We’ve all seen it: a sign that says that a struggling restaurant is under “new management.” If you’re feeling bold and living dangerously, you might go in and try the new hot dog, only to find out it’s as mediocre as the old hot dog. The “new management” makes no difference, basically.
I sense that this is how we Christians can be tempted to approach the new covenant. We can think that Israel used to live under the old covenant, but then Jesus came. He died and rose again. That’s great, but in practical terms, we’re still under the old management. At the level of our functional Christianity—our day to day spiritual walk—we’re still under the law. Though this is wrong, we’re tempted to think that our good works increase our status with God, while our bad works decrease our justification.
In such a wrong mindset, we think that what we’re supposed to do is trust Jesus, yes, but supplement our faith through the law. This changes our standing with God. If we obey God, we’re good, and God is pleased with us. If we disobey God, we lose God’s smile, and God is ragingly angry with us. In such a mindset, we live a spin-cycle Christianity. One day, we’re up in the clouds, feeling very close to our Savior. The next day, pain kicks in and sin creeps through our life, and we crash through the basement floor. In this unbiblical framework, our Christian walk is a navigation of extremes, and we know very little of the peace of God.
What Legalism Feels Like in a Church
Preaching that wields the law like a bull-whip only ramps up this extremism. Christianity is presented like a crisis every Sunday, a final exam that believers are failing, and failing badly. The focus is on how bad we are, how wretched sin is, and how mad God is at us. In such a disordered context, some saints get even more depressed and disheartened, while other saints actually like the legalism such preaching fosters.
For the legalist, the Christian walk becomes an exercise in polemics. Grace is not a flowing stream; grace is a club. It’s a weapon. Coupled with the law, and with many additions to the law, the Christian faith is effectively drained of joy, drained of happiness, drained of peace. Preaching and teaching heightens blood pressure, cranks the intensity to level 20, and lays burdens on the sheep. Prayer is presented not as a peace-saturated engagement of God, but as a desperation measure, like we’re throwing a hail Mary to God rather than resting in his goodness as we make our supplications.
Some saints, as stated, get more depressed; other saints lean into the overheated culture, and are tempted to become around-the-clock polemical Christians. They rage on Twitter about heretics, talk endlessly with friends about controversies, share dire pronouncements about politics on a constant rotation, and pounce on unbelievers in evangelism (rather than graciously seeking to persuade them and, as God moves, patiently win them). Their Christianity is a battling Christianity, and every day is the Diet of Worms.
Such believers do not really seem to live as if they have been given “good news of great joy” by God (Luke 2:10). If we’re honest, the faith doesn’t really seem that good, and the news doesn’t really seem that joyful. In fact, Christianity functionally seems something like “bad news of gloomy misery,” by contrast. This is in part because if you don’t agree with the Never-Flagging Polemicist on everything, you’re in grave jeopardy with them. Sadly, they haven’t cultivated a capacity for brotherly disagreement, for gentleness, for working through hard issues in a humble way. If you don’t agree with them in full on every theological and ecclesial issue, you’re at best heterodox, and at worst bending toward heresy.
If we’re not careful, we who love the truth can become consumed with what is wrong with the world and with evangelicalism. Anyone to the left of us can look like Finney, Arius, or Osteen. Speaking for myself, I both understand this mindset and must watch that I don’t slip into it. I must ask God to forgive me when I underplay the “grace” part of the “grace and truth” ministry of the new covenant cut in the blood of Jesus Christ (John 1:14).
Perhaps others will resonate here. It’s not hard to watch your love for truth morph into despisal of those who aren’t you and your narrow circle. That’s a devilish alchemy, be assured, not a Spirit-produced fruitfulness. It’s one that ends up with little grace flowing through it, like a car that’s low on oil, and one that ends with little grace coming out of it, like a flower that’s ceased to bloom.
