Where The Law Ends, Grace Begins

The law ended with the sealing.  Grace began with Him raised.

The law says, "The soul that sinneth it shall die."  The law says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

The law says, "The wages of sin is death."

The law says, "Ye are dead in trespasses and sins."

But grace says, "The gift of God is eternal life."  The law says, I am doomed, damned, helpless and cannot save myself.  The law tells me my condition, and then grace comes; and though I was conceived in sin and brought forth in inquity and my sins as multitudinous as the sands in the seashore ... yet, "Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound."  Therefore, the law ends in my death, and grace begins with my eternal life.  The law writes the epitaph out yonder on the grave stone.  "It is appointed unto man once to die." ... no way in the world to avoid that law.

But grace says, "In the morning of the Resurrection the dead in Christ shall rise first."

The law ends in the tomb, "If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable" ... "But now is Christ become the firstfruits of them that slept."

~ J. Frank Norris