Saturday, December 18, 2021

 

FAR AS THE CURSE IS FOUND!

 

Gal 4:4-5

4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

 

          The law was given to man as a gift. It was prescribed and, most likely, described to Moses. If God could create the earth in six days, I don’t think it would take forty days to write ten laws on a stone tablet. No, I think it took forty days to thoroughly explain the law to Moses. Law, then, had a written standard and, I think, took into account extenuating circumstances and established forms of correction and punishment. The result was supposed to be order and peace.

 

          As time went on, man ripped the law from God’s hands and misinterpreted it to suit himself. All one needed to stone an enemy was a couple of “pants on fire” witnesses willing to lie. Law that is not founded upon the character and integrity of God becomes tyranny and the result is disorder and anything but peace.

         

          The Romans pre-empted Jewish law with secular law. God’s law was designed for the benefit of man and the pleasure of God. Roman law was designed for the benefit of Rome and the forced compliance of her subjects. Under Rome’s brutality, the indiscriminate stoning of individuals would be greatly reduced. Execution would be according to Roman law and carried out by crucifixion. Stephen was stoned without a trial or even an indictment. Stephen died contrary to both Jewish and Roman law. It was mob murder.

 

          Jesus now enters “made under the law,” to redeem those who were under the law. He said that he had not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). To understand what Jesus meant, we must remember how He applied the law when asked to judge a woman “taken in adultery” (John 8:4-7). After hearing the indictment from the witnesses, he demands an innocent and impartial execution. Without a fair and impartial prosecution, Jesus dismisses the case with both mercy and a stern warning. Grace had come to the legal system.

 

          Jesus pulled the teeth from the law by declaring all to be guilty (Romans 3:19-20); by sentencing capital punishment (Romans 6:23); and by taking the punishment himself (1Peter 3:18). Only in this way could law and grace come together.

 

Joy To The World

 

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

 

Thank you, Jesus, for graciously taking my sin and my punishment and then giving me eternal life. AMEN