Lest we overstate things, there is a place for polemics, to be very sure. Further, we must engage in front-lines theological work to defend the gospel. When the church is menaced by wolves, it’s right to destroy strongholds with spiritual weapons (2 Corinthians 10:3-6). We all must put on the spiritual armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20). But there is more, much more, to the Christian faith than battling the bad guys. There’s more than law. There’s more than feeling bad about sin. There’s definitely more than legalism (which is in fact no part of true Christianity—it’s a zombified version, just like antinomianism).
To understand the core of Christianity, you’ve got to understand this: it’s under new management. That’s not a meaningless change; we’re not eating the same old hot dog. Everything has changed, in sum, and that’s because of one name and one name alone: Jesus Christ.
The Ministry of Grace in Jesus Christ
We should not associate legalism with the old covenant law; that’s a big mistake. But in a simple form, we need to note what John 1:17 says in very plain and simple language. “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Followers of God have always been justified through faith alone; see Abraham in Genesis 15:6. However, there is a sea change that has occurred with the incarnational ministry and work of Jesus Christ. No longer are we under the administration of the law; now we are under the administration of grace.
Paul reinforces what John beautifully introduces. The “sufficiency” of God is such that preachers and teachers are now “ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:5-6). The letter was from God, to be sure, but in the new covenant, the Spirit brings life.
This means that we believers are not under the old management any longer. We are under the “better” covenant as Hebrews tells us (Hebrews 8:6). This management has enacted not a “ministry of death” (2 Cor. 3:7) or a “ministry of condemnation” (2 Cor. 3:9), but a ministry of grace. The law brought death and condemnation (even as God gloriously saved people, many of them, under the old covenant). But Jesus Christ has brought life in the Spirit.
I can’t emphasize strongly enough how the coming of Christ has transformed our spiritual situation. Jesus is the “yes” and “amen” to all the promises of God (2 Corinthians 1:20). He is the fulfillment the old covenant anticipated. His saving work on the cross is so significant that it accomplished the plan of redemption, made perfect and final atonement for sin, and tore the curtain of the temple (Matthew 27:51).
That tearing signified what Paul says of the old covenant some decades later: “what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory” (2 Cor. 5:10-11). The new covenant will never be superseded. There is no third covenantal change to come. History has transitioned. While we await the completion of God’s plan in the eschaton, we are even now in the age of fulfillment, not the age of promise.
The Practical Effects of the Ministry of Grace
These theological truths have massive effect for the Christian life and the church’s ministry. In a very simple formulation, they mean this: we live under grace now. We’re under the management of God’s over-spilling kindness and favor. It’s a little ambitious to try to sum up what this entails for us, but let me walk through a number of them.
First, this means we’re not under the law. The letter kills. The Spirit gives life. We’re called to comprehensive holiness, to obey all the teachings of Christ and the New Testament authors, but we’re not under a narrowly-prescribed code as we might mistakenly think. That’s over. The law still teaches us and instructs us, definitely, but we’re not under the leadership of Moses. Moses is dead and gone; Jesus Christ is alive and ruling.
Second, this means that our life is dominated by grace. Grace rushes and runs all through our life. God has saved us. God has given us saving faith. God is sanctifying us by his grace. God has supplied our every need already, as Paul tells the Philippians: “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). This is speaking to the gracious provision of God the Father, who is an infinitely good and kind Father.
Third, this means that we do not live in fear or anxiety. Yes, we all battle these old devils. But we’re under the reign of grace. To put it differently, we are loved at all times by our God. We’re not fearful of losing God’s love. We’re not anxious about whether God will help us. We all waver on these points, yes, but fundamentally God has freed us from fear and terror through the death of his Son (Hebrews 2:14-18).
Fourth, this means that we can approach people in a gracious manner. I don’t mean being polite, merely. I mean that we can engage other Christians as if God is patiently and tenderly working in them to grow them and change them and bless them and minister love to them. With non-Christians, we can engage them as those who need God’s grace more than anything else.
When we disagree with people, a grace-driven approach finds room for that difference of views. We don’t try to force people into our mold. We don’t strip the lug-nut by cranking it vehemently. We state our case, we pray for our conversation partners, and we leave the changing of their heart and mind to God. We don’t anathematize unless their views truly deserve it; we strive to live out 2 Timothy 2:25 and to be the Christian who is “correcting his opponents with gentleness,” aware that “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.”
