A Catholic priest and I were having a friendly discussion on the subject of salvation. He was young and personable, relaxed and pleasant. I liked him immediately. I like a person who can discuss the most important issues of life dispassionately, objectively, and fairly. He was one of those rare human beings who are humble enough to allow others to disagree with them without taking the disagreement personally. His jaw never tightened, his voice never hardened, his face never lost its smile.

As I spoke to him about Christ being the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes (Romans 10:4), he surprised me by nodding agreement. "Yes, Jim," he said with a friendly grin, "you're absolutely right about that. Scripture does teach that we Christians are not under Old Testament Law, but, Jim, we are now under Church Law," he insisted.

I asked him if he agreed that, "the Law of the LORD is perfect" as God's Word teaches. He agreed. I then asked him why God would replace a perfect law that occupies most of the Bible with another law that cannot be found, for it is never mentioned in the Word. His eyebrows rose perceptibly as he recognized the weight of this argument. After all, does not logic demand that if some "Church Law" had replaced the Law of the LORD, then Church Law must be superior to the Law of the LORD? But the Law of the LORD is perfect according to Scripture. God certainly wouldn't replace something that was perfect with something inferior! And why is there no mention of this new "Church Law" when the "lesser law" it is supposed to have replaced was the subject of nearly all of the Bible?

Interestingly, the contrast in Scripture is not between an old law and a new one, but between Law and Grace (Romans 6:14). Nowhere in the Bible do we read that what the Law could not do, a new law did. God's perfect Law is said to be "weak through the flesh" (Romans 8:3). Would another law not have the same problem?

If a perfect Law was an unbearable yoke to the Apostle Peter and his ancestors (Acts 15:10), what kind of law would be bearable? Galatians tells us that the Law crowd always persecutes the Spirit crowd...not another law crowd (Galatians 4:21-31). Paul is always accused of doing away with law by teaching Grace; he is not accused of substituting one law for another (Romans 3:31).

"The Law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul." This is what God tells us in Psalm 19:7. Our apostle, Paul, has no argument with this (though he was constantly accused of being wrong in regard to the Law), nor has any true Grace Believer. Paul, for that matter, treats the Law always with the highest regard, lavishing praise upon it, recognizing that to keep it lies beyond the reach of sinful man (Romans 7:12,14).

The Church of Rome is told, "Sin shall not reign over you, because you are not under law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14). There is no definite article before "law" in this verse. This means that the Roman church was not under any law as a means of approach to God, God's own Law included. This rules out any "Church Law" replacing the perfect Law of the LORD as a means of our being accepted by God.

God's perfect Law could not declare the sinner righteous; it could only condemn and execute him (Romans 3:20; 2 Corinthians 3:7-9). God gave His perfect Law to demonstrate to sinners that we cannot stand before Him on the basis of our own merit...on law ground. Law can only condemn the law breaker; it cannot save him. The sinner must not seek his salvation on the grounds of law keeping, for, even if he kept the entire law and committed just one infraction, the Law would justly demand his doom (James 2:10). No, the sinner can only approach God on the grounds of God's Grace.

"The Law is good, if a man use it lawfully" (1 Timothy 1:8). The Law of the LORD delineates the attitudes and actions that God has a right to require of humanity, fallen or unfallen (the Law was given to the unsaved as well as the saved in Israel). Grace is all that God is free to do for you and me because of the death of His Son on Calvary. Law kills, it can do nothing else! Grace makes alive; it too, can do nothing else! The Law is a prosecutor, and a good one--the best one that the Universe will ever see. Grace is a defense attorney pleading the finished work of Christ. Grace will never lose a case, even against the great prosecutor, Law, because the Judge is also the Savior. After fixing the sentence for outlaws (Gentiles) and law breakers (Jews), this Judge arose, removed His judicial garments, came down before the bench, and Himself paid the bailiff!

The Law can never be defeated; that's why to be under Law is to be under Death! Grace can never be defeated; that's why to be under Grace is to reign in Life! Grace did not really defeat Law in the courtroom of Heaven. Grace met Law's demands, and, since Grace could not meet the demands of Law in us, it met them in Another...it met them in our Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, through His crosswork on Calvary! (Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 Corinthians 1:30)

The trial has already been held! (John 5:24; Romans 8:1) The trial, yours and mine.. .every Believer's, is over! The verdict is in! We believers are free; and never to be tried again! No double jeopardy! We have not just been pardoned, nor even acquitted. We have been justified...declared righteous...given a new and eternal standing before God. All Believers have, as a present possession, a positive righteousness (Romans 5:1-2). The wonderfully shocking news is that God Himself cannot lodge an accusation against us because it is God Himself Who declared us righteous! (Romans 8:33) Christ Himself cannot condemn us because it is Christ Himself Who died in our place and rose on our behalf (Romans 8:34). Yes, the Law is perfect, but it is "weak through the flesh," and because it is weak through the flesh, there is something it could not do; it made nothing perfect. It is a perfect Law that made nothing perfect! (Hebrews 7:19; 9:9; 10:1) Grace, the once-for-ever death of our Substitute on Calvary, perfects forever those who put their trust in Him! (Hebrews 10:14)