For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."_ — _John 1:17 (KJV)_
_WHAT GRACE IS NOT — IT DOES NOT ABOLISH THE LAW, IT FULFILLS IT (b)
Imagine a country that has a law: "Do not drive beyond 100km/h." For years, police officers with speed guns are stationed everywhere to enforce it out of fear.
One day, the car manufacturing company invents a new kind of engine. This engine is designed such that it performs at its absolute best, smoothest and most efficient at 80km/h. In fact, it begins to vibrate uncomfortably if you try to push it to 120km/h. The driver now stays within the speed limit, not because he is afraid of the policeman, but because his _new nature_ as a driver of this new car loves the sweet spot.
The policeman is no longer needed, not because speed limits were abolished, but because the nature of the car fulfills what the law demanded.
That is Grace. God does not remove the standard. He changes the engine — your heart. He takes away the heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh. So holiness is no longer an external pressure, but an internal pleasure.
A common misunderstanding is that grace means God has thrown the Law in the trash bin. Not at all. If grace abolished the Law, then grace would be celebrating what God once called sin. Grace does not do that. Grace is not God lowering His standard to accommodate us; grace is God lifting us up to His standard through Christ.
We are no longer under the Law as a _system_ for salvation. No man will be saved by trying to keep the Law. We are saved by faith in Jesus alone. But the _moral heart_ of the Law — its holiness, its righteousness, its love — has not been cancelled. It has been relocated.
Under the Old Covenant, the law was written on tables of stone. Under the New, God says:
> _"I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts..."_ — _Hebrews 8:10_
The address has changed, not the Author.
In the Old Testament, a man was told "Thou shalt not commit adultery." He obeyed outwardly out of fear, but inwardly lusted. The Law could restrain his body, but not transform his heart. Under Grace, the Holy Spirit does not just say "Don't do it," He creates a new heart that does not _want_ to do it. The Law demanded purity; Grace imparts purity.
That is why Paul says love fulfills the law:
> _"Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."_ — _Romans 13:10_
We no longer fulfill the law by ticking rules out of fear of punishment, like a slave checking boxes. We fulfill it by nature, like a son who loves his Father. A slave needs a law to keep him from stealing. A true son does not need that law written on the wall because honour is written in his heart.
*So, what does this mean for us today?*
1. Grace will never lead you to excuse sin. If what you call "grace" makes you comfortable living in what the Law called sin, it is not grace, it is deception.
2. Don't go back to living under fear. Don't try to earn God’s acceptance by rule-keeping. You are accepted in the Beloved.
3. Yield to the Spirit inside you. He is the Law written in your heart. When you walk in love, you have kept the entire Law without even trying.
Grace does not say, "The Law doesn't matter." Grace says, "Through Christ in you, the righteous requirement of the Law can now truly be met."
I am not under Law, but under Grace. The holiness God demanded is now the holiness God has deposited in my heart. By love, I fulfill the Law.