The perfect Law, the perfect Man.
Can anyone keep God’s Law today, is there someone to show us the way?
God gave his Law for two purposes; the first is to show to the world his perfect righteousness, the second is to show Man’s total depravity from the Fall of Adam.
For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. Romans 3:20 NLT. It is like a mirror that shows us that we need a shave but can’t shave us!
In John 3:16 we read of God’s love of his creation, the earth and the universe but specifically Man whom he had created in his own image and likeness.
No one can keep the Law and be justified in God’s sight because Man is flawed, having a fallen nature, trapped in darkness, unable to save himself and is a slave to Satan. We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. 1-John 5:19 NLT.
Their spirits are dead to the things of God but alive to sin. The “Good News” was first preached to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden by the Lord himself, he told them that the “Seed” of the woman (Mary) would be their redeemer. That seed is Jesus! (Genesis 3:15).
God had his plan for our salvation before he created the earth, Adam’s fall did not take him by surprise.
Who could save us from our sin and helplessness before God? A perfect Man, sinless and who would not only keep all God’s Law but magnify it before those who had received the Law through Moses.
God told Abraham to stop, do not sacrifice your only son, I will sacrifice mine! The word of God who is God the Son, laid aside his attributes and equality he always had in the Godhead. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Philