The Purpose Of The Law - Part 2 of 3

All of Adam and Eve’s children, and the rest of humanity, are engulfed with an inherited  disease called sin. Let’s look at a few verses. Let’s be clear, the curse of sin didn’t just impact humans. It affected everything!

Romans 5:10 and 12 “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned

Romans 3:11“None is righteous, no, not one;  no one understands; no one seeks for God.

Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 

According to these verses, all of mankind falls into one category at conception. We are all unrighteous, dead, enemies of God, who have zero moral inclination to even seek after Him without an outside source doing something on our behalf. Looking at my life, I know I stand guilty.

Adam and Eve had two sons named Cain and Able. One day, after some dispute about what each brother offered as a worshipful sacrifice to God, God accepted Able’s sacrifice, and rejected Cain’s sacrifice. Abel offered the sacrifice of a lamb, and Cain offered some fruit and vegetables. Instead of seeking forgiveness, and righting the wrong of His sacrifice, He killed his brother. How did Cain and Able know what and what not to do? There are two things that explain this. First, God has already taught Adam and Eve about what is a worshipful sacrifice. 

Second, God’s perfect law (later called the Ten Commandments) has been written on everyone’s heart. Romans 2:14-15 “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” Many years after Cain and Able, Moses receives the Ten Commandments. These ten laws were part of what Cain experienced with Able. Think about it for a moment. Even a thief doesn’t like for someone to steal from them. A cheating husband can’t stand to find out his wife has been cheating on him. As unbelievers, these laws are where we naturally get the responses of revenge, discontentment, and jealousy. These generally sinful responses, more often than not, yield horrible outcomes.

Similar to the Covenant of Works, the law was put into place to show all of mankind that we cannot find true peace, joy, love, etc. on our own. We have to have an outside source open our eyes to our inability to repair what is wrong with us. Adam and Eve couldn’t do it in a perfect situation. It would seem a little arrogant for us to think that we, out of all of the other humans that have lived before us, can do what everyone else could not? The law was given to man to direct them towards the perfect and holy outside source. However, when we are not even seeking Him, unbelievers generally try to figure things out on their own.

In the meantime, until that outside source, the Messiah, finally revealed Himself to mankind, God gave His people a way to seek forgiveness and atonement for their sins; they called him the High Priest. Once a year, this High Priest would offer up a spotless lamb, like Abel did, to be sacrificed for their sins. Throughout the Old Testament, this is how the children of God maintained their relationship with God. Their faith found rest in looking forward to the promised Messiah, the Lamb of God who is to come to take the sins of His children.

Let’s be clear, killing a spotless lamb does not, in and of itself, save anyone. The lamb that the High Priest sacrificed had no special mutant powers. Martin Luther said “To know Christ and believe in Him is no achievement of man, but it is the gift of God.” There were many who tried their hardest to fulfill God’s law like it was a list of rules and regulations. We are morally incapable of completing the task. Remember, the law was given to show our inability to save ourselves. Therefore, God prepared the coming Messiah to complete what mankind was physically, spiritually, emotionally, and morally incapable of doing on their own.

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Since all mankind is cursed with sin, all of us deserve to die and go to a literal Hell. All children of God are saved from our sin by His grace. John Calvin explained it like this, “Our assurance, our glory, and the sole anchor of our salvation are that Christ the Son of God is ours, and we in turn are in him sons of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven, called to the hope of eternal blessedness by God's grace, not by our worth.”

The source of our salvation, the coming Messiah, God in the flesh is about to show Himself to the world.