One of the secrets behind Mozart’s musical genius was his ability to improvise. They say he once gave a concert where he took a simple musical theme and improvised on it for over an hour with such creativity that it astonished everyone in the audience.
One of Mozart’s piano concertos, in fact, has long sections where the score is unfinished. Scholars believe this is because Mozart was writing for a deadline, and to save time, he planned to improvise these unfinished sections during the performance.
Christians aren’t legendary composers, but this kind of improvisation helps us get at the relationship between Law and Grace in the Christian life.
It’s one of the basic teachings of the Bible that those who are in Christ are no longer under the Law, but under Grace. But what does this actually mean?
When the New Testament talks about being “under the Law” it’s referring in particular to the Way of Life that’s described in that part of the Bible we call “The Old Testament.”
And being “under the Law” means trying to maintain and experience a relationship with God by following the details of this way of life—its rituals, traditions, and regulations—as strictly as possible.
So for example, when the Book of Deuteronomy prohibits God’s people from eating pork; or when the Book of Leviticus tells people not to trim the sides of their beards, let’s say ... “Being Under the Law” means seeking to maintain and express a right relationship with God by practicing all these things.
The Law also talks about loving the Lord your God; being truthful and faithful and chaste; loving your neighbour as yourself. So “Being Under the Law” means holding yourself to the moral standards of the Law, too.
Part of the Christian Message is that through his death and resurrection, Jesus has fulfilled the requirements of the Law—he’s fulfilled the meaning of all its rituals and traditions, and he’s satisfied its moral code.
And because he’s fulfilled the Law for us, anyone who is in Christ is no longer under the law. They no longer express and maintain their relationship with God by keeping the rituals and traditions of the Old Testament Law. They’re under grace.
But does that mean that the Way of Life we see in the Old Testament doesn’t matter anymore? Does it not matter how Christians actually live? Is there no moral standard that God wants to follow?
May it never be!
And this is where Mozart comes in. Because in one sense, the Old Testament Law is like a majestic Symphony, a master-piece by a Master composer, where every part is carefully orchestrated to make a harmonious whole. And to perform this piece means playing your part perfectly, note for note.
Being “under the Law” is a bit like playing in that orchestra.
But imagine this Master Composer wrote a piece that only laid out the basic melody and the broad themes of the music. He’s chosen the key, and planned the movements, but has left individual parts unwritten because he wants the musicians to improvise their parts.
What will they need to perform this piece? Obviously, they can’t play just any old notes. The rules of musical theory, the song’s key, and so on, all mean that some notes will “fit” and others won’t. So the musicians will need to have mastered these things and respect them as they play.
More than that, they will have to know the work of the composer himself, inside and out—his musical mind and soul—if they want their improvisation to reflect his heart for the piece.
But once they have all this, there will be a million different combinations of notes that they could play that would equally fulfill the composer’s intent for the performance.
Being under grace is a bit like this; it requires us to know the Master’s Heart for the Song, to respect the Musical Rules he’s given, but within that, to discover a million ways to creatively interpret what Life with God looks like, given our place in the orchestra.
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