There is nothing wrong with God\’s Law. It reveals the standard of God to man. It clearly expresses the expectation of God to man. However, the right place for the law to be written was not on the tablets of stone, it is the table of your heart and my heart. God\’s writing on those tablets of stones was a divine response to Israel\’s unbelief.
And even now, merely knowing what the Bible says without experiencing the New birth makes you to deal with God\’s Word as \”hard truths\” that cannot be experienced in real life. When you are born again, ALL these truths become manifest inside your heart, and you can now produce the character of Christ from within, which is the proof of lasting transformation. This is the difference between the Old and the New Covenant.
\”Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.\” Romans 7:12
\”Manifestly declared to be the letter of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart.\” 2 Corinthians 3:3 (Wesley)
Israel\’s unbelief at Sinai delayed and postponed God\’s original intention of writing on man\’s heart till the finished work of Christ on the cross. They refused to draw near the Mount, where God was manifest, for that operation that would have made them a people of faith, so that they could enter into the promise in a matter of 40 days, rather than the 40 years of roaming and wasting away in the wilderness.
\”And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.\” Exodus 20:18
The high price of unbelief
This is the price to pay for unbelief. Unbelief will unnecessarily prolong divine intervention. It will prolong your journey into God\’s purpose for your life; and that is if you have not outlived your usefulness by spending your active years in unbelief. To many people, it will look like God was unfair for allowing the children of Israel to perish in the wilderness. Rather, it was an inevitable result of their chosen path in life.
When you choose to deal with God from a distance like the children of Israel did at Sinai, you have already created a zone of unbelief that may permanently hinder you from partaking of the grace of God, in order to enter into your rest. God swore that they will not enter into His rest (Hebrews 3:11)
Grace and faith
The critical issue about grace and faith is that God has done all that needed to be done and He has rested from His works (Hebrews 4:4, 10; Ephesians 2:10). He now calls you to believe on Him because that is the only way to work the works of God, which is the law (John 6:28-29). Grace shows that we have nothing to struggle to do again; we only need to accept what Jesus did on our behalf. When we accept it, we receive a like precious faith that is common to all saints, THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD (2 Peter 1:1).
That faith is what gives us access to the expected quality of life and performance within the Father\’s great household. This is possible because the law is no more outside of us in the New Covenant; it is now inside. We are now the tabernacle of the LORD; and just as the law was installed into the ark of the Covenant in the Holy of holies, the same law is installed into our own spiritman at regeneration.
Therefore, there must be no mistaking the fact, that grace will never multiply your sins and compromises; rather, it will deal a final, deadly blow to the sin nature that perpetuates your sinful actions.
Don\’t abuse the grace of God
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\”…But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? [2] God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?\” (Romans 5:20, 6:1-2)
From the scripture above, a careful heart will realize that where sin abounds, there is even much more grace to live above it. So, the abundance of sin around you is never an excuse to abuse grace and treat it as a common thing (Hebrews 10:29). Grace will not abound when we succumb to the temptation to sin. Since grace has given us a new position (we are dead to sin), how can we live in that which we are dead to any longer?
Grace has ended the reign of sin for anyone who believes (Romans 8:1-4). That is the established reality in God\’s Word. If anyone takes that in contempt and makes grace a reason to advance in sin and unbelief, they will incur a \”much sorer punishment\” than what we saw in the Old Covenant.
The faith of Jesus seeks to end the confidence you have in yourself
\”Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. [20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.\” Galatians 2:16,20
The number one sin is the sin of unbelief (John 3:18). It is the sin that opens the door to other sins and guarantees divine condemnation. And this is so because unbelief is a manifestation of trust and confidence in self. That is, a faith in oneself to please God. This is as subtle as trying to approach God\’s standard directly without going through the Door that guarantees joyful and faithful obedience to God – Jesus Christ.
God is not primarily seeking for those who are keeping his laws, and there are people like that who have not met Jesus. His attention is on those who forsake their own works and enter into the Door (Jesus) and it is these people that can know the unshakable faith that He promised those whom the Father had given Him (John 10:28-29). The life of victory that Jesus lived is only available and accessible to those who have this faith of Jesus, not those who want to touch the law directly.
\”For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and REJOICE IN CHRIST JESUS, and HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH.\” Philippians 3:3 (emphasis mine)
NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations are from the King James Version
Picture credits: \”Life,hope&truth\” and Pinterest
