It’s The Law
Sometimes the Law does what it is supposed to do. The Law does that regardless of what your relationship is to the Law. Generally, my relationship with the Law is much like the Psalmist’s:
How I love your laws!
I meditate on them all day long.
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
because it is always with me.
I have more wisdom than all my teachers,
because your testimonies are my meditation.
I have more understanding than the elders,
because I guard your precepts.
I have kept my feet off every evil path
in order to keep your words.
I have not turned from your judgments,
because you yourself have instructed me.
How sweet are your sayings to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
From your precepts I gain understanding.
Therefore, I hate every false road.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+119&version=EHV>
However, the more you know, the more you know you don’t know what you think you know. Ya know? Sometimes you stumble upon verses like this:
I am the Lord your God.
You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived. You shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. Do not walk in their religious practices. Follow my ordinances and keep my regulations by walking in them. I am the Lord your God. Keep my regulations and my ordinances. Anyone who does them will have life through them. I am the Lord.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+18&version=EHV>
You shall not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. You must openly rebuke your fellow citizen so that you do not become responsible for his sin. You must not take revenge. You must not bear a grudge against the members of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2019&version=EHV>
Just then, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the law?” he asked him. “What do you read there?”
He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.”
He said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2010&version=EHV>
Yeah, the beginning of that last line: “He wanted to justify himself…” I could do that; yes, I am really good at doing that… This is where the Law does what it supposed to do. It shows me my sin and my need for a Savior. Luther wrote, “Some will object that the Law is divine and holy. Let it be divine and holy. The Law has no right to tell me that I must be justified by it.” And, “The law says, ‘Do this,’ and it is never done. Grace says, ‘Believe in this,’ and everything is already done.” The Law leads us to the Gospel; again, from Luther:
Our preaching does not stop with the law. That would lead to wounding without binding up, striking down and not healing, killing and not making alive, driving down to hell and not bringing back up, humbling and not exalting. Therefore, we must also preach grace and the promise of forgiveness–this is the means by which faith is awakened and properly taught. Without this word of grace, the law, contrition, penitence, and everything else are done and taught in vain.
From <http://www.notable-quotes.com/l/luther_martin_iii.html>
Finally, this Word of grace from Paul:
The Father rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and all things hold together in him.
He is also the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things he might have the highest rank. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself (whether things on earth or in heaven) by making peace through the blood of his cross.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+1&version=EHV>
Trust the Promises
Steve Skiver