Hello people. I am delighted to share another post this week as
we continue viewing snapshots of God’s grace from Paul’s epistle to the
Galatians.
“Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by
the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge
to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has
come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law”. Galatians 3: 23 - 25 NIV
I have come to realize that one major hindrance to
a lot of Christians in living in the fullness of all that God’s grace has made
freely available to us is the issue of what purpose the law should serve in our
lives. It appears the Galatian church also had many people who had the same dilemma and the
verses I have highlighted this week are very essential in giving us the proper
perspective to this.
Just like the Jews in Paul’s day, quite a lot of
people now have a misunderstanding of the purpose of the law. The law contained
more than 600 regulations that the people of Israel were commanded to live by.
Some of them covered human conduct in the society while some were regulations
on sacrificial offerings which related to cleansing from sin or impurity. There
were rules concerning marriage, slaves and masters, and punishments for
offences. There were also laws concerning sacrifices using bulls and goats, other
animals like birds and even meal and drink offerings. They were related to
cleansing sin or impurity. For further details, one will need to read the books of Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The Jews thought that the law could give
righteousness and peace but they were very wrong. God has opened up to us the
broad scope of His wisdom and knowledge. The law was given as a school master;
a supervisor; to lead us to Christ. The law was given so that sin might appear
sinful (Romans 7:13). The law convicts all men and sincere people everywhere when
faced with the demands of the law recognize their need for a Saviour. That was
the ministry of the law and in fact it does the job very well.
The verses in focus also affirm again the change in
order- grace has replaced the law. Now that faith has come, the supervision of
the law has ended (verse 25). God does not want us to still live our lives with
an attitude of servitude to any set of regulations. The book of Hebrews deals
exhaustively with the abolishment of the sacrificial system of the law but it
also says a little about how we are to live in this new era of grace. “The time
is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant … it will not be
like the covenant that I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt …I will put my laws into their minds, and write them
in their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” Hebrews 8:
8-10 NIV.
You see, in
this new dawn of grace God does not expect the believer to live and relate from
the standpoint of the Old Testament rules and regulations. It’s rather from a
standpoint of the empowerment of God’s grace operating in the core of our beings.
There is a new vista of life for believers in Christ Jesus. There is a new
principle governing our new relationship with God. It is the principle of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus all made possible by God’s grace. We will have a
chance to see more of this as we proceed in the series.
My song for the week is “Love Came Down” by Kari
Jobe. Fill your heart with thoughts of God’s overwhelming grace and have a
great week.
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