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Born Under the Law

There has always been a tension for Christians when it comes to the Law of God.  Right back to the earliest days of the church, the question of the Christian's relationship to the Law has been an issue of contention.  As early Acts 15 the apostles had to make a decision concerning how much of the Law Gentiles were obligated to obey.  When I am asked this question, I typically answer "None of it. . . and. . . All of it."  Now in this post I want to focus on the none of it side and in a later post I will address the all of it response.

When the question of the Christian and the Law arises, I find I am often faced with two false assumption.  First, people tend to assume that the Law was created by God to allow mankind to gain eternal favour with God.  The thinking goes, "If I keep the Law God is happy with me and if I break the Law God is happy with me."  Therefore, I must obey the Law to make God accept me.  Unfortunately this assumption reduces God to a cosmic Santa Claus.  "He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake."  However, the Law was never intended to grant us divine favour.  The Law cannot justify.  It can only condemn.

The second faulty assumption people make is that we are somehow able to keep the Law.  Humanity has always had the arrogance to believe that we are able to keep the Law to a standard sufficient to please a Holy God.  The truth is that God requires absolute perfection in the keeping of His Law.  Failing to keep even one Law is sufficient justification for God to condemn us eternally.  God does not grade on the curve.

When it comes to the Law, there is nothing but bad news for us.  Yet, it is exactly this bad news that makes the Gospel good news.  Galatians 4:4 tells us that in coming into this world at Christmas, Jesus was born under the Law.  However, unlike you and I, Jesus was able to perfectly keep God's Law.  The Law does not condemn Jesus.  He deserves to be rewarded for perfect obedience to the Father.  This fact accomplishes to two great parts of redemption.  First, as the perfect sinless one, He does not deserve to be punished for sin.  This makes Him the acceptable sacrifice to be substituted in our place, taking our punishment upon Himself.  Second, the reward for His perfection can be credited to us so that when God looks at us He sees the perfection of Jesus.

My friends this is the true beauty of the coming of Jesus at Christmas.  He did for us what we could not do for ourselves.  He earned God's favour under the Law so that we who could never earn it for ourselves can have that favour through faith in Jesus Christ.
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