Grace and Law

My favorite t-shirt of all time boldly proclaims

Christ is Life
Everything Else is Baseball

Two passions intersecting at the nexus of my life. One faith. One team. This is an honest attempt to fuse the two.

An epiphany. Cub fans can learn some pretty good theology if they pay attention to the lineup. I will explain in a bit.

Writing to the churches in the region of Galatia, Paul pulls out all the stops to get the idea across that followers of Jesus Christ should live by faith and not by Jewish law the way they did before they trusted Christ as Lord and Savior. He reminds them that long long ago God made a binding agreement, a covenant, with Abraham.

The Covenant was that God would bless the whole world thru him. This blessing is identified as salvation by Grace thru faith alone.

No mention is made of the Law whatsoever. What does Abraham have to do in order to receive this special gift of God’s grace? Nothing. Just trust God that He will keep His promise. The moment Abraham had to do something to receive the promise, Grace would not be a gift but a wage and there is a big difference between the two.

We struggle with this concept. We don’t like being beholden to anybody, including God. If we can feel like we worked for something, then it is truly ours.

This is an ancient concept, this idea of Grace. The Law arrived on the scene in the days of Moses, long after Abraham. And I always thought Grace came way after law.

This is where the Cubs really helped me to understand. Remember when the Cubs brought up a promising young first baseman named Mark Grace? We all do. We’re Cub fans.

A couple years later, then they got a third baseman named Vance Law. Got it? Law at third, Grace at first. Law and Grace.





If memory serves, Grace always batted before Law. Law came after Grace. I used to think it somewhat backward, that Law should bat before Grace to keep my theology straight. But it didn’t make good baseball sense and eventually I cam to realize that the Cubs had it right theologically all along. In baseball and the Bible Grace always comes before Law.

Permit me, please to stretch this analogy a bit further. When Vance Law joined the team he did not try to take Mark Grace’s place. They were on the same team at the same time. Grace was there before Law put on a Cubs uniform. He was there while Law played as a Cub and Grace remained there long after folks forgot the name of Vance Law.

What Paul is telling the Galatians in chapter three, verses 15-25 is that the Grace of God was alive and well long before the Law of Moses was in existence. The Law did not cancel out Grace, it did not take its place. And after the Law had served it purpose, Grace is still around and that is how God saves His children. We are saved by grace thru faith in Jesus Christ.

Finally, I implore you to indulge me and allow one more parallel between these two passions of mine. If Vance Law could have carried the team to victory without Grace, the Cubs may have tried. But Law couldn’t. He didn’t even try. That wasn’t his purpose. Law and Grace shared a common purpose, to win the World Series crown.

Paul in essence tells his readers in verses 21-24 that the purpose of the Law of Moses shares a common goal with Grace – spiritual victory. The crown of righteousness!

Our Lord didn’t let Abraham down. He is a true and faithful God whose love for you is infinite. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die in our place on the cross. Receive the gift of His grace today.

Please e-mail me at hoosierev@yahoo.com if you have any questions and thank you for allowing me this time to bring together at one time and place these two loves of my life, Jesus Christ and the Chicago Cubs.