Ah, the controversy between law and grace.  It takes little effort to find the passages in the New Testament which tell us that the Christian is no longer under the law.  Most often, those who cite such passages seek to comfort us by assuring us that things are better now that God doesn’t expect us to keep all the picayune points of the law, for that has all been fulfilled for us in Jesus.  This should make our lives easier, shouldn’t it?  Besides, love is the fulfilling of the law, and we have graduated from the supervision of the schoolmaster of law into the liberating situation of grace.  Keeping the law is rightly perceived as a difficult, yea, impossible task, and the idea that we are released from its grasp is considered to be unburdening and beneficial.  But is grace really any easier on us than the law?

Actions and attitudes

            Let’s consider for a moment the teaching of Jesus in the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5:21-26.  The law has taught us that the action of murder is wrong; but now we learn that the associated attitude of the anger which leads a man to murder is equally wrong.  The sinful act originated in a sinful attitude, which then worked its way out in the performance of the deed.  Satisfaction of the law demanded punishment for the offense, but we can now see that it is necessary to put a stop to it in its premeditative phase—and so, grace is more demanding.

            The very next teaching we encounter (verses 27-28) then informs us that the same is true for adultery.  Jesus explains that the attitude of adultery is tantamount in God’s sight to the act—the wanting of the thing is as bad as the doing of the thing.  Later in Matthew we read of a man who asked what he could do to have eternal life.  Jesus answered by reciting some of the Ten Commandments (19:16-22), to which the man replied by saying that he had kept these from his youth.  We might doubt this man’s sincerity, and could say that Jesus did also; but Jesus made no statement that He did not believe the man was being honest.  Jesus cut to the chase by making a demand which showed the wealthy man’s attitude for what it really was.  Here again, grace is more demanding.

            Again in Matthew 22:35-40, when someone asked the Lord, “Which is the greatest commandment?” He responded by quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (The O. T. uses might for mind).  He follows it with a quote from Leviticus 19:18: “… thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  But it is not enough in the New Testament age to love others to an equal degree, for Paul tells us in Philippians 2:3-4: “… in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”  This is certainly not intended to give permission to busybodies; instead it means that we are to place a higher importance on the other persons’ best interests, even above those of our own.  The law wanted us to set others on at least an equal level with ourselves, but now we must set them higher, because grace is more demanding.

            As for the question of tithing, we find that Jesus supported the idea during His time of ministry on earth, but we hear no mention of its necessity after the cross.  From then on we see only some teaching in Hebrews 7 about the practice of tithing which was primarily used as a financial support for priests, and some reminders that the need for this special priesthood was done away with because we are all a “holy priesthood.”  Otherwise in the New Testament there are many exhortations to give and to do so cheerfully—but we are not told that it is to be ten percent or any other specific amount.  The fourth chapter of Philippians gives us insight here, where Paul commends the church for its giving attitude.  His praise for them is not based on the amount of the gifts given for the support of his apostolic endeavors, but is simply based on the fruit that will “abound to their account.”  Clearly if Jesus is Lord of the believers’ entire financial picture, restricting our giving to a mere ten percent will not do—for if a Christian is following the Holy Spirit, all gifts will be given at God’s direction, not by some preset rule.  The law was satisfied with the tithe, but grace calls us to give according to God’s leading; which means that our whole pocketbook is subject to Him.  The New Testament’s version of the “tithe” is that 100% of what we have is under God’s control, therefore grace is more demanding.

The punishment for a bad attitude

            In a study of Levitical law, one can go through the penalties prescribed for the breaking of particular laws and will soon discover that death is the set punishment for the “raw form” of the violation of any of the first nine of the Commandments.  But when it comes to breaking the tenth, “Thou shalt not covet,” no specific penalty is given.  Most commentators say that this particular sin is not addressed with a set punishment because a person’s covetousness will lead to other sins that will be evidenced by their actions.  But we must understand that covetousness itself is a breach of the law, and Paul reinforces this point in Romans 7 when he says in verses 7 and 8: “I had not known lust, except the law had said, ‘Thou shalt not covet.’  But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence” (which means lust or an unhealthy yearning).  Paul shows us here his personal realization of how an attitude can be sinful, just as an action can.  It is an example of how the law gives us a glimpse of the New Testament in one of its many functions, which in this case is the exposing of bad attitudes.  Yet now there is a remedy, which is grace.

An applicable business maxim

            In our economy, one of the most basic rules is that of supply and demand; and now God demands of us more than the correct actions of the law—He demands right attitudes of the heart.  But if no one can fully “supply” what God demands from those under law, how can we possibly stand under the heavier weight of grace?

            Paul instructs us in Galatians that the law was a schoolmaster, given by God to teach us and to bring us into faith.  And now that grace has come in the New Testament period, faith is portrayed as a gift which is supplied by that grace for our benefit.  Faith functions in the realm of attitude, since it is at work in our hearts and not merely affecting our outward actions.