Is Proverbs a Book of Law, or a Book of Grace?
We certainly have been, and continue, to read comparative statement after comparative statement.
6 An evil man is ensnared in his transgression,
but a righteous man sings and rejoices.
I want to suggest a crazy thought.
That we need to stop looking at Law and Grace as opposites—and instead realize that together they make up REALITY.
Let’s first take a look at the Law part of this equation.
Read the verse quoted above through a lens of cause-and-effect and what do you glean?
Certainly not every evil man is ensnared in his transgression immediately. But, if you don’t do evil, then there is no transgression for you to become ensnared in!
In our world, we are very used to this dynamic in what many of consider the Laws of Science.
In general, a scientific law is the description of an observed phenomenon. It doesn't explain why the phenomenon exists or what causes it.
Drop a rock off a cliff, and it falls as the Law of Gravity plays out.
People study and refine these “scientific laws”, testing their limits in order to better understand them.
We too need to study God’s Law, His Very Word, and understand how it applies to our lives, and not misapply it!
Let’s look at one such broad law we see in Scripture.
It runs throughout Proverbs; the “Law of Sowing and Reaping”.
Here are two examples from just this chapter:
12 If a ruler listens to falsehood,
all his officials will be wicked.
9 If a wise man has an argument with a fool,
the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.
Yet, the converse is probably not true. Consider, if a ruler never listens to falsehood, will his officials never be wicked? Probably not.
Yet I picture a ruler (or myself) saying in my mind, “I haven’t listened to falsehood, why God have you allowed this wicked person in my life?”
Or take the wise man who never has an argument with a fool, does that mean a fool will never rage and laugh at him? Again, probably not.
My point is that through the years people, including me, have misunderstood and misapplied The Law.
We need to order our lives by God’s Law, and we very much need His Grace.
We misapply the Law when we think we somehow take this Book of Instructions from God, and all by ourselves put them into practice in order to get the outcomes we want!
Of course, that is a delusion.
In reality I want the Law to apply to others, and Grace to apply to myself. What do I mean by that? Simply this.
I will never perfectly keep the Law.
Yet at times I delude myself by thinking, “I am doing so much in accord with God, that He will/must certainly bless me.” When the blessing doesn’t appear the way I want it to, then I complain to God.
However, when I fail, I want his mercy and forgiveness.
So then, how do we sort this out?
1. Recognize that the beginning of Wisdom is fear of the Lord.
2. Receive God’s Grace, Jesus into our Hearts, for He is our righteousness.
3. Secure in God’s love, pursue right living with God.
In the end, we must have faith—faith in Jesus.
“If you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him…Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” – C.S. Lewis.
Do you live life as Law or Grace, or Law + Grace?