In other words, it is an eternal principle that states that God must punish sin. Any doctrine, any definition, any concept which does not take this into account is wrong, and anything based on such an incorrect assertion would be considered completely invalid.

According to God's own revelation of Himself in Scripture and in Jesus Christ, God inherently hates sin and must punish it. The wages of sin is death. It is a part of God's own divine nature that this be true. God cannot overlook sin forever. Sin cannot exist in the presence of God, because God is holy. Because God is God, sin must be punished.

     This is the second eternal principle, just as true and just as eternal as the first.

This eternal principle has to do with our fallen nature, and it is stated in Romans 3:23

Human beings since Adam, because we are a fallen race, always sin. With the exception of Jesus Christ, every responsible man and woman who has ever lived, or lives, has sinned. The human race fell into sin through the disobedience of Adam, our first representative (Romans 5:18). By our own disobedience, and continued inclination to sin, we prove to ourselves that we are truly Adam's descendants. Therefore, we have all sinned in two ways -- representatively, in our first forefather, and individually, by our own wrong choices.

     There can be no doubt that we all are sinners. This is an eternal principle of God's word, basic to us for the simple reason that we are part of fallen humanity. All have sinned (in the past) and all continue to come short of God's glory. Like the first principle, any doctrine or definition or discussion of grace that does not take this into account is wrong, and anything based on such an incorrect assertion would also be considered completely invalid.

     In considering God's grace, then, we see two fundamental principles that cannot be ignored. First, because God is God, sin must be punished. Second, because we humans are fallen, we have always sinned.

How can we reconcile these two truths? If all of us have sinned, and if sin demands death, how can anyone be saved? If God, in His very nature, hates and punishes sin, how can He ever bless, or smile with favor, or "save" any human being when all have sinned? The doctrine of God's grace must answer this question, which it does. Before we continue, we need to examine two elements of grace.

     In the first place, grace is not license! The doctrine of "license" says, in effect: "Ignore God's law and count on His grace." Other manifestations of license take the effect of completely redefining God's law or the nature of what is sin - such as the what we see in the 21st Century with the appointing of homosexuals as clergy and leaders, infecting as a fatal disease many so-called Christian churches.

This doctrine implies that our attitude and actions toward God do not matter at all -- that we can flagrantly live in knowing and willful rebellion against God if we wish --and that somehow God's grace will cover us when we face God in judgment. There are those today, as there were in New Testament times, who taught license in the name of grace. But the Scriptures clearly teach that grace is not license.

     License is a perversion of God's grace. It denies what we have seen already about God: that he hates sin and always punishes it. This error ignores God's just demand for a sinless life. It perverts the true grace of God. It is an insult to God's holy nature. It is wrong, and always has been. License is not grace, because license does not take into account the eternal principle which grows out of God's very nature: God demands a sinless life and always punishes sin with death.

     Grace does not mean "do as you please and somehow God will forgive everything."

     In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul clearly addresses the issue of license:

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:19-21 NIV)

     In these verses Paul magnifies the grace of God. As much as Adam did for harm to the human race -- and Paul affirms more about that than we sometimes have wished to acknowledge -- Jesus Christ did so much more for mankind by His own life of obedience to God. Where sin increased, Paul says, grace increased even more! Satan could not have the last word! His most horrible evil is overshadowed entirely by God's kindness to sinners through Jesus Christ.

     However, some of those who heard Paul preach these things responded by accusing him of teaching license. They said that his teaching would encourage people to go ahead and sin, counting on God's grace to save them. Paul responded to this charge in the very next verses:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. (Romans 6:1-12 NIV)

     Grace does not mean license! Grace is not permission to go on sinning. To say otherwise is a grave mistake. The advocates of license -- whether they be indulgent "church members" who want to do as they please, advocates of a so-called "new morality" who say that all the gates are now open for unbridled satisfaction of every desire of body and mind, redefiners of God's law, or libertines who preach as gospel a doctrine of "do as you please and God will overlook it all somehow" -- are all wrong!

     Paul continued in this theme when he wrote to young preacher Titus:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you. (Titus 2:11-15 NIV)

Grace is not license.

