11. We cannot mix law and grace without nullifying grace

We cannot add a law or rule on top of God’s grace without nullifying the gospel of His grace. Our foundation must be grace alone, not a mixture of grace and works.

This is the age-old problem of grace versus works, which was the root cause for the Reformation in the 17^th century. Grace means His unmerited favour – meaning his unearned and undeserved favour. We need another Reformation in the Church today, because although we know we can’t earn God’s forgiveness through buying indulgences, we still think we can earn his favour for material and financial blessings by paying tithes and sowing offerings!

However, it’s not because of any of our own actions that we receive our provision or prosper; it’s solely because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in suffering our poverty on the cross.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Cor 8:9)

This action alone released all of heaven’s riches over those who would simply believe in Him.

And my God shall supply all your need according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:19).

Unmerited favour cannot credit works done to obtain favour, otherwise God’s blessing is no longer unmerited but earned, like a wage (Rom 4:4). Hence Paul, writing to Christians, says, 'you who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace' (Gal 5:4). Although Paul was writing here about the rite of circumcision specifically, the principle is the same – that when we rely on observance of any external regulation to qualify ourselves to receive anything from God, we nullify all of God’s grace - his unmerited favour - toward us (Gal 2:21, 5:4), and Christ becomes of no value to us at all (Gal 5:2).

Adding only one kind of works alone (such as tithing) calls into question the sufficiency of Christ’s work on the cross, and thereby changes our message to another gospel (Gal 1:6-9)—a different, altered gospel of a different kind altogether. To the apostle Paul, if it’s not a gospel of pure grace, it’s ‘no gospel at all,’ and Christ ceases to be of any value to us (Gal 5:2-3).

No wonder the devil has been so successful at keeping true financial prosperity away from the people of God. Even Satan knows that it is by grace we are saved, not by works. Anytime He can manipulate our thinking into trusting in our own "works," he knows that we will be excluded from the grace that can only be accessed by faith. Faith in what? Faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

(Gary Carpenter - How God prospers Believers http://www.garycarpenter.org/teach3.html )

The apostle Paul emphasizes that it does not matter who preaches a different gospel to us, we should not follow their teaching, for the sake of the truth of the Gospel (Gal 2:4-5). It represents an effort to make us slaves again (Gal 2:4). He was concerned that if we start deviating from the pure gospel of grace, even a little, we run the risk of someday altering it so much that we cut ourselves off from salvation altogether (Gal 5:7-9).

Matthew Narramore also warns of the dangers of this kind of a gospel. The doctrine of tithing also opens the door to our unseen spiritual enemy, Satan, who constantly seeks for an opportunity to work against us. Any church doctrine that diminishes the finished work of Christ on the cross, in any way, will be exploited by the devil to his greatest possible advantage. God’s grace comes through faith. Putting just a little attention on our works is enough to stop it. That is why it only takes one wrong doctrine to nullify the power of Christ’s resurrection. Galatians 5:9 says, ‘A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.’

(Matthew Narramore – Tithing: Low-Realm, Obsolete and Defunct p 118)

Any time we are off-track in one area of our life, it will have a negative impact on other areas also. You cannot teach partial truth and expect to achieve full blessing and success (cf Matthew 15:3-9, 2 Corinthians 4:1-2, Colossians 2:8, Jude 3). Any time we depart from the true faith in any area, it has a flow-on effect and causes us to be out of balance in other areas. If not attended to, it would be like that yeast that eventually works its way through the entire batch of dough.

All of God’s provision for this life as well as the life to come is only offered on his terms: pure grace through faith. He doesn’t give us the option of creating our own hybrid doctrines of grace and works. He won’t accommodate our religious systems, even if they are based on the story of someone in the Bible. We are now in the New Covenant and God has no pleasure in doctrines that seek to add to the finished work of Christ. He is pleased by faith that accepts his gift of righteousness and ceases from all personal efforts to achieve it.

(Matthew Narramore – Tithing: Low-Realm, Obsolete and Defunct pp 117-118)

Tradition makes the Word of God of no effect (Matthew 15:3-9). Don’t nullify the grace of God through rigid adherence to any external rule, regardless of what it is.

And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were,
grace would no longer be grace.
Romans 11:6