the spirit and intent of this commandment already!




Obeying the law against murder perfectly would mean the eradication of hatred. Hatred is an emotion very closely associated with fear, ego, vanity, and jealousy.

Any nation whose citizens were in such control of their minds and emotions so as to be without hare would have the following great revolutionary blessings:

1. There would be no crime in the entire nation. Any people completely free from vanity, jealousy, fear, greed, and hatred would be an honest people, a good and loving people.


Without racism, a wave of peace, love, goodwill, and prosperity would sweep the country—all because a people obeyed just one of the Ten Commandments.

3. All entertainment would have to be revised. Books, papers, novels, magazines, motion pictures, and television would be deeply affected; for, if there were no hatred, there could be no violence, and hence there would be peace. Without violence, television would have to be more informative, and educational—if would revolutionize the entire entertainment industry.

4. Religions would have to be totally revolutionized, too. There could be no jealousy, hatred, suspicion, fear, or vituperation. All religion would be deeply changed!

Do you see?


You could apply the same lesson to any of the other commandments, including covetousness. This would wipe out materialism, the vain, egotistical, and greedy search for wealth, ill-gotten gain, and the worshipful attitude of bowing down before “things”! People in our society tend to “use people and love things,” when they should “use things and love people”!


But wait!

A commandment which plainly states you ought to keep holy the seventh-day Sabbath, beginning from Friday sunset until Saturday sunset? Now that is another matter!

Frankly, if God had somehow “blue-penciled” His Ten Commandments and made them Nine Commandments with the Fourth deleted, then the entire question of law and grace and all the other theological arguments which tend to obliterate the Ten Commandments of God would never have arisen in the first place!

When you come right down to it, it is the insistent rebellion against the requirement to “observe” a day as being a special holy day to God, sanctified in His sight and for a spiritual and righteous purpose, that seems to gall so many human beings.


Their reasoning goes something like this:




If these were only suggestions from God as basic “guidelines” which were “highly recommended,” many more people would probably attempt, haphazardly and halfheartedly, to follow a few of them from time to time.


This is the crux of the whole problem!






Perhaps you need to come to your own private decision as to what you will do with the following scriptures: “…if you will enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17).



“If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well: But, if ye have respect to persons; ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilt), of all” (James 2:8-10).

“And hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that sayeth, I know him, and keepeth not his -commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3,4).

Finally, notice the description of the end-time remnant of the true Church of God at the exact moment of their greatest persecutions, just prior to the Second Coming of Christ.

“And the dragon was wroth with the woman [the Church of God] and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have t h e testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).




He died because we had broken His law!



But even this is not the end of the story!


He is our living Savior, making daily intercession for us. Even though we are under Christ’s “grace,” we still need His daily intercession when we sin.



The bumper sticker says, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven!” And that is true, but remember that forgiveness, once ‘ you repent, means the removal of all guilt that is past!


Satan would like many to believe that they are hopelessly lost because they have let down, dropped out, and gone back into the ways of this world, even after they made an earlier attempt to live a Christian life.






Sit down right now and write for your free copy of our booklet How to Get Rid of Guilt! It explains, thoroughly, how to rid yourself of nagging conscience how—to know you are forgiven; how to face this life with confidence and joy!