Topical Bible Study–Law and / or Grace

Topical Bible Study--Law and / or Grace

Ronda

9 Apr, 2022

Format for Topical Research:

  1. Pray for the Spirit’s leading. 
  2. Pick a Topic.  In this case, I chose the topic of the relationship between law and grace.
  3. Collect and organize verses.  I found eleven passages that I studied to see the relationship between law and grace. You might choose more or less. Do not worry if you chose different verses than I did.
  4. Read the verses and ask questions about the verses.  My questions were designed to help me understand the verses in more detail. You will probably have different questions than me.
  5. Write your answers. I wrote my answers separately for this post, but for myself, I just write the answers right after the questions.
  6. Summarize your ideas. 
  7. Repeat Steps 4-6.
  8. Final Paraphrase. 
  9. Pray for deeper understanding even after you finish studying.

MY EXAMPLE STUDY FOR LAW AND/OR GRACE

TOPIC:  What part does the law play in being converted, i.e., born again?  Some people speak of the law and grace as if there is an either/or choice between them.  We either have the law or we have grace.  What does the Bible say? 

VERSE 1:  James 2:8-12

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.

QUESTIONS:

  1. What does James mean by the royal law?
  2. What example does James give for not keeping this law? 
  3. What does the royal law do if you do not keep it? 
  4. What does James say about breaking only one part of the law? 
  5. What commandments does he mention? 
  6. Where do these commandments come from?
  7. What is another name for the royal law/loving your neighbor as yourself, ten commandments?

ANSWERS:

  1. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
  2. Showing partiality
  3. It convicts you as a transgressor/sinner
  4. You break it all.
  5. Adultery and murder
  6. The ten commandments, specifically the 6th & 7th commandments
  7.  The law of liberty

SUMMARY:  James equates Jesus’ command to love your neighbor as yourself with the ten commandments.  He says that God gave all these commands for us.  However, he also says that these laws give us freedom.  The man who keeps these laws is free.  This letter was written around A.D. 60, which was about 29 years after the cross.  If the law had been done away with, James would have known about it.

VERSE 2:  Psalm 89:34

I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips.

QUESTION:  What is God’s promise in this verse?

ANSWER:  He will not go back on His promises, and His word will not change.

SUMMARY:  The end of this particular Psalm (89) speaks of how the people were being unprotected by God because of their choices to reject God, but that they were now crying to God to protect them again.  They are appealing to their knowledge of God’s character.  He does not break his covenant or alter the thing that has gone out from His lips.  The law was the only thing that God spoke directly from heaven to the people.  In fact, Psalm 111:7-8 says the same thing:  The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy; they are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.  All God’s precepts/commands are trustworthy.  They are established forever and ever.

QUESTION:  Sin–What is it and what are the results? 

VERSE 3:  1 John 3:4

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

QUESTION: What does John says that you are doing when you choose to sin? 

ANSWER:  You are choosing to be without the law.

SUMMARY:  In other words, John thinks that being without the law is a bad thing.

VERSE 4:  Romans 4:13-16

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

QUESTIONS:

  1. Who is this speaking of at first?
  2. What was he promised?
  3. How was he to receive it?
  4. What does the law bring?
  5. What does the promise rest on?

ANSWERS:

  1. Abraham
  2. Heir of the world
  3. Through faith
  4. Wrath
  5. Grace

SUMMARY QUESTIONS FOR VERSES 1-4:

  1. Why does the law bring wrath?
  2. Did Abraham keep the law perfectly?

ANSWERS:

  1. No one keeps the law.
  2. No

VERSE 5: Romans 6:23 

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

QUESTION:  What happens when you break the law? 

ANSWER:  Death is the automatic result to sin.

SUMMARY:  Thus, the only way that Abraham could avoid death and inherit the world was through God’s gift of life.  He was a sinner like everyone else.  The law had been violated, so he had no rights through the law.  His only right was through a gift of God.

VERSE 6:  Romans 6:14-15.

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

QUESTION:  Does Paul say that we are free to not keep the law just because Jesus has died for our sins and given us grace? 

ANSWER: No

SUMMARY:  We are supposed to keep the law.  Grace is for when we mess up—past, present, and future.  However, it does not tear down the law. 

VERSE 7:  Romans 3:31.

Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

QUESTION:  So, what does grace do to the law? 

ANSWER:  Faith, or grace, doesn’t get rid of the law.  It actually strengthens the law.

SUMMARY:  The law does not give life.  It does not give us an inheritance. 

VERSE 8: Galatians 3:21-25.

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,

QUESTIONS: What does the law do?

  1. Does this say that the law and the promises are opposed to each other?
  2. Why are we imprisoned without Jesus?
  3. What was the purpose of the law? 
  4. What does a guardian do?

ANSWERS:

  1. No
  2. We are sinners.
  3. As a guardian
  4. Orders you around

SUMMARY:  The purpose of the law was to point us to our need for a Savior.  It was to show us the standard by which we were supposed to live.  However, we didn’t measure up, so we needed someone who could rescue us.

VERSE 9:  John  8: 3-11

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

QUESTIONS:

  1. Was the woman guilty? 
  2. What should have happened to her according to the law? 
  3. What did Jesus tell her? 

ANSWERS:

  • yes
  • death
  • I don’t condemn you.  Don’t sin anymore.

SUMMARY:  Jesus gave grace/ forgiveness, but He also told her not to break the law.

VERSE 10: Matthew 19:16-17.

And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”

SUMMARY:  Jesus said that commandment keeping was necessary for eternal life.  But we have learned that we can’t get life from the law.  However, keeping the commandments will be the fruit of a converted life. 

VERSE 11: John 15:4-10.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

QUESTION:  How do we abide in Jesus? 

ANSWER:  Keep choosing Him.  Stay close to Him.  Let Him be part of your life.  Love.  Keeping the commandments is about love.

SUMMARY:  When Jesus gives us grace and we accept Him into our lives, He begins to change us. 

FINAL SUMMARY:  Grace and the law are not incompatible.  The law is the way that people in the kingdom of heaven live.  It is the law of love.  If Adam and Eve had never sinned, we would not have any problems keeping the law.  However, we have an inheritance of rebellion that makes keeping the law impossible in our own power.  God has extended mercy to us so that we not only have forgiveness for breaking the law, but we also have transformation so that one day we will naturally keep the law of heaven, but this will only happen through abiding in Jesus.  He provides both the grace that gives us entry into the kingdom of heaven and the transformation that changes us into people of God.  We are not to focus on how we cannot keep the law.  We are to focus on Jesus and learn to love Him.  When we love Him, we will be on the path of keeping the law of love.