The Gift of Life: God's grace as a juridical act

Grace presupposes law and judgment. This makes God's grace a legal act, a fact that churches often do not emphasise, possibly due to a lack of understanding.

As a result, the study of law sometimes helps to reclaim parts of Biblical understanding that may be missed by most pastors.

Singapore has adopted and adapted the Westminster system of government which separates powers between the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches. Article 22P(1)(b) of the Singapore Constitution empowers the President of Singapore, as part of the Executive branch, to exercise clemency powers to pardon convicted offenders: 

The President, as occasion shall arise, may, on the advice of the Cabinet... grant to any offender convicted of any offence in any court in Singapore, a pardon, free or subject to lawful conditions, or any reprieve or respite, either indefinite or for such period as the President may think fit, of the execution of any sentence pronounced on such offender.

The case of Yong Vui Kong v Attorney-General [2011] 2 SLR 1189, contains the following explanation of these clemency powers at para. 74 of the judgment by former Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong:

I start by stating that the clemency power is a legal power of an extraordinary character. It is unlike all other legal powers in that: 

(a)     It is an executive power which is exercised as an act of executive grace and not as a matter of legal right... 

(b)     A decision to grant clemency is "[a] determination of the ultimate authority that the public welfare will be better served by inflicting less [punishment] than what the judgment fixed"... Conversely, a decision not to grant clemency represents a determination by the ultimate authority that the public welfare is better served by allowing the law to take its course, ie, by carrying out the punishment prescribed by the law. 

(c)     Ordinarily, the law should be allowed to take its course. However, when the clemency power is exercised in favour of an offender, it will "involve a departure from the law"... in that, in the interests of the public welfare, the law (in terms of the punishment mandated by the law) is prevented from taking its course. 

(d)     The considerations of public welfare that the ultimate authority deems relevant in making a clemency decision are entirely a matter of policy for it to decide... 

(e)     In the specific context of a death sentence case..., the grant of clemency to the offender confers a gift of life on him. This is because the offender has effectively already been deprived of his life by the law due to his conviction for a capital offence. If clemency is granted to the offender, his life will be restored to him, whereas if clemency is not granted, his life will be forfeited as decreed by the law. In other words, in a death sentence case, the clemency decision made, be it in favour of or against the offender, does not deprive the offender of his life; the law (in terms of the conviction and death sentence meted out on the offender by a court of law) has already done so.

We all know the consequences of sin. Even in the Garden of Eden, God warned Adam not to eat of the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when he ate of it, he would surely die (Genesis 2:17). Paul writes in Romans 6:23a, "[for] the wages of sin is death".

So the ordinary consequence of our sin is death. All of us had (eternal) death sentences hanging over our heads, having effectively already been deprived of our lives by the Law of God due to our conviction for a capital offence - no less than the offence of high treason against the Most High God.

We were all criminals on death row.

However, God - being God - has the power to give life and the power to take life.

Paul continues in Romans 6:23b, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". This is an act of grace and not a matter of legal right. (Indeed, if we were to be put on trial, we would all be found guilty.) It is a determination of the ultimate authority that the good of all will be better served by inflicting less punishment than what the judgment fixed. The Law is prevented from taking its course.

Hence, Jesus' sacrifice to save us from our sins confers a gift of life on us when we originally had none. It is a gift of life in its fullest sense.

No doubt this is what Paul meant when he wrote in Galatians 2:19-20:

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Therefore, having been rescued from death and given a second chance at life, let us live unto the Lord to the fullest!

"Where are you?"

Yesterday morning, I was complaining to God and asking Him why I do not hear His voice all the time. At the same time, I was also thinking about some of my friends whom I felt I ought to speak to more.

God had some words for me and them. He said three words, "Where are you?"

"Where are you?" were the words that God spoke to Adam in the Garden of Eden, after Adam sinned by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Bible records in Genesis 3:8-9:

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

The question was more than a mere question about Adam's physical location. It was a question of where Adam was with respect to Him, or where Adam was in Him. As Skip Moen puts it in Guardian Angel, "God is asking why Adam is not where he is supposed to be - with Him." Yet, "Adam now seeks escape from the presence of God."

The passage suggests that Adam used to walk with God, more than just physically. But now Adam said, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." (Genesis 3:10)

Jesus' call of discipleship is as simple as "follow me", literally to leave all else and walk with Him.

But there were hard teachings. Once, Jesus spoke about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Another time, He spoke about taking up the cross and denying oneself to follow Him. People left.

When Jesus asked His disciples whether they were going to leave too, Peter gave a remarkable answer in John 6:67-69:

"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." 

So God's word for me, and for my friends who came to mind, was "Where are you?"

Is the answer, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid"?

Or is the answer, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life"?

Church as Family: How Christians are truly related by flesh and blood

From the Old Testament sacrifices to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, many Biblical covenants are made in blood.

 

At the same time, we often hear people describing the church as a "family", drawing from passages such as Matthew 12:50 where Jesus said, "whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

 

Knowing that the Bible teaches that the natural family unit is established by marriage between a man and a woman and their children, a fellow brother-in-Christ once asked concerning the apparent dilemma between the two definitions of "family" in the Bible.

 

My answer to him back then was that the use of the word "family" in the context of the church is a metaphor, drawing from the understanding of the natural family unit.

 

This is not wrong, and might be an answer I would give to a non-Christian, but I soon came to realise that there is much more.

 

 

When we talk about the natural family, we are referring to flesh-and-blood relations. For example, if someone is my brother, he is related to me by flesh and blood. We would expect a DNA test to show that we are biologically related.

 

But Christians are truly related by flesh and blood too!

 

Christians are related by the shedding of the flesh and blood of Jesus, who died to redeem us all from our sins. In Holy Communion, we partake of Christ's flesh and blood. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

 

There is also another sense in which the church is related by flesh and blood with Jesus.

 

When God created woman, He put the man Adam into a deep sleep and formed the woman out of the man's rib. As a result, the man could say of the woman, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." (Genesis 2:23)

 

Jesus has been described as the Second Adam (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:45). In the same way, Jesus was put into a deep sleep in the grave and out of His sacrifice God formed the church. The church is the Body of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33). It is truly bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh.

 

Therefore, in a very real sense, Christians are related by the flesh and blood of Jesus.

 

We are truly brothers- and sisters-in-Christ.