Tags
There is a lot of talk about the “law” in today’s reading and I always wonder how much of the law still applies to us. Don’t get me wrong, I know we are not justified by the law, but by faith. Just read verse 14 and we see that, He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. However, we still love to throw out a bunch of rules governing our Christian lives. Again, don’t get me wrong, we should have changed lives because of God’s grace, but what is the purpose of the law now? Verse 24 does a pretty good job of revealing it to us, So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. The law is what draws the distinction between who we are and who God is. It is in place to draw us to God to show us how far we are from Him and how much we need His grace through Christ’s sacrifice to have a relationship with Him.
Good grief…this passage rivals all of Romans! I love how the message puts it, “is the law, then, an anti-promise, a negation of God’s will for us? Not at all. Its purpose was to make obvious to everyone that we are, in ourselves, out of right relationship with God, and therefore to show us the futility of devising some religious system for getting by our own efforts what we can only get by waiting in faith for God to complete his promise. For if any kind of rule-keeping had power to create life in us, we would certainly have gotten it by this time.” Answers that whole question real fast!:)
So does the law play a practical role in our lives today? Jesus said the law was wrapped up in his 2 commandments, Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself. You keep those 2 things in mind, and it does wrap the whole thing up. And like you said, Dino, the deeper relationship we have with Christ, the more we allow him to change our hearts, the more those 2 commandments will automatically be an outflow of our natural actions.