As we come near to Christmas time it is only fitting that we discuss the perfect redemption of mankind through Christ Jesus. In the previous posts we discussed that no man would be found righteous before God based on the law and their works. We looked at Romans:
(19) Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; (20) because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
Romans 3:19-20 NASB
If a person is honest with themselves they will look at even just the 10 commandments apart from all the other laws in the Torah, and they will see that it is impossible to keep these all the time. They will also see that these 10 laws seem to be written on man’s heart and cross all cultural and geographical boundaries. Any society that acknowledges these 10 commandments and attempts to abide by them is healthier, happier, with stronger families, and the world becomes a better place. The further a society strays from these simple 10 laws, the more chaotic and self-destructive it becomes. At no point in history has there been a society that flawlessly carried these commandments out, nor will there ever be. So a question that begs to be asked is why would God put on man’s heart something that man would never be capable of abiding by fully? What is the point of the law?
As we can see in the previous verse above, the Law makes us aware of our sin to start with. Our willful sin. Our sin that we choose. Secondly, we also have to remember that God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent. So when He created us He knew that we would have the ability to choose something other than what He wanted, but He still put on our hearts what He desired us to do. Throughout scripture and history we see a continual repeating cycle of man exercising freewill contrary to what God desires and bad things happening. When man repents and attempts to follow after God’s Laws things get better. This played itself over and over again in the Old Testament as it still plays itself out today. We see God’s grace being extended to man although he is not worthy of it nor has he done anything deserving of it. Up to this point, though, our sin issues have not been addressed, and the Law is not capable of addressing them. It is powerless to do so. The law is only capable of identifying our sin issues and showing us to be sinners.
Lastly, and most importantly, the law points us to Christ. The Law paints a vivid picture to us of all our actions contrary to what God wants which in turn makes us aware of our need for a Savior. We will look at Galatians 3:15-29 in the next post, but for now we will look at just two verses in that section:
(23) But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. (24) Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith
Galatians 3:23-24
So we find ourselves talking about the law still although this post was called redemption. This is because the law leads us to redemption – faith only in Christ Jesus. The law:
1.Was put on our hearts by God to show us how He desired us to live
- Made us aware of sin
- Pointed us to Christ and our need for a Savior
When a man comes to the realization that he is sinful, separated from God, he cannot keep the law, and he understands there is a perfect God that cannot be in the presence of sin – he then understands that he needs a Savior. No religious organization will do. No acts or works will nullify his already present sin. There is no working his way into heaven because he has already fallen short. He needs a Savior – someone who led the perfect life, suffered and died on the cross for our trespasses, triumphantly rose from the gave overcoming sin and death, and now sits at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us. This is Jesus Christ.