I little tidbit I wrote for class about Grace vs. Law

In Galatians 4:6 Paul writes, “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ""Abba", Father." I think in order to fully understand what the concept of “grace vs. law” is we must fully understand what it means to be a child of a loving father. A child of a loving father has a dad who is there for him through thick and thin. Who loves him no matter what, but wants what is best for that child above all else. A loving father will discipline that child to ensure the child understands the rules he has set up for the safety and protection of the child. Once this relationship has been established, the child will then yearn for the approval of the father; at first so he does not receive discipline and then so he experiences the father’s love to the fullest. So God, being our heavenly Father may say to us, like he said to the Isrealites, “Hear O Isreal” in Deuternomy 6:4 (NIV). “God's command that Israel “hear” is not so different from a parent asking a child, “Are you listening?,” by which the parent really means, “If you are listening you will do what I ask you.” To hear God is to obey God (Bader-Scott).” So we have grace because we are saved through Christ because of God’s love for us, BUT we follow the law because of our love, devotion, and respect for God our “Abba, Father”. While our attempts to follow the law may look to God like the indiscernible scribblings of a 4-year-old, he knows our heart and can look upon us through his Son and say “well done, my good and faithful servant!… (Luke 19:17 NIV).”

Bader-Saye, Scott. "Listening: Authority and Obedience." The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics. Hauerwas, Stanley and Samuel Wells (eds). Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Blackwell Reference Online. 23 September 2010