GRACE and law

I came across these helpful quotes from Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend's book, How People Grow. I am so tempted to live under the law and often I see God as a law-imposer instead of the Grace-giver.

People do not grow until they shift from a natural human view of God to a real, biblical view of God. The first aspect of that shift has to be the shift from a God of law to the God of grace. People must discover that God is for them and not against them. (66)

Paul contrasts the phrase "under the law" with being "under grace" (see Rom. 6:14-15; Gal. 4:4-5; 5:18). Instead of having a God who is for us and giving us what we need, the law is against us and says we have to earn, through our own performance, what we need. What this means is that life is basically a place where we get what we deserve and we have to be afraid of God (Col. 1:21; Rom. 6:23). To get anywhere, we have to make it all happen ourselves. Law means God is ticked off and says, "Do it yourself." Grace means God is for us and says, "I will help you do it." Grace reverses the law.

When we are under the law - in our natural state - we feel that God is the enemy and that we get what we deserve. We naturally try to "earn" life. We try to do whatever we think will get God to like us or whatever we think will solve our day-to-day problems. Thus, we are trying to "save ourselves" (see Matt. 16:25). We try to get God to not be mad, and we try by our own efforts to grow and resolve our issues. Yet Paul says that this way of living is the exact opposite of living according to faith and grace and that if we choose that law, we end up living out the law in real life (Gal. 3:12). (66-68)

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16

When we first look at having a view of God that affects growth, we must begin with grace. But it has to be grace that is more than "forgiveness." This "grace" is God's provision of various resources and tools to help us grow. We do not grow because of "will power" or "self-effort," but because of God's provision. God offers the help we need (that's grace), and then we have to respond to that provision. (68-69)

The law cannot change people or make them grow. It is "powerless" to do that, as Paul says (Rom. 8:3). But the law does provide awareness of "spiritual death," which people need in order to find the God who seeks them. The law makes us conscious of our need for God (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 3:24). It shows us that we are hopeless to help ourselves.

By realizing my inability to live up to the laws of life, I had reached the end of myself. I was a candidate for grace, for unmerited favor. I was a candidate for God to be for me and to give me things that I did not have on my own. I realized that I was "poor in spirit" and in need of God. (71)