With the start of the new year, I have seen some headlines for articles talking about the new laws going into effect. I was speaking to my wife about how it seems like with more new laws more of our freedoms seem to be going away. I made the comment that if people would drive with reasonable mind and care, we wouldn’t need speed limit signs or if people drove with common courtesy we wouldn’t need stop signs. Unfortunately new laws get put in place when people do bad or stupid things.
I have been studying the creation story a lot lately, reading it over and over. Before the fall, Adam and Eve had complete freedom in the Garden, they had just one rule, don’t eat from the one tree. Adam failed in his leadership of Eve and Eve failed in upholding her fear or reverence for God. Enter sin into the world.
God furthered His laws for us with the ten commandments and Israel eventually ended up with six hundred and ninety something laws. The idea being, if you stay within the laws then you are righteous before God. Further, if you broke any of the laws, God put in place a sacrificial system to get people back on track with Him.
Well, God in His infinite wisdom knew it was impossible to keep this system up and that we couldn’t possibly obey all of the laws.
So out of His love for Us God sent Jesus to settle our accounts once and for all. Jesus came to be the one final sacrifice for those who believe in Him through faith.
“Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrew 9:11-14
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Hebrews 10:4
Through faith and only through faith in Jesus are we saved. We can’t be good enough, do enough things right or be nice enough. If that was the case we could boast on our own efforts, but the good news is through Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection, we can boast in Him.
For consider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not any wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no human may boast before God. But it is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written: “LET THE ONE WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.” 1 Corinthians 2:26-31
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:21-26
Jesus stood in the gap for us, He took the punishment we deserve, once and for all. Through Jesus and only Jesus can we have true freedom for this life and in eternity.
But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness. Romans 6:17-18
I pray you have a faith that will stand up to the tests and trials of this life, faith in the One who directs your steps and creates and determines your circumstances, that you would be able to see through the fog and clouds and see Jesus on the other side.
JER2913 