Under Grace
A Riddle for the Logical Mind
Three verses. One logical answer. Can you find it?
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Matthew 5:18 (KJV) For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
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1 John 3:4 (KJV) Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
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Romans 6:15 (KJV) What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Read all three. Lay them side by side. What must be true?
Paul answered it himself.
Romans 3:31 (KJV) Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
- Not one jot passes while heaven and earth stand. — Matthew 5:18
- Sin is breaking the Law. — 1 John 3:4
- Under grace, sin is still forbidden. — Romans 6:15
If sin still exists, the Law still stands.
Why It Matters
The church teaches that the Law was nailed to the cross and believers now live under grace. Yahushua set the limit: not one jot or tittle shall pass "till heaven and earth pass" (Matthew 5:18). Heaven and earth are still here. John defines sin: "sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4). Remove the Law and sin has no definition, yet every pulpit still preaches against sin. Paul answers the claim before anyone makes it: "shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid" (Romans 6:15).
"Under the law" in Paul means under its sentence. In Romans 6:14 the issue is sin having dominion and the death it earns. Favor (charis, grace) lifts the sentence. It never erases the line that defines the crime. A pardoned man is not free to rob the same bank again.
The "nailed to the cross" phrase comes from Colossians 2:14, "blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us... nailing it to his cross." The Greek cheirographon means a handwritten record of debt, a signed note of what is owed. What was nailed was the charge sheet against the sinner, not the commandments written by Yahuah's own finger. The idea that the Law itself died goes back to Marcion in the second century, who threw out the Law and the Old Testament together. Modern teaching of an "age of grace" carries the same root.
This matters because the two belong in order. Deliverance enters by the blood, freely, apart from works. Then the delivered walk. Favor itself teaches "that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly" (Titus 2:11-12). Grace without the Law is pardon with no direction. The Law without grace is direction with no pardon. Scripture never offers either one alone.
Revelation describes the saints at the end in plain words: "here are they that keep the commandments of Yahuah, and the faith of Yahushua" (Revelation 14:12). Both are named, and both are kept.