The True Relationship of Law and Grace & Marcion Origin of Heretical Position

Introduction

Why are we going over Marcion and his teachings, a man who lived almost 1,900 years ago? Why should you care?

Because the very same error that deceived Marcion and his followers is alive and well today. Marcion taught that Law and Grace cannot go together — that the God of the Old Testament was different from the God revealed in Christ. He threw away the Scriptures that didn’t fit his ideas, and in doing so, he built a false gospel that many accepted.

The early church fathers like Polycarp, Irenaeus, and Tertullian fought hard to protect the truth — that there is one God, one unified message in both Old and New Testaments, and that Law and Grace are not enemies but partners in God’s plan of redemption.

You should care because many Christians today unknowingly repeat Marcion’s error. They say the Law has no place in the Christian life, that obedience is “legalism,” or that we should “unhitch” from the Old Testament. But Scripture tells us the exact opposite: that faith establishes the Law (Rom. 3:31), that Grace teaches us to deny sin (Titus 2:11–14), and that Jesus Himself warned against relaxing even the “least of the commandments” (Matt. 5:17–19).

This document is written to help you see through the old lie of Marcion wherever it resurfaces, and to embrace the truth:

• The Law defines sin.
• Grace redeems us from sin and empowers obedience.
• Together, they reveal the eternal character of God.

1. Who Was Marcion?

Life: Born c. 85 AD in Sinope (Pontus, Asia Minor), the son of a wealthy shipowner.

In Rome: Arrived c. 140 AD, donated a large sum to the church, described as 200,000 sesterces (an enormous amount of money, equal to many years of wages for common people).

Excommunication: Around 144 AD, expelled for heresy. He then started rival churches, which spread widely.

The church of Rome gave back the money he had donated. Tertullian confirms this in Adversus Marcionem (Against Marcion, Book 4, chapter 4), where he sarcastically notes that Rome “restored the money to Marcion, together with him who had brought it” — implying that Rome lost nothing by rejecting both Marcion and his wealth.

Context: The early church was defining orthodoxy, forming the canon, and clarifying its relation to Judaism. Into this setting, Marcion introduced his destructive doctrine.

2. Marcion’s Doctrines

• Two Gods: The “Creator God” of the Old Testament = harsh, legalistic, and inferior. The “God of the New Testament” = merciful, loving, revealed in Christ.
• Law vs. Grace: Absolute separation, no continuity or fulfillment.
• Scripture mutilated: Rejected the Old Testament completely. Edited Luke and Paul’s letters to remove references to the Law, the Prophets, and Israel.
• Anti-Semitism: Claimed “the Jews corrupted the Scriptures.” His theology was rooted in hostility toward Israel and its God.

3. Marcion’s Canon

Marcion produced the first known “Christian canon” — but it was a mutilated Bible.

Gospel:
Edited version of Luke (called Evangelion). Cut out Luke 1–3, removing the virgin birth, genealogies, and OT fulfillment passages. Erased all Jewish connections to Jesus.

“For if the Gospel, said to be Luke’s which is current among us … is the very one which, as Marcion argues in his Antitheses, was interpolated by the defenders of Judaism.”
(Against Marcion IV.4)

➡️ Marcion essentially said: “The Jews corrupted this document.”

“Marcion” Epistles (Apostolikon):
Galatians; 1 Corinthians; 2 Corinthians; Romans; 1 Thessalonians; 2 Thessalonians; “Laodiceans” (likely Ephesians); Colossians; Philippians; Philemon.

Excluded: Pastorals (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus), Acts, Hebrews, Revelation, James, Peter, John, Jude. Of notable exclusion was the only warning about Paul’s writings from Peter:

“…and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”
2 Peter 3:15–16

3b. Marcion’s Anti-Semitic Practices

Epiphanius records:
“Marcion for this reason fasted on the Sabbath. For, said he, ‘Since the day is the rest of the God of the Jews, who made the world and rested on the Sabbath day, we therefore institute fasting on that day, that we may not seem to do anything in compliance with the rites of the God of the Jews.’”
(Panarion 42.3)

➡️ His sect mocked the God of Israel by fasting on the Sabbath instead of honoring God’s rest.

