The law served a specific purpose before Jesus came to pay the price for our sins. Once He did, the purpose of the law changed. This devotion looks at how the law prepared us for faith in Jesus.
Nuggets
- Sin isn’t a good-bad issue.
- It is a spiritually alive-spiritually dead issue.
- That takes faith.
- The law is all the do’s and don’ts of the Bible.
- The purpose of the law was to show us we needed a Savior.
It may be easy to question what role the law plays now that Jesus has become our Savior and Redeemer. Galatians 3: 22-25 gives us the answer to that question.
Confined All Under Sin
“But the Scripture has confined all under sin …” (Gal. 3: 22 NKJV)
Do we hear today about people who think there is no sin? That could be due to the insistence that sin is a good-bad thing. So, they think they are a good person, so everything is hunky-dory.
If it were a good-bad issue, we would be able to earn our way into heaven. That would make it about us.
It isn’t a good-bad issue. It isn’t about us.
Paul said, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3: 23 KJV).
The sentence has already been pronounced — there is no more debate.
The sentence has been pronounced for all. There are no exceptions.
Faith in Jesus
“… that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe …” (Gal. 3: 22 NKJV)
It is a spiritually alive-spiritually dead issue. It is about God and Jesus.
Yes, the sentence has been pronounced, but a Substitute has been found.
That takes faith. Faith is the belief that the doctrines stated in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them.
It isn’t a blanket substitution, however. We need to do our part.
“And Jesus said, ‘For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.’ Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, ‘Are we blind also?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, “We see.” Therefore your sin remains’” (Jn. 9: 39-41 NKJV).
You see, what Jesus was saying here was that the Pharisees could not claim ignorance. Because Jesus told them that He was the Way to salvation, they had to say, “Yes, we believe,” or they would still be sinners.
It is kind of like those who used to believe the world was flat. All they could see was their little piece of the world.
It took someone else to tell them that the world was, in reality, round. It took someone with a bigger perspective, a bigger picture.
Jesus had a bigger picture than the Pharisees. They just saw their little corner.
The kicker is, now that they had been told, they had to make a decision. “They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin” (Jn. 15: 22 NLT).
I wonder if some people read that as we would not be sinners if Jesus hadn’t come. That isn’t what He said. He said, “They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them …” (Jn. 15: 22 NLT emphasis added).
So, Jesus had to come, and people have to be told. That is why “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Mt. 24: 14 NLT).
Did you see the last bit of the section we are looking at here? “… might be given to those who believe …” (Gal. 3: 22 NKJV).
You have now been told. You can no longer claim ignorance. You have to act. You have to ABCD.
The ABCDs of Salvation
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
We have to hear the message of our need for a Savior. We have to believe it. We have to turn our hearts and lives over to God. Then we have to change our lives so that we are living in the way to which He is calling us.
It isn’t enough for us to know. We have to believe and live.
Guarded by the Law
“… But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed” (Gal. 3: 23 NKJV)
What is the law? It is all the do’s and don’ts of the Bible.
We were given the law for several reasons. The first reason was to show us sin existed. The second reason was to set boundaries to show us the ideal. That would begin to train us in the way Christ wants us to live. The third reason was to separate those to whom the law was given.
The problem is we can’t keep all of the laws while we are in these sinful physical bodies. There is no way we can.
Before Jesus came, that is how they obeyed God. Deuteronomy 28: 1 says, “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth” (ESV).
That doesn’t say anything about gaining eternal life. That is because the law can’t bring life.
Tutor Is Gone
“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” (Gal. 3: 24-25 NKJV)
The purpose of the law was to show us we needed a Savior. “… In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin …” (Rom. 7: 7 NLT).
Sometimes, we get like the Pharisees — thinking that the do’s and don’ts are the end-all, be-all. We think they have to keep all the laws to live. Once they break the laws, we are dead in the water.
Instead, we have a Savior. We have a loving Father Who will forgive us when we ask.
Making the Connections
Mankind graduated from the law a long time before we ever showed up on this earth. It no longer is a good/bad issue.
Look at it this way. The rich young ruler asked Jesus what He had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus rattled off some of the Ten Commandments.
Ruler Guy was thinking, “Great. I’ve nailed those.” He puffed up His chest and said that.
Look at Jesus’ response. “…You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Lk. 18: 22 NKJV).
Ruler Guy — and some of us — get tripped up on the sell part. We don’t want to give up anything.
But I don’t think that really was really what Jesus was saying.
What Ruler Guy was lacking was following Jesus. For Rich Guy, the material things had priority #1, not God. Jesus wanted to switch things up.
But it could have been Jesus was asking Rich Guy to give up what he knew. Give up the comfortable to gain the necessary.
It doesn’t matter if we are rich or poor. What matters is what priority do we give God in our lives. God wants to be #1.
How Do We Apply This?
We have to have faith in Jesus. We have to ask Him to be our Savior and Redeemer. Then we have to continue to seek Him.
We have to practice living the laws here. This is how we are going to live in heaven. There won’t be any sin, and we will have changed bodies so that we can live these out.
How do we start living them?
You know, the questions may change. The topics may change. However the answer never will.
The answer is we need to work on our relationship with God. Yep, I even made this fancy graphic so I don’t have to keep retyping it.
Searching For and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17 NLT).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3 ESV).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16 ESV).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11 NLT).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11 NLT).
To read Has God Provided Everything We Need?, click the button below.
While we are seeking God, we have to show those changes in our lives. We do that by living out the Disciple’s Job Description.
The Disciple’s Job Description
To access the complete job description, click the button below.
Too many times, I think we forget we have to crawl before we walk. We have to gibberish before we can talk. We have to have the law before we can know Jesus.
We don’t want to stay in the crawl, gibberish, law stages. We want to have our Lord and Savior in our lives. We need Jesus.
Father God. We are searching for You to be our Savior, Redeemer, and Sovereign Lord. We are seeking to strengthen our relationships with You. Help us to live as You would have us live. Amen.
What do you think?
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