A Ramble About Law vs. Grace

Ok, so here's the issue, Law vs. Grace—or is it?

St. Paul says in Galatians that the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Literally, our “pedagogue.” And once Christ appeared there was no more need for the Law.

First of all, let's define what was meant by “Law.” The Jewish people of the period would have understood this word a “Torah,” the legal code, or “constitution” if you will, for the people of Israel. It was, principally , a Suzerainty treaty between Israel and her Sovereign King, Yahveh her God. It was a code of conduct which separated Israel from the other nations around her. The terms were pretty easy to understand as much as any constitution or penal code would be. “If you do this (fill in the blank), then this is the consequence.”

Contrary to popular opinion, penal codes in general are amoral, as are constitutions. They are also simply agreements between the government and the people and the terms of that agreement may be either beneficial (hopefully) or harmful to the people who are governed by them. The penal code makes no distinction between good motives or bad motives, it simply says “this is the regulation, and these are the consequences.”

It's important to make this distinction, that the law, the Torah, was and is amoral, neither good nor evil as such (although no one would argue that the legal code described in the Torah is somehow bad or not inherently good or beneficial), in the same way that penal codes and constitutions are neither good nor evil as such. They simply are what they are.

The human psyche since the fall latches on to ideas, concepts, and actions as either good or evil, right or wrong. It is important to understand that this is a malfunction of the psyche due to ingesting the fruit and the inherent disobedience when this happened. This is not, and never has been, a normal or natural function of the human psyche. We weren't created with it, and the “penal code” set down was specifically meant to keep it from happening. “Don't eat the fruit... if you do, you will die.” The assumption of knowing good from evil by a human being is a direct byproduct and consequence of that action. It is a part of that death which was warned about.

As a result, every human being since is born with this innate psychological need to label thoughts, ideas, concepts, and actions as either good or evil depending on whether the human being in question agrees with the thought, idea, concept, or action.

The Law, the Torah, was given to regulate this. It was a concession of mercy, as God so often does, taking human beings where they are at, recognizing their weaknesses and saying, “ok, I'll work with you on this. I know this is all you can handle and how you think at the moment.” So the Torah was given to train human beings who cannot and have not experienced God from birth towards compassion, mercy, justice, love, and most importantly knowing Him. But because the Torah itself is amoral, the malfunction in the human psyche latches on to it and says “Ok, now I know this is good and that is evil,” and it does so without mercy, because mercy is a foreign concept to the malfunction if not to the psyche as a whole. And this works in conjunction with the malfunction to train a people as a long as they adhere to it surrendering their perception of “good” and “evil” to the tenets of the Torah. But it doesn't work if they don't relinquish this, accepting the better judgment of God who wrote it. And, while it can train a people towards compassion, mercy, and knowing Him, it cannot naturally repair the malfunction which prevents this understanding in the first place.

The issue is not law vs. grace. Because even if you remove the “law” or any legal code as a factor, you will still have that malfunctioning psyche which says “this is right and that is wrong,” arbitrarily assigning those values to whatever it does or does not agree with. The repair only comes through union with God through Jesus Christ. But even after the union with Christ through baptism, and the repair is begun, the psyche must still be retrained from its old habit of “good vs. evil,” and relating to the world in that way. The scriptures use the analogy of a “new man” and an “old man,” literally a “new human being” and an “old human being,” and these two “human beings” are opposed to one another.

Because while God has now grafted or “glued” Himself to you through Christ, the psyche doesn't just automatically understand how to make use of this new state of being; this new input, if you will, and it will attempt to force the new input through the old method of processing. The new capability must be integrated into the psyche's way of doing things independently from the “good vs. evil” malfunction. It must relearn how to interpret the world and relationships around it through the experience of God, and union with Him, which is consummated or experienced through the active choice to love the other person, to forgo yourself and focus on the other person.

As I wrote before:

“The only way to experience God in practice is by choosing to care about someone else, and forgetting about yourself or your own wants, needs, and desires in that moment. If you don't forget about these things, they will form a barrier between you and Him.

“Love, caring, compassion; the choice to put someone else's interests above your own is the catalyst. It allows Grace to flow through you like power through circuits. It allows you to step back and become oned with God in such a way that you become almost an observer in your own body as you see what He does through you. And when He does this, your concern for the other person intensifies and they become the most important thing to you in that moment, whether it's your dearest friend, or the person who just broke your nose, or gave you a black eye. And it has nothing to do with your feelings. It is the simple yet powerful choice to set anything about you aside, and focus on the other person.

“Jesus commanded us to love. There's a reason for it. He commanded us to make the choice to care, because this through Him is our salvation. It allows the union with Him to take place in practice. It doesn't matter who the object of that concern is. It can be the bum on the street, the cashier at the supermarket, your family, your friends, the person who hates you and despises you, God Himself, and it must be each one of these people in turn. The power to do so is there by Grace and by love Grace itself is made active and perfected.” (Grace being the uncreated energy of God, His presence outside of His Persons).

So, the discussion is really about judgment vs. love, not law vs. grace, because law, a code of conduct designed to regulate human behavior and prevent harm in conjunction with the malfunctioning psyche, is irrelevant when love, the choice to care about the other and let yourself go which realizes the union with God independent of the malfunction, is practiced and active. But judgment, the need to designate this as good and that as evil and enforce it on others, is a malfunction and a result of the greater psychological malfunction of not being able to experience God from birth, and the absolute security that brings, as human were made to.