     The Apostle Peter echoed Paul's statements. Infact, the book of second Peter was written for the express purpose of warning in advance the appearance of false teachers who would scoff at Christ's promised coming and would advocate lustful living (2 Peter 3:1-4). In response to these evil men, Peter admonished saints to live holy lives -- to be ready for the Lord's return:

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen (2 Peter 3:11-18 NIV)

Peter states that the believers "ought to" be "holy" and "godly", living "spotless" and "blameless" lives, and that they should "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ".

     Grace is not "do as you please." It is not license. It is not divine tolerance of sin. It does not sanction the ability to redefine sin and God's law as you see fit. License denies the fundamental truth of God's holy nature. It ignores the fact that He punishes sin and that the wages of sin is always death. License cannot even be a consideration in any dialogue of the true grace of God.

     Jude, the half-brother of the Lord, also stands with the Apostles Paul and Peter in their explanations on grace, writing to warn believers against those who would pervert the very nature of grace:

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord (Jude 3-4 NIV)

     His epistle closes with a warning and an exhortation.

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." (Jude 17-18 NIV) But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. (Jude 20-21 NIV)

     Grace is not license. License is a perversion of grace. It fails to take into account the fundamental and eternal nature of God. It ignores the fact that God hates sin, that sin must be punished, and that the wages of sin is death. Paul warns against license in the name of grace. Peter warns against the same error. Jude does the same. Grace is not "do as you please." License is a perversion of the true grace of God and an insult to His nature.

     Grace is not legalism. A word should be said about this term, because it is frequently misused and abused. Legalism does not mean trying to please God. It is not legalistic to seek to do God's will as accurately and exactly as possible. Trying to strictly obey God's commands does not make one a legalist. An obedient and scrupulous person might be a legalist or might not be. But the desire or attempt to please God precisely is not the determining factor.

     Legalism is not law keeping, but law depending. It is not the idea of doing God's will and obeying his commands but of trusting in one's performance for salvation. One falls prey to legalism who supposes that he or she will be saved because of a personal record of obedience that is pleasing to God. Just as license ignores and fails to reckon with the fact that God, by nature, hates and punishes sin, so legalism ignores and fails to reckon with the fact that fallen human beings, that includes us all, are sinners.

      What legalism fails to consider is that no one, none in all humanity, ever keeps God's law perfectly. Legalism says in effect, "keep the rules perfectly and be saved;" But legalism fails to deal with the eternal principle that fallen humans do not keep the rules perfectly! We are sinners, you and I, and everyone else we know. Since Adam, we have been. We are now. Left to ourselves, we always will be. Grace is not simply God giving us his laws and saying, "Keep the rules and be saved"

     Just as license ignores the nature of God, so legalism ignores our own nature. No one could ever be saved by that kind of "grace." No man or woman has ever kept the rules perfectly -- either before becoming a Christian or after -- except Jesus Christ. Legalism frustrates the true grace of God and ignores the nature of fallen humanity.

     If grace were nothing more than legalism ("Here are the rules; keep them and be saved"), no one could be saved. For not one of our race, except Jesus Christ, has kept the rules perfectly -- which is but another way of saying that we have not "kept" them at all. And if salvation is by law, there is no room for grace. One either deserves to be saved or does not deserve salvation. Salvation is either earned or it is an undeserved gift -- it cannot be both.

     Legalism says that we will be saved because we have kept the rules -- because we have earned God's approval. Legalism might not come right out and admit it -- that would be too obvious and wrong. Legalism makes excuses for our shortcomings, it rationalizes our mistakes and errors, it talks all around the matter. It picks out certain rules and says that some are more important than others -- it makes all kind of maneuvers. But in the end legalism says: "Here are the rules. Keep them and be saved" Grace is not legalism. Legalism ignores our true fallen nature. Keeping the rules can save no one, because no one, aside from Jesus Christ, has ever done that. The grace of God is something else.

     Scripture warns against legalism as strongly and clearly as it warns against license. When certain Judean Christians went to the young church in Antioch and began to teach salvation on the basis of law keeping (in that instance, the Law of Moses), the apostles and elders met together in Jerusalem to settle the matter. It was almost inevitable that a showdown would come in the early church on this matter.

     Peter was one spokesman in the Jerusalem assembly. His answer to the legalists highlighted the same truth we have been talking about: the nature of man -- the fact that we are sinners, that we have never kept the rules perfectly and that any hope of salvation on the basis of our own performance is doomed from the very start.

Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are. (Acts 15:10-11 NIV)

     The legalists had said that salvation depended on people properly keeping God's law (Acts 15:1). Peter, speaking from the Holy Spirit, said that salvation -- for Jew or Gentile -- depends instead on the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. God had cleansed the hearts of both Jewish and Gentile Christians by faith. Salvation began on this basis, said Peter, and it will continue on the same basis. To bind on Gentile Christians the burden of law keeping as a basis for acceptance by God is to tempt God and to demand the impossible from the saints. Our fathers could not do it, Peter said. We could not do it. And Gentile Christians cannot do it either. We all must look to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation -- we cannot expect to find it through our own perfect performance or our own record of law keeping.

     Though Peter had stood firm on this occasion, even he was to play the hypocrite under different circumstances because of the pressures of party-men from Jerusalem. At Antioch, Peter was eating with the Gentile saints -- accepting them fully as brethren in the Lord, worthy of sharing in the common life. But when certain men came down from Jerusalem, Peter was intimidated by their presence and did not continue to eat with the non-Jewish Christians. This was not merely racial discrimination in a social sense (though it was also that, and was wrong), but was based on the thinking of some Jews that the Gentiles were not really accepted by God because they did not keep the Law of Moses.

     Paul rebuked Peter to his face for this, and said that he was not walking according to the truth of the gospel (Galatians 2:11-14). In writing to the Galatians, Paul relates some of his remarks to Peter on that occasion:

Know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16 NIV)

     Salvation cannot come by our own law keeping. Paul says, "by the works of law shall no flesh be justified." It is not that the law is bad -- the Law of Moses was God's law. It was holy and just and good. It was perfect for its purpose. But the Law of Moses could not save for the same reason that no list of rules can save. Rules can only tell what God wants from His human creatures. For one to be saved on the basis of rules (or law keeping), one must keep them all and keep them perfectly. And that is exactly what we have always failed to do.

     What Paul says in Galatians 2:16 had special reference to the Law of Moses. Peter's remarks in Acts 15 had special reference to the Law of Moses, as well. But the principle is the same with any law: we cannot be saved on the basis of law keeping because we never do keep law perfectly. It is a cold, hard fact that we always come short of God's perfect standard. This is undeniable reality -- stated in God's word and verified by all human experience. We are sinners, and even when we sincerely try to do right we do not consistently do what God wants us to do. Paul talks about this very problem in Romans, chapter 7. Legalism is not grace. God does not simply give a list of rules in the New Testament and say: "Here are the rules. Keep them and be saved."

     Scripture is very plain along this line. The law -- any law -- is weak through the flesh (see Romans 8:3). That is, no one ever keeps law perfectly, and therefore no one can ever be saved by law. The weakness of the Old Testament was not in the Law of Moses. It was ordained by angels and given by God Himself (Galatians 3:19). Indeed:

Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. (Galatians 3:21-22 NIV).

     No, these words do not apply just to the Law of Moses. If any law or set of rules could have given life, Paul says, surely the Law of Moses could. But even it could not. The law was not bad -- the people were. It is impossible -- because of the way we sinful humans are and always have been -- for law to save. God's grace is not just giving a law that we can keep and be saved. If that is all the New Testament brings it is no better than the Old Testament. We still sin. Sinners must die. The Law cannot save. If a law could have been given, Paul says, which could give life, surely it would have been the Law of Moses. But -- he continues -- Scripture has shut up all mankind under the guilt of sin instead. Law cannot save.

     Grace is not license. License says "do as you please and God will overlook it." That perverts the grace of God. It ignores the fundamental fact of God's nature that He is holy and always punishes sin with death.

     Grace is not legalism. Legalism says "here are the rules; keep them and be saved". Legalism frustrates the true grace of God. It ignores the fundamental fact of our nature that we are weak in the flesh and always sin. We never keep the rules perfectly.

     How, then, is anyone to be saved? How can we harmonize God's holy nature on the one hand, with our weakness on the other -- and still have anyone enjoy the favor of God? If grace is not license, if it is not legalism, what is it? Scripture answers this question very clearly.

