Recently I was reading through the book of Deuteronomy and came to a passage that stopped me, it was Deuteronomy 31:10-13. Moses told the people once they crossed over the Jordan river and possessed the land of Israel, they were to gather together every seven years at the feast of the tabernacles, everyone; the men, women, children, everyone and they were to read aloud the Law. But what really struck me of great significance is the reason Moses gives for doing this, “that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess” (Deuteronomy 31:12-13). The reason for reading the Law aloud was so that they would learn to fear God. To fear is to have a reverential awe of, a feeling of profound respect. The Law of God is something rarely talked about in Gentile (non-Jewish) churches and I find that sad. The reason I find that sad is the Law is the revelation to man of the character of God. God is Holy! I’m not talking about legalism, man trying to earn his way to heaven; I’m talking about the true Law of the Lord written by God Himself. God Spoke His Holy Law, His precepts, His moral Law to the people of Israel, then wrote them on tablets of stone and gave them to Moses. When you read or especially hear the Law of the Lord I mean really hear you can’t help but fear God. The Law was never given so that by following it you could somehow earn your way to righteousness, but so that you would fear God. When you read the Law you know that you are sinful and He is Holy. No one has kept the Law of God! “There is none righteous, no not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10-12). All have sinned, “for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God” (Romans 3:23). What is sin? “Sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). Sin is lawlessness, it is breaking God’s Law and every single man or women that has ever lived has broken God’s Law, it is our very nature passed down from the first man Adam.
There is but One who did not sin, He did not come from the first man Adam, He was born of a woman but conceived of by the Holy Spirit, the Son of God Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of man” (John 1:1-4). God Himself came in the form of a Man and did what no man could do, live a sinless life, do God’s will. What does the Law of the Lord do? It turns your eyes off of yourself and turns them to the Lamb of God Jesus Christ, the One who is the total embodiment of God’s Holy Law. The writers of the New Testament speak often of God’s Law, Paul held the Law of the Lord in high regard. Paul said this of the Law: “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). The law shows us our sin, it shows us that He is Holy and we are not, it shows us our need for a Savior.
Salvation always has been and is by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. Moses saved by faith in the promise, Abraham saved by faith in the promise, the prophets saved by faith in the promise, all men of old where saved by faith in the promise that God would send a Savior to redeem them. All of time focuses on one instance in time, Jesus Christ redeeming mankind on the cross. All men of old, before Christ, where saved by faith looking forward to the promised redemption that would come by the grace of God in the Savior, and all men are saved by faith looking back to the redemption that comes by the grace of God in the sacrifice of the Savior Jesus Christ. “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Why do I love the Law of the Lord? Because it is the Law of the Lord that led me to Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life! Jesus said: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). The time truly is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God truly is at hand, salvation is by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. Thank you Lord!
Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ
