The Gospel According To PaulSample

We Can Live in Hope Not Fear

Although law and grace operate with the same moral standard, the eschatology of grace—what it teaches us about things to come—is infinitely brighter than the eschatology of law. Indeed, the eternal future of those under grace holds nothing but unending glory and blessings. But the only thing the future holds for those who remain under the law is death and eternal damnation.

Here is the fundamental difference between law and grace. The law makes no promise to sinners other than the guarantee of judgment. For those still under the law, the return of Christ will signal the final outpouring of the judgment to come, and it is a terrifying prospect. But God’s saving grace teaches us to be “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." Law threatens judgment and pronounces a death sentence. Grace grants forgiveness and promises eternal blessings. The law points to the sinner’s past, filling the guilty heart with fear and regret. Grace points to the believer’s future and fills the forgiven heart with gratitude and hope.

The difference could not be more stark, and far from luring us into a kind of apathetic passivity—rather than eliminating our desire to be and do good—it should motivate us to pursue holiness with all our passions and energies. This, after all, is what Christ died for: to “redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works."

Grace produces a holy hatred of sin in every true believer. It fills our hearts and minds with a sacred dislike for everything that dishonors God. Although our flesh is still susceptible to sin’s enticements, in our innermost soul we “abhor what is evil." Indeed, hatred for evil is a necessary expression of love for God (Ps. 97:10), and this is the believer’s motive for “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.” Its positive flip side is an enduring hunger and thirst for righteousness—the incentive that prompts us to “live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.."

The “glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” is the blessed hope we look forward to precisely because Christ’s appearing in glory will mean the total and permanent removal of sin from our experience, and we will instantly be transformed and perfected.