No Transgression
The balance between law and grace is precarious. Some insist that the law must remain in effect in the New Testament to restrain licentiousness. They insist on the place of the law and reinterpret it to work in line with Christ. Others look at morality itself and see it as a bane of humanity and would declare believers free to live as they please, excess and all. Neither position is supported by scripture. Like most issues, the truth of scripture is a middle way: the law was fulfilled in Christ. We are, by grace, now equipped to live a truly holy life—not fearful of the law but animated by the Spirit.
Colossians 2:14 tells us that God canceled canceled the written code by taking it away and nailing it to the cross. When Christ died, the law and our sins died with him. He came off the cross and rose from the dead; the law stayed behind as a vanquished enemy. The law fulfilled its purpose: defining our sins, rebuking our lusts and demonstrating our spiritual need. Now that the Holy Spirit lives within us, teaching us to live, we no longer need the old teacher (Galatians 3:23-25). Don’t misapply this to mean we live unrestrained because there is no law. Under the leadership of Christ, following and obeying the father through the presence of the Spirit, we live not after the flesh and the world, but in righteousness.
Romans 4:14-15 contains an often misunderstood but very beautiful sentiment about the law and our relationship with it. Here is the passage in full from the NIV:
“For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.”
The final statement, “where there is no law there is no transgression,” is often misapplied. Some claim that it means that those who have not heard the law—the unreached, or those prior to Sinai—have not transgressed and are not held guilty. This universalistic application has nothing to do with the meaning of the passage. Neither does the libertine view that if the law has passed away we are no longer accountable for transgression, because nothing is sinful for us. This view has been popular among many but it didn’t come from Paul or any other apostle.
Paul is saying that living by the law does not make one an heir of Abraham. Earlier he makes his point with the example of obedience to the law on circumcision. He says that those who have not obeyed this law, but believe as Abraham did are heirs. Besides them, those who obey the law are heirs as well, but only if they also express the same faith. Obedience of the law does not make one an heir; faith does. Paul explains this is because the law brings wrath. This idea enlightens what he meant by the passage: “where there is no law there is no transgression.” The law, as an agent of wrath is incapable of producing holiness or justifying anyone (Galatians 2:16; 3:21). Condemnation always accompanies the law.
The only place given for innocence, in the law, is silence. Wherever the law speaks, it speaks wrath, so removal of transgression and guilt necessitates removal of the law. Paul shows that the law is only capable of condemnation, so obedience of the law is not an escape from wrath. Legalistic righteousness can only produce momentary lack of condemnation. Tomorrow you may violate something in the law. The only hope would be a lifetime of guiltless behavior, but even then you could never be sure.
Righteousness by faith, given freely by Christ is everlasting—freeing while restraining. It restrains because true faith, true belief, produces good works. It frees us from walking the razor’s edge of condemnation. Christ’s holiness, which never wavers, makes it everlasting—so long as Christ is holy, we are holy. We may waver and stumble, but Christ’s righteousness is still applied. We can rest in this and understand that Christ will continue his good works in us. The law could never make us holy, so God took it out of the way, freeing us to walk with Christ.
