John 1:17. " The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Law and grace are diverse principles; the law demands, grace gives.

Gal. 3:10, 13. The law says:" Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them "-the law has cursed every soul that is under it, for none have fully kept it; but " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (ver. 13). One is law, and the other grace. What a contrast!

Rom. 10:4. " Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth;" Christ not only fully kept the law, and glorified God in all His life, but died for our sins, bore for us the law's curse, and He is our righteousness before God.

Rom. 7:4-6:" Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. The believer has " become dead to the law " by Christ's death, " that we should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead."

Gal. 2:16-21. " I, through the law am dead to the law" (condemned, put to death by it, and so dead to it) " that I might live unto God." This deliverance from the law, and joy in God's grace, gives power to please God and walk in His ways.

Gal. 5:1, The apostle's exhortation is:" Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage "-1:e., the yoke of the law, of which the apostle Peter speaks in Acts 15:10-" which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear."

The apostle Paul writing to the Galatian saints who had received the gospel, had been saved by it, and delivered from the bondage of the law, asks, " How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, where-unto ye desire again to be in bondage ? " and in chap. 5:3,4, he testifies to them:" Christ has become of no effect unto you who are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."

These are searching truths for those who would, in this "dispensation of the grace of God," put themselves under the law.

Some may say, and have said:This doctrine of "grace" for the life and walk of believers is a very dangerous doctrine, for it allows them to live in sin, to please themselves, with no restraint. This very question is raised and answered in Romans 6. The answer is " God forbid:How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?" The truth is, the true believer, being born of God, now hates sin (as before he loved it,) and his earnest desire is to live and " walk in newness of life." He loves God and hates sin. " The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge that… He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again " (2 Cor. 5:14,15). Love to our blessed Lord is the power for the new life.

The standard for the daily walk of the believer is a high standard; it is higher than the law, it is Christ Himself. It is written in Col. 2:6-8, " As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." Col. 3:1:" If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."

1 John 2:6:"He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked."

1 Peter 2:21:" For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps."

John 10:27:" My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."

The believer in Christ is born again-born of God (1 Peter 1:23; John 1:13). He is justified by faith, and at peace with God (Rom. 5:1). This is all of God's grace. " It is of faith, that it might be by grace" (Rom. 4:16). Again, in Eph. 2:8-10, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God:not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Think of it, fellow-believer; what marvelous grace!

Acts 13:39 shows what the law could not do for the believer:" By Him (Jesus) all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Since "no man is justified by the law in the sight of God" (Gal. 3:11), how can the law be either the rule of life or of daily walk for him who is not under it (Gal. 5:18), who is dead to it (Rom. 7:4), and who is by faith united to the risen, glorified Man at God's right hand? In Gal. 2:21, the Holy Spirit's emphatic statement is, "For if righteousness come by (or, is through) the law, then Christ is dead in vain"-has died for nought. With the word of God in his hands, how can the believer go back again to the law, when the law is not of faith, but is the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones? (2 Cor. 3:6-11.)

In what we have had before us from the word of God, it is plain that the law has no claim upon the believer. He is looked upon as freed from the law. His standing before God in grace is perfect, because it is in Christ, being accepted in the beloved (Col. 2:10; Eph. 1:6)-not accepted in himself, or anything he has done, or for any righteousness of his own, but accepted in the full value of Christ's finished work for him. R. D.