     The true grace of God is God's work in His Son Jesus Christ:

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17 NIV)

     This does not mean that there was no grace under Moses, or that there was no truth under Moses. Nor does it mean that there is no law under Jesus Christ. We have already seen that grace is not license. Paul says that he was not without law to God, but under the law of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:21).

     Yet in some way, John is contrasting law -- as characteristic of the Old system -- to grace -- as characteristic of Jesus Christ. What is God's true grace? It came by Jesus Christ. It is specific to Jesus Christ and His work. Grace will be found in relation to the Son of God Himself -- the Son who became flesh and dwelt among us. He was full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

     Peter says that it was prophesied in advance that Christ would bring this grace to mankind, and that this grace would be our salvation:

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. (1 Peter 1:10-11 NIV)

     God's true grace would come by Jesus Christ. The prophets had an idea of this, but they did not see it clearly. John says that grace did come by Jesus Christ, who was God in human flesh. Peter says that the Spirit of Christ testified to the prophets of someone, at some time, who would bring grace to God's people -- grace that would result in their salvation, or right standing with God. We know, looking back, that they spoke of Christ. They did not know the details but "made careful search and inquiry" as to who this Savior was and when he would come.

     How did God's grace involve Christ? What was involved in God's grace? It visibly began when God became incarnate to become a man in Jesus Christ. Paul says:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV)

     Grace began when Jesus left heaven -- with all its riches -- to become a man. He became poor for our sake, that we might become rich. Grace means, in the first place, that God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. He became one of us. Jesus came for the purpose of keeping God's will perfectly in a human body -- that is why he was given a body in the first place:

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, 'Here I am--it is written about me in the scroll-- I have come to do your will, O God.' (Hebrews 10:5-7 NIV)

     God had never wanted animal sacrifices or sin offerings above all else. He had simply wanted people to carry out His will! But even the most pious and faithful Jew had always failed to do God's will (because that is what we have seen to be the universal state of fallen humanity), and had to offer sacrifices for sin instead. Jesus did not come to offer more animal sacrifices. He came to do what God had always wanted but what no person had ever yet done: to do the will of God! As a man, He would do what no other had done. God gave Jesus a body for that purpose. He came to do the will of God. Not only that, He did the will of God perfectly in His human body. Jesus then offered that body for our sins.

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all... because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy (Hebrews 10:10, 14)

     The grace of God means -- first -- that Jesus became a man. He was one of us. As a man he kept God's will perfectly. Then he offered His body to God -- he presented to God what God had always wanted -- a human life perfectly in accord with His will for man. Grace means, in the second place, that Jesus died for sins -- though He Himself had none.

     In dying when He personally had never sinned, Jesus paid the price for our sins -- and those of every person who will finally be saved throughout the entire world!

Remember our two eternal principles: God demands death for sin; fallen humans always sin. Here we see how the two truths are reconciled for our salvation. Jesus died for our sins! HE TOOK OUR PLACE. God does not overlook sin -- a monumental price is paid for it -- the perfect life of the Son of God! The only man who ever did what God wanted died for those who never had. Here is the grace of God! It is not a cheap grace -- it cost the life of the Son of God. He died in our place.

     Paul tells us this same thing in Second Corinthians:

...that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain (2 Corinthians 5:19-6:1 NIV).

      This story becomes more wondrous all the time! Jesus not only took OUR place; He gives us HIS. He was made SIN for us, that we might be made THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD in Him. The grace of God is that Jesus became a man -- a representative man who took our place. In a human body, Jesus lived a perfect life that God counts for us, then died the death which, for our sins, we deserved to die.

      Peter tells us this in other words:

He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed (1 Peter 2:24 NIV).

     Jesus did not stay in the grave. God raised Him from the dead -- and that, too, was for our sake!

The words "it was credited to him " were written not for him [Abraham] alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (Romans 4:23-5:2 NIV).

     Jesus died for our sins. If God did not have to deal with our sins, Jesus would not have needed to die. If we ever wonder whether we are sinners, we need look only at the cross of Jesus Christ and we see that we are. He was on that cross "because of our transgressions."

     But Jesus was raised again "for our justification." His resurrection demonstrated to the entire watching universe that God loves sinners and that, in Jesus, he has saved those who do not reject His grace, those of every nation and time and place in whom God sees the faith of Abraham. If we ever wonder whether we are forgiven, we need look only by faith at that empty tomb where Jesus was once buried. If we think of Jesus' death as the payment for our sins, we may also think of Jesus' resurrection as God's guaranteed and irrevocable receipt.

