And of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. – 1Co 1:30
In Romans chapter 10, the Apostle Paul succinctly outlines the problem of
his Jewish brethren with respect to the Mosaic law:
“For I bear them witness that
they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. (Rom 10:2,3).
Paraphrasing the 3rd verse using our high jump analogy, Paul
was essentially saying, For they being ignorant of the 100-foot bar, and
going about to establish their own 8-foot bar, have not submitted themselves to
admitting the un-scalability of the 100-foot bar of God. (Rom 10:2,3).
The whole point of the Law was to reveal mankind’s powerlessness to
reach God’s standard. Nevertheless, the Jews, missing the whole point, kept trying
to follow it. They failed repeatedly, (each time heaping on themselves the attendant
curses for each violation), but kept at it nonetheless.
No one – Moses, the giver of the Laws included – was ever able to fulfil
the Law. But even if they theoretically could, it would still be a far cry from
God’s standard; (Mt 5:20). Only the Messiah, could fulfil both the spirit
and letter of the Law. This, in fact, was the whole point of the Law in the
first place. Speaking on, Paul says, “For Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believes.” (Rom 10:4).
Gal 3:24 says, “Therefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us
unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. once you find
yourself depending on Christ and not your own effort to attain right-standing before
God, then the Law has achieved its aim.
On the Cross, the righteous Jesus took upon Himself the punishment for
our sins, that we may in exchange, take on His perfect
righteousness; (2Cor 5:21).
This is the given path for attaining God’s righteousness. I once read a
post that said, “You can preach, speak in tongues, pray, fast, cast out devils,
etc. and still go to Hell; but you can’t live a holy life and go to Hell.” However,
I’m afraid that if by “live a holy life” we mean simply “not committing bad
things,” then I’m afraid we’ll still end up in Hell! (1Jn 1:8,10).
The righteousness that Jesus confers is our ONLY ticket to Heaven. If we
preach and emphasise this truth, we’ll spare many churchgoers from having the
shock of a lifetime on Judgment Day.
AMEN.
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN
No comments:
Post a Comment