THE law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (Jno 1:17). There are many Christians who try to mix up the two, and they get into sore perplexity and distress. Our Lord Himself tells us that it is like putting a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, or like putting new wine into old wine-skins (Matt. 9:16, 17). Only confusion and waste follow. It may be well to glance at some of the contrasts between the two methods of salvation.

Law caused fear. The first record about the man of the Law tells us, "Moses feared" (Ex. 2:14). When he again appears in the sacred narrative, "Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God" (Ex. 3:6). So it was with all the Old Testament saints. Jacob had a wonderful vision of God: "And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place!" (Gen. 28:17). Isaiah cried out, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (Isa. 6:5). Daniel, so blameless, beheld the majestic appearance of "one certain man," and he tells us, "My comliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength" (Dan. 10:8)- All the accompaniments of dread attended the proclamation of the Law; "and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake" (Heb. 12:21).

But everything connected with grace is designed to remove fear. To the father of John the Baptist the angel of the Lord said, "Fear not, Zacharias,, (Luke 1:13). The angel Gabriel said to the virgin, "Fear not, Mary" (Luke 1:30). The Son of God was to be born that we "might serve Him without fear" (Luke 1:74). At His birth the angel said to the shepherds, "Fear not" (Luke 2:10). When our Lord called Peter to the apostleship He said, "Fear not" (Luke 5:10). To the ruler of the Jews, whose heart was torn by the tidings of his daughter's death, He said, "Fear not" (Luke 8:50). To all of his disciples He said, "Fear not," and "Fear not, little flock" (Luke 12:7, 32). To John on the Isle of Patmos He said, "Fear not" (Rev. 1:17). Why? "There is no fear in love; but perfect love," His love, "casteth out fear; because fear hath torment" (1 Jno. 4:18).

Law kept men at a distance. God said to Moses at the burning bush, "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Ex- 3:5). The law was given amid thunderings, and lightnings, and the noise of a trumpet, and the mountain smoking; "and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off . . . And the people stood afar off" (Ex. 20:18, 21). "And He said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off" (Ex. 24:1). The law convinces of sin, and hence it says to all our fallen race, "The Lord is far from the wicked" (Prov. 15:29).

Grace brings us nigh, "Now, in Christ Jesus, ye who some time were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ" (Eph. 2:12). "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him" (Eph. 3:12). Boldness means liberty, freedom to tell it all out; and "having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw nigh with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience (by the blood), and our bodies washed with pure water" (by the Word) (Heb. 10:19, 22). The law said, it is death to go behind that beautiful veil, except for the high priest once a year; grace says it is death not to go in boldly.

Law detects sin. The Lord told Moses to cast his rod on the ground. "And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. . . . And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom- And he put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow" (Ex. 4:3, 6). Moses was the first leper of whom we read in the Bible. "By the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20). "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound" (Rom. 5:20). "I had not known sin, but by the law" (Rom. 7:7). "Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions" (Gal. 3:19); and was never designed to save a sinner, but only to show him his sinfulness and helplessness.

Grace saves, "What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3). God "hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be constituted the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). Saved "to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, , . . that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus: for by grace ye are saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Eph. i:6, 2:7, 8). "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim. 1 19).

Law says, "Do and live." "Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments; which if a man do, he shall live in them" (Lev. 18:5). The apostle quotes this language, and ascribes it to Moses, contrary to the higher critics, who do not believe that Leviticus was written until 800 years later. "Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them" (Rom. 10:5). "I gave them my statutes, and showed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them" (Ezek. 20:1). "Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?" (John 6:19). "As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law; for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified" (Rom. 2:12, 13).

Grace says, "Live and do." "As sin became king unto death, even so might grace become king, through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 5:21). "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Rom. 6:13). "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). The first thing a dead man needs is life, and this is the gift of God's free grace. Up to that time the only semblance of life is the grimace of a corpse, and a spasmodic contortion under the power of a galvanic battery.

Law says, "Love God." Our Lord Himself declared: "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment, and the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Mark 11:29, 31). Find a man who has done this, and it shall be well with him. He enters heaven as the result and reward of his personal and perfect love; but it is needless to say that such a man has never existed, and therefore no one can be saved by his love.

Grace says, "Believe in God's love for you." "God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:8, 10). "God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). Two acquaintances were talking one day, when one said to his companion, "Do you think much of God?" "No," was the frank reply, "I do not. To tell you the truth, I do not love God." "Nor did I," was the answer, "but God loved me."

Law cursed and killed. "As many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse; for it is written, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them" (Gal. 3:10). By divine command Moses charged the Israelites that, when they entered the promised land, six of the tribes were to stand on Mt. Gerizim, and pronounce blessings; and six of the tribes were to stand on Mt. Ebal, and pronounce curses. But not a single blessing was uttered; only twelve curses (Deut. 27:12, 26). No wonder, for when Moses was communing with God, the people made and worshiped a golden calf, and he and the sons of Levi marched through the camp with flaming swords; "and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men" (Ex. 33:28).

Grace blesses and delivers. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:i3). "If by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:17). "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" (Tit. 2:11). All that the law could do was to inflict judgment on sinners, and hence "there fell of the people that day about three thousand men"; but when grace showed its power to save, "the same day there was added to them about three thousand souls" (Acts 2:41). "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life" (2 Cor. 3:6); and while the Old Testament ends with the word "curse," the New Testament ends with the word "grace."

Law severely punished disobedient and wayward children. "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother; . . . they shall say unto the elders of of his city, This, our son, is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die" (Deut. 21:18, 21). "He that smiteth his father or his mother, shall be surely put to death. . . . He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death" (Ex. 21:i5, 17).

Grace leads a father to receive a prodigal son, who wasted his substance with riotous living, and devoured all his patrimony with harlots, and to receive him with open arms. Beggared, ragged, starving, the wretched outcast "arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry" (Luke 15:20, 24).

"What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? . . . For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid" (Rom. 6:1, 2, 14, 15). It is common for poor shallow souls to say, "If we are saved wholly by grace, we will sin as much as we wish." But how much will you wish to sin? A boy whose father had forbidden certain fruit in his garden to be touched, was urged by his companions to take it, because, as they argued, "He loves you so much, he will not punish you." The little fellow replied, "I know that he loves me, and that he will not punish me, and that is the very reason I will not take his fruit." We hate sin, because God hates it, because it murdered our Lord, because it grieves the Holy Spirit, because it wounds the heart that loves us, because it is shameful.