The measure of true charity is Calvary. Though some have argued that charity with a ruler is not charity. Jesus, God incarnate, they say, pardons the adulteress (John 8:11) and sets the Sabbath law aside that the hopeless may have hope (John 5). The trouble with righteousness is rules.

So is the way of grace a validation of lawlessness, eliminating all evaluations of righteousness? Shall we sin that grace may abound (Rom. 6:1)? What would we do with our Bible’s denunciations of sin (Rom. 1; Gal. 5:19-21; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; Rev. 22:15; etc.)? And how would salvation work in the absence of all divine standards?

Truth is, inconsistency is no problem for a liar. The devil both determines “to secure the abolition of law,”¹ and affirms, in the face of Calvary, “that the death of Christ made obedience to the law unnecessary.”² Is it God who hates law? Or is it Satan? Meanwhile, the Bible explains that the very name Jesus signifies salvation “from,” not “for” or “in” sin (Matt. 1:21).

We must not truly be watching Jesus when we support tweaking, modifying, yea, banishing God’s rules. Calvary is because Jesus paid the price for me when God’s broken law “demanded” my life.³ And having secured for me something infinitely better—eternal life with Him (John 3:16)—at horrible personal cost, He counsels: “Leave your life of sin” (John 8:11); “stop sinning” (John 5:14), lest something worse be your lot.

Jesus knows the difference between the better and the worse. At Calvary He takes the worse to give me the better. That’s true charity. The measure of true charity is Calvary.

1. Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1911), p. 499.
2. Ellen G. White, Faith and Works (Nashville: Southern Pub. Assn., 1979), p. 90.
3. Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1890), p. 63.