For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:3-4 (NKJV)

 

Grace is grossly misunderstood and, consequently, misused as an excuse to sin or to avoid dealing with a sinful habit that must be overcome. If we genuinely understand grace, our desire to love God and His way of life grows ever-increasingly.

Grace is not just God’s unmerited favour towards us, but also, God's empowering presence and promptings that enables us walk in the reality of who we are in Christ. The Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of grace, lives inside us and empowers us in every way to live and act rightly. He will not only help us break free from habitual sin, but He will also reassure us that if we do sin, Jesus is our advocate before the Father.

As new covenant believers, we no longer follow the old covenant law, but rather a new and higher law of grace in Jesus Christ. This does not, however, imply that the Law is irrelevant; rather, it serves a different purpose for the new covenant believers.

Grace will always empower us to do more than what the Law demands.

As stated in 2 Corinthians 3:3 and Hebrews 10:16, the Spirit inscribes God's law on our hearts, allowing us to obey and live for God without explicitly mentioning the commands. In other words, we have an intuitive awareness within us to do what is right by God. This is because God in Christ, through the Spirit, will teach us to say “no” to ungodly ways and sinful desires and “yes” to right thinking and living (cf. Titus 2:11-14). This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he declared that walking in the Spirit fulfils the just requirements of the law.