     Here is the grace of God! It comes through Jesus Christ. In Jesus of Nazareth, the God of the universe became man -- made in the likeness of man -- came to be like sinful flesh. He was actually and really one of us, though He was still deity. But, unlike us, Jesus did not sin. Instead He did the will of God perfectly in His human body. Then the only sinless man who ever lived died a cruel death for sinners like you and me who will never deserve anything else than death.

     Here is the grace of God. And here is why Jesus Christ is the very heart and soul, the center and circumference, of the New Testament. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beginning and the end. He is the first and the last. He is our peace, our justification, our holiness. We owe everything to Him.

     Paul says in Romans, chapter 5, that we are justified by faith (v. 1). Faith means trusting God to love us, because of what He did in Jesus Christ, and entrusting ourselves wholeheartedly to that divine love. Salvation is by grace -- we do not deserve God's favor toward us and we can never earn it. We access this grace by faith, which means that we must always look outside ourselves for our salvation (2 Timothy 1:12).

     We cannot perform the work that results in our salvation, for Jesus has already done that, once for all time. We cannot add to that finished work, or improve on it. We can only trust God to be gracious to us as He promises in Christ. If we picture grace as the room of God's favor, we may think of faith as the door into that room (Romans 5:1-2).

     God accepts us because of Christ's work on our behalf. We enjoy that grace by accepting it as fact, trusting it as sufficient, and throwing ourselves on it in total and eternal abandon, to become servants of righteousness and true holiness in Christ. We do not earn God's favor. We cannot ever please Him enough to be given His blessings. We certainly could never pay for our own sins and be saved. But in Christ God has brought together the justice that is His nature and the weakness that is ours: Christ became a man and took our place.

     God's grace deals with the weakness of our flesh because salvation does not depend on our weak flesh -- Jesus has earned it for us already! It also takes into account God's holiness, because sin is punished -- by the death of God's sinless Son! And so Paul can say to the Ephesian Christians:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV).

     License perverts grace, and does not satisfy God's requirement of perfect obedience to His will. Legalism thwarts and frustrates God's grace, and does not provide for the weakness of fallen humankind. Salvation by grace -- true grace in Jesus Christ -- reckons with God's holiness and with our sinfulness and weakness. The perfect, finished work of Jesus Christ satisfies God's holiness and provides for our sinfulness. In Jesus Christ, the holy God accepts and forgives His sinful human creatures (Ephesians 1:7).

     We are saved because we are one with Christ -- and He has offered both a perfect life and death for us, our salvation. We are one with Christ on the basis of faith, in the beginning and throughout life. True faith will seek to please him. Yet it is not legalism. There is a vast difference between law keeping and law-depending. We will want to do God's will, yet we never will trust in our own performance for our salvation. We glory only in the cross of Christ.

     Any system, any concept of Christianity, any "ism," any movement, which makes salvation dependent on our own ability to please God destroys and invalidates the work of Christ. If we could have been saved because of our own performance then Christ died for nothing! If keeping the rules could save people, Christ could have stayed in Heaven -- God's people had possessed perfect rules for centuries. The weakness of the Old Testament was the weakness of man. That is the same weakness of any system which depends on us.

     It is one thing to seek God's will in a matter because we love Him and want to please Him. It is another thing altogether to approach that same matter with the idea that our salvation depends on our own good performance or merit. This attitude is legalism, and it will always lead to pride (insofar as we are successful) or to despair and hopelessness (insofar as we fail).

     It is right and proper to seek to please God as thoroughly and exactly and precisely as possible. Any true believer will want to do that, and anyone who does not want to do that is not a true believer. But it is a far different matter to create a system, to formulate a creed, or to devise an elaborate set of rules, and then DEPEND ON OUR OWN KEEPING OF THOSE FOR OUR SALVATION.

      Let us seek to please God. That is what true faith will always do. Let us ask God for forgiveness when we fall. That is what true faith will always do. Let us rejoice in the work of Christ on our behalf. Let us glory in the cross of Christ. Let us say -- first, last, and always -- "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" And -- in Christ -- we know that he always will!