Fifth, this means that our marriages need a long view. We don’t want a ramped-up, jittery, explosive marriage. We want a marriage characterized by a lot of grace, a lot of honesty, a lot of forgiveness, a lot of patience. We’re all tempted to approach our spouse while wielding the law: Would you just STOP doing that?! Why do you ALWAYS do that?, we are tempted to declare. But God wants us to approach one another gently, humbly, and aware of our own propensity to sin (Galatians 6:1). If we’re wielding the law, we’ll tend to be impatient and angry; if we’re embracing God’s grace, we’ll tend to be calm and patient (at least more patient than we otherwise would be).
Sixth, this means that we can handle our children with grace. Of course, we have to teach them right from wrong. Of course, we have to set boundaries (a good number of them). Of course, we have to hold them accountable. Of course, we have to use wisdom in tons of areas (many of them gray areas). But we’re doing all this knowing full well that we are not God, we cannot save our children, and God has not put it on our shoulders to wrangle them into being believers.
We care about our children, and regularly pray for God to save them. But we never do so in a frenzied way or a man-centered way. We’re not screeching at them, How can you not obey me?! You ALWAYS do this, you little worm! We’re instead repenting of such anger when it rears up in us, and we’re striving to approach our children in patience, calmness, forbearance, and perseverance. You did dishonor me, we say, and we need to change that up. But I love you, I forgive you, and let’s figure out how we can do better. That’s how grace helps us to talk (while noting that we all hit low points here, alas).
We do so remembering that we cannot save our kids. Only God can save them. The appointed means before us are to love our kids, not exasperate them, care for them, train them in soundness, forgive them, have fun with them, enjoy them, laugh with them, and much more. Grace frees us to be joyful fathers and mothers who have great confidence in the will of God.
Seventh, this means that our churches should be places of refreshing. As I have said before, church services must not be times when the sheep get whipped in the barn. The demeanor of pastors should be fueled by grace and should demonstrate grace. The feel of the service should not be cranked-up fearfulness, but joyful breathability. We have rest, full rest from our works and our labors, in Christ (Matthew 11:25-30). Church is less about you getting a huge and unsurmountable to-do list every Sunday and more about you being reminded of all God is doing in and through you by his Spirit.
The leadership of the church should in general terms not be grim, dour, front-lines-intense, gripped by anxiety, afraid to speak for God, or any such behavior. The leadership of the church should lead the sheep to drink of God’s kindness, mercy, gentleness, compassion, forgiveness, truth, and blessing each Sunday. Church should not feel like going into battle; church should feel like the celebration after a wedding on a beautiful spring day. While always telling the truth about sin and our massive need for God, church exists to build up the flock, help them, point them to the heavens, and give them refreshment of the heart, soul, and mind.
Church leaders should be quick to smile, quick to laugh, and quick to say encouraging words. Church leaders should be slow to shout angrily, slow to condemn, and slow to burden believers. There is a place for warning and rebuking, but the normal ministry of the worship service is to lift up the saints to their God. All this flows from being not under the ministry of condemnation, but under the ministry of grace.
Conclusion: It’s (Really) Good to Be Under New Management
There is so much more we could add to all this. But for now, this is enough. Let’s just state as we close, in full honesty, that we all fail to live by grace. I sure do. We’re all a work in progress here, as are our churches. The good news for us is that there is literally “grace upon grace” before us and in reach of us (John 1:16). This isn’t antinomianism talking; this is just basic Bible teaching.
Christian, we’re under new management, and it’s not mediocre. It’s not the same old hot dog we’re being served. The old management was good and given by God in his kindness, in truth, but the new management is better. The old was the promise, but the new is the fulfillment. Salvation, perfect and final, has come in Jesus Christ. Transformation, full and glorious, has made us a new creation by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:17). This has major effects for us; this has major effects for our churches.
Live by grace, Christian, not by the law. Be free.