“Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:19
In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the believers in Galatia, he wrote concerning the Law, that it was “…our tutor (or schoolmaster) to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (3:24) The holy Law of God was not only the unveiling to mankind something of the holy nature of God, especially as it relates to sinful man, but the fact that it is the call of God to believe and obey it. However, the problem with this matter of obedience to the commandments of God is that a sinful man may “try” to obey them, deceiving himself that he is righteous by his own fault-filled standards of effort and device. The fact is that, not only can sinful man NOT obey the Law of God, but also, he cannot obey it perfectly, which is God’s standard of obedience and righteousness. Paul then shows mankind the way, God’s way, His only solution concerning His law, His commandments, and the keeping of them. That solution is Christ and Christ alone. How is this so?
God has gifted man with a conscience, a capacity to know what is morally right and wrong. However, that conscience is affected by sin, the context of a sinful world, and the blatant defiance of the enemy of our souls, so that the will does not, even cannot, adequately respond in perfect, obedient faith. However, when the Law of God comes to man, the standard of God’s holiness awakens the conscience to see, and be convicted of, the difference between the holy standard of God in His perfect righteousness, and the absolute sinfulness, and lostness, of sin-enslaved man, who has no hope of escape from such an impossible condition. The Gospel of God, this good news to all men, is that God alone has provided a most sure, and certain remedy, not only for sins committed, and needing to be forgiven, washed away, blotted out for eternity, but a remedy for the sinner, sinful man, who is dominated by another law, that of sin as the dominant principle in his life. Man sins against God because he IS a sinner. God’s answer to that law is first the breaking of its bonds, power, and authority over the life by introducing another Life, that of His Son by the Spirit. Paul wrote of this perfect, and blessed solution, to the believers in Rome by declaring: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” (8:2) When Christ brings the sinner to the point when He awakens the conscience to see his lost condition, by comparing the righteousness of God with that which sinful man has sought to establish as his own, the Lord points the way by which sin and the sinful nature can be dealt with, saving the soul. With respect to the sins of men, Christ has shed His blood as the perfect offering to God the Father, to pay the full price for all and every sin of lost man. For the man who sees, and grasps this by the revelation of God, and is willing to trust in no other to deal with his sin, appealing to the mercy of God, God intervenes in the life. It is as Isaiah wrote many years before the crucifixion of Christ, but looking down the corridor of time to that moment, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him (Christ) the iniquity of us all.” (53:6) This is God’s perfect, and only provision for sins.
As to God’s solution concerning the sin nature, Christ’s holy Life, communicated to the believer by the Spirit, empowers him to obey. This overcoming power of the Life of Christ has conquered the law of sin.
Dear Father, Empower us to live. In Jesus’ name, Amen.