4. The Church Fathers’ Response

Polycarp of Smyrna: When Marcion asked, “Do you recognize me?”, Polycarp replied: “I recognize you as the firstborn of Satan.” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.4)

Justin Martyr: Marcion “has caused many of every nation to blaspheme” by teaching another god. (First Apology 26)

Irenaeus: “[Marcion] mutilates the Scriptures … and blasphemes the God … proclaimed by the Law and the Prophets.” (Against Heresies 1.27)

Tertullian:

• On mutilation: “Marcion has erased the testimony of the prophets … to establish a gospel of his own.” (Against Marcion 4.2)
• On inventing a new god: “And he [Marcion] found it easy to argue for a new and hitherto unknown divinity … having shaken with heretical acidity the whole mass of the faith.” (Against Marcion 1.8)
• On his Antithesis: “For such are Marcion’s Antithesis, designed to show the conflict and disagreement of the Gospel and the Law … But this is only an invention of Marcion’s, not a truth of the Scriptures.” (Against Marcion 1.19)

5. Contrast: Marcion vs. Orthodoxy

Marcion’s Teaching	Christian Truth
OT God = harsh, NT God = merciful	One God in both Testaments: just and merciful
Law and Grace are opposites	Law is a tutor (Gal. 3:24), Grace fulfills the Law
OT rejected	OT fulfilled in Christ (Luke 24:27; John 5:39)
Paul alone is valid	Paul upheld the Law’s goodness (Rom. 7:12; 3:31)
11 mutilated books	Whole canon: OT + 27 NT books

6. The True Relationship of Law and Grace

Law reveals sin (Rom. 3:20). “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

The Law cannot save us — only Christ can. But the Law reveals what sin is and why we need salvation.

Law points to Christ (Gal. 3:24–25). “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”

The word tutor (Greek: paidagōgos) referred to a guardian or instructor who led a child to maturity. In this sense, the Law leads us to Christ by revealing sin and pointing us to our need for a Savior. Once we have come to Christ, the role of the tutor shifts — not abolished, but fulfilled in its purpose of pointing us to Him.

Grace fulfills the Law (Rom. 3:31). “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”

Far from being abolished, faith in Christ confirms and upholds the Law. The Christian life is one of obedience motivated by love and gratitude, not legalism.

“Why would I throw away the very thing that tells me what pleases and displeases God — the very thing I am supposed to know as a follower of Christ to walk out my faith?”

The Law is not the enemy of Grace; rather, Grace empowers us to live in obedience to God’s Law.

Grace empowers obedience (Rom. 8:4).

Romans 6:14–16
“For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! … whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness.”

Key Points:

• We submit to the Law of God as obedient slaves to righteousness.
• The standard of righteousness is the Law (Rom. 7:12).
• The Spirit moves us to obey; the flesh resists (Rom. 8:7).

➡️ Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, we move from being slaves of sin → to slaves of righteousness.

Titus 2:11–14
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared … teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly … zealous for good works.”

Grace teaches us to deny sin.

And what defines sin?

“Sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4)

Grace redeems us from lawlessness and makes us zealous to obey.

7. The Law and the Christian Life

• The Law brings us to Christ.
• The Law shows what pleases and displeases God.
• We obey not to earn salvation, but out of love and gratitude.

“Why would I throw away the very thing that tells me what pleases and displeases God — the One I claim to follow? If I truly love Him, I must desire to know and walk in His ways.”

8. The Lasting Danger

Marcionism → influenced later supersessionism (replacement theology).

Some churches today still echo him by treating the OT as irrelevant.

Anytime Grace is divorced from obedience, the church slips back toward Marcion’s error.

9. Lessons for Today

1. Law rejected = Christianity rejected.
   Tertullian said:
   “The separation of Law and Gospel is the primary and principal exploit of Marcion … the document by which they are inducted and confirmed in this heresy.” (Against Marcion 1.19)
   ➡️ To separate Law and Grace is to abandon Christianity itself.
2. If you obey the Law, you’re called a legalist.
   In “grace-only” Christianity, obedience is labeled heresy.
   But Jesus said:
   “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law … Whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:17–19)
   ➡️ If obeying God’s Law is treated as heresy in your theology, then the spirit of Marcion has been sewn into your Christianity.

Final Word