Set Aside Grace?
I was recently given a motorcycle that has potential but needs some mechanical attention. I already have a motorcycle, which I greatly enjoy and ride often, that was given to me some years ago. Not only that, but it is a lot nicer than the non-running one. If I were to ignore the motorcycle I have that runs and is already all that I need, for the motorcycle I just received, I would be setting the running motorcycle aside for something less.
It's not possible to ride two at once. I would have to choose one over the other. If I chose a non-running motorcycle over an already running one that is a lot nicer, you would think I was a bit off in my thinking.
Setting aside something superior that I already possess and enjoy for something far less would be a lack of wisdom and not be beneficial.
I used this example of my motorcycles to drive home an idea that is found in Scripture when it comes to grace or law.
Galatians 2:18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
It is possible to set aside the grace of God and choose something lesser. To set aside means to ignore.
Something can be given and possessed, yet ignored and not taken advantage of, because attention and time are being given to something lesser. When something is ignored, it is evidence that it has been devalued in one's thinking, resulting in a lack of appreciation for it.
Returning to that which was before, in this case (The Law), would be devaluing the grace made possible through Jesus Christ. It would be building again something that was destroyed. In Christ I died to the law so that I might live to God.
Think about that for a moment. To live to God, one must die to the law. Christ does not live in me, and I in Him, using the law. The reality of IN Christ and Christ in me is a faith matter. To bring in the law as though it can in any way improve my status with God is to set aside the grace of God. It is a declaration that Christ died in vain. Unfortunately, in many situations, this very thing is happening and being promoted as the means of attaining sanctification and holiness and thus pleasing God to obtain a closer relationship than one can have by being in Christ. I don't wish to set aside the grace of God for something way inferior to what I now have in Christ.
