Many Churches are mixing Law and Grace (Galatian-ism).

The gospel that you hear in most churches is this:

• All are sinners under judgment – this is true.
• Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins and rose from the dead – this is true
• So then we have to accept Christ for salvation – this is true.

But then the problem starts after we become believers:

• They say that after believing you need to keep the Law and confess your sins when you fail.
• This is the mixture of old and new covenants where there is not much assurance of salvation but too much focus on our works.
• There is little focus on the Righteousness of faith.
• There is not much focus on Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, (Paul’s writings to Gentiles).
• They don’t realize that we are not under the law anymore.
• In fact, they don’t realize the severity of the law and don’t realize the fullness of God’s grace.
• So then they minimize God’s grace and underestimate the lawand remain in mixture by needing grace but also trying to please God by the law.

This is what the Galatians did in the Bible. Most Churches will accept that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ. But then they say that our ongoing relationship with God and earthly blessings are based on your works of the Law. But that is inconsistent with the Gospel message.

If salvation is by grace, then our entire relationship with God and earthly blessings are completely based on GRACE through the finished work of Jesus and not our works!

Most churches do not understand the New Covenant of GRACE:-

Jesus died once and for all to forgive us past, present and future sins (Hebrews 10:1-17) once and for all that is received at the moment we believe in Him.

Hebrews 10 “⁹ then he has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first (LAW), that he may establish the second (GRACE), ¹⁰ by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all….¹⁷ “I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.” ¹⁸ Now where forgiveness of these is, there is no more offering for sin.“

He rose from the dead to make us righteous by faith apart from our works but purely by grace

Romans 4 “⁴ Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed. ⁵ But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. ⁶ Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, ⁷ “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. ⁸ Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin…..to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.”

The reason we are forgiven permanently is that we are no longer under the law.

Galatians 3 “²³ But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, confined for the faith which should afterwards be revealed. ²⁴ So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. ²⁶ For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Colossians 2 “¹³ You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴ wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. ¹⁶ Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day, ¹⁷ which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.“

The demands of the law ended for the believer on the cross. The unbeliever is still under the law.

Hebrews 8 “⁶ But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as law. ⁷ For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second……“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,” says the Lord;……For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.”¹³ In that he says, “A new covenant”, he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.

Hebrews 9 “¹⁵ For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. ¹⁶ For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it.”

In the New Covenant, God is not judging the believer’s sin anymore because He already judged all our sins on the cross of Jesus, so that He has given us His righteousness as a FREE GIFT.

2nd Corinthians 5 ” ¹⁷ Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

In the New Covenant, we relate to God based on GRACE and not our works.(Ephesians 2:1-10)

The Old Covenant was all about works but the New covenant is all about GRACE through faith without works. (Romans 10)

Romans 10 “⁵ For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who DOES them will live by them.⁶ But the righteousness which is of faith says this,….that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart, one believes resulting in righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made resulting in salvation. “

The entire focus of the New Covenant is JESUS Christ and what He did for us – not our works! (Colossians 1-2)

If we focus on the works of the ten commandments, then it brings condemnation. But the more we focus on Jesus Christ and less on our works, the more we are transformed into His glory.

2 Corinthians 3 “For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. ⁷ But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face, which was passing away, ⁸ won’t service of the Spirit be with much more glory? ⁹ For if the service of condemnation has glory, the service of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. …. ¹⁵ But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. ¹⁶ But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.“