“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Galatians 3:24
Salvation is a very curious thing primarily because its whole basis is founded and accomplished by the testimony of One which is not of this creation. It is also based upon a message, or the objective knowledge of this One, who is God in Christ, who cannot be known unless He reveals Himself to the heart and soul. And thirdly, it cannot be accomplished in the life unless there is the direct intervention of God by His power, a power given to the seeking soul who has become convicted, not only his sins before God, but of his lost condition far from God, having no capacity in and of himself to come and be saved. What then is the great and good news of this salvation, the good news that God is merciful and has provided a way for “whosoever will” to come to Him, and then to, in contriteness (the conviction of one’s absolute need), to appeal to God for mercy to be saved? This salvation can be explained and summarized in one word, “Christ.” He alone has dealt with the sins of men on the cross. But that is not all. He has dealt with the sinner, the world, and the “god of this world,” Satan, in order that the lost and wandering sheep, certain to die for time and eternity on the far mountains of this world, helpless and hopeless in their seeking, can at last be brought face to face with the only Savior of mankind, the only pure and spotless Lamb of God, who came in love to save the lost. How then can this one who is, in and of himself, deprived of all capacity to save himself by any and every means, be saved from the wrath of God, and God’s just sentence and judgement upon all sin?
Curious enough, the way to God begins with that which cannot give the lost soul the answer, only the conviction leading to the answer. The Law, that Divine Law of God, given to Moses on Mt. Sinai, is called the ten commandments. Since there is in every person born on this earth, a conscience, a certain capacity given by God to discern between that which is right and wrong in His eyes, there is a slight, or great, consciousness of sin, one’s independent, self-oriented, and rebellious nature and attitude towards God. The Law of God was given to mankind, specifically to Israel, and passed down to us all to this very day, in order to reveal to mankind, and in particular to that one seeking God, the holy character of God, and the absolute impossibility by sinful man to obey that law. Sinful man cannot obey the perfect, moral Law of God in order to justify Himself. It is not in his nature. For the earnest seeker of God who possesses a desire, even conviction, not only of his need, but the knowledge that there is a God, who just might be the answer to that need of salvation, there will be the honest seeking of God by obeying His Law. The only true result of such seeking God in this manner, is the realization that it cannot be done by one’s own efforts. By the Law’s standard, the sinner cannot be justified. The “rightness, ” or “righteousness” that the sinner must possess is one which is perfect, without a flaw, and certainly complete. When once light begins to dawn upon the soul that, not only he cannot keep the law, and that he is lost, there is but one response, the desperate cry to God for mercy. The God of mercy will always hear and save. In that moment of desperation, when sin’s wages and its effects offer only death and judgment, there is revealed in the gospel of Christ the truth that this merciful God receives sinful men, giving them power to repent and believe IN CHRIST who forgives sin, and sets the captive free.
Dear Father, Show forth Thy mercy. In Jesus’ name, Amen.