What’s really broken?
Sin: any action taken by humanity apart from God’s goodness is destructive
God’s 5 Steps to fix what is broken
Step #2 The Law
God gave The Law to His people because He loved them and for them to REMEMBER
Deuteronomy 6:4-23
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors.
And if they obeyed…
Deuteronomy 6:24-25
The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God,so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.
Why didn’t it work?
As did the first man and woman, we also choose our own way. When rules dictated to us, we tend to rebel against them. This is our nature apart from God. After 400 years had passed from Adam and Eve’s original sin, the world had become consumed by evil. God chose one man, and his family and punished all others by flooding the earth. Sin still reigned, but God never wavered. His plan would soon be realized in the person of his son, Jesus.
Did Jesus’ coming and dying throw out The Law?
Jesus did not come to throw out The Law, but to fulfill it. His coming and living did just that. His dying broke the power of sin and paid the penalty of disobedience once and for all. And His resurrection made all things new in Him and birthed the hope and promise of deep relationship with Him and the forever life that can be ours by simply believing in our hearts.
How did Jesus sum up The Law?
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12
What was the end result of The Law?
What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting.
Romans 7:7-8
Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am!
Romans 7:21-24a
But … there is HOPE!
Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Romans 7:24b-25
You can know that HOPE today! Praise God, if you do. We woud LOVE to talk to you if you don’t! Don’t wait even a second more!
