A Real Odd Couple

By Tom Parsons

Mary and her husband were certainly an odd couple. She was vivacious and outgoing, the life of any party she attended, happy-go-lucky, cheerful, full of life and joy. Everyone was her friend. Everyone liked her. Everyone brightened when she entered the room.

Her husband, on the other hand, was dull and quiet, a man of few words. He could be at a party and not be noticed at all. He seldom spoke to anyone. He seemed harsh and judgmental, although he really was not. He seldom laughed or even smiled. When he entered a room it seemed the room darkened a little. There is a reason why I can remember her name, but not his.

Yet this couple, in spite of their opposing personalities, or perhaps because of them, were happily married. She complemented and completed him, and he her. But they were an odd couple.

There is another “odd couple” Paul refers to in this passage of Scripture. They are just as much opposites as Mary and her husband. One of the two in this other couple is severe and demanding, a no-nonsense type of guy who goes by the book. He shows no mercy. He makes no exceptions. He draws the line and expects you to stay on the proper side of it. One toe over the line and you are in trouble with him. His name is Law.

The other member of this couple is gracious and kind. Mercy is the hallmark of all her dealings with people. She never overlooks that which is wrong, but she also never condemns the wrong doer but offers a promise of forgiveness and restoration. Her name is Grace.

Theirs is a strange marriage, indeed, and one may question how two such opposite parties could be happily joined in union, but they are. God has a purpose for Law. God has a purpose for Grace.

The older of the two in this union is Grace. She was given first. God promised Abraham that his seed would be a blessing to all the nations of the world. The reference was not to Abraham’s descendants, but rather to his principle descendent: Jesus Christ. God would use the then childless Abraham to be the father of not only many nations, but of One who would be the Savior, the Messiah, known to the whole world.

This promise was given to Abraham more than four centuries before the law was given to Moses. When the law was given, it did not replace the grace and the promises previously given. The law did not end the promise given to Abraham. The law did not supercede the promise given to Abraham. In fact, the law could not declare God’s previously given promises as null and void.

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The promised Messiah, and the promises to Abraham concerning the land God would give to his descendants, did not rest on the law, since they were given centuries before the law was given. The inheritance of Abraham was his because God promised it by grace, not because He secured it by law.

Why was the law given? Because of sin. Because of transgressions. Because of the failure of those to whom the promises were made to live up to their part of the covenant with God. But it was given for a time. It was given “until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” (Galatians 3:19)

God promised the Messiah would come, and then gave the law to prepare people for His coming. That preparation involved two distinct truths the law revealed. The law revealed the heart of the people. They were sinners. They were rebellious against God. They had no righteousness of their own. There was nothing they could do to make themselves holy and acceptable to God.

The law, for example, said, “You will not have any other gods before Me.” Period. You are not to give any semblance of worship to any one or any thing but God. Sounds easy enough. But it is really an impossible thing for humans, being sinners, to obey.

The big football game is on TV on Sunday, and if I miss church I can see the kickoff. But I correctly decide to go to church instead of watching the opening of the game, but when there, instead of thinking about God I am thinking about what is probably happening at the game. While the choir is reverently singing Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, in my heart I’m singing the fight song of my favorite team.

It is not just football, of course. It is anything and everything. I am not a fan of football in general or a team in particular, but there are other things that can and do attract me away from a God-focused life. I simply chose to use your idol as an example instead of mine! But we all have those idols. And because we do, and because we often cannot really resist those idols successfully, we are breakers of the law, and thus we realize our need to submit to God’s plan for saving us from sin.

The other way in which the law prepared mankind for the coming of the Savior concerned its ability to reveal the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He never broke the law. Football was never more important to Him than worshiping God. Nor was he subject to the appeal of my idol either. He never sinned. There was never any other God before Him but God the Father. His Father. If the law prepares me by revealing my sin, then it must also prepare me by revealing the sinless One who can save me from the penalty of my sin And that it did. And that it does.

Thank you Mary and what’s-his-name for being illustrations of this other really odd couple, Law and Grace. And thank You, Lord, for providing the law to show me who I am, and for providing grace to know Who Christ is and what He can do for me if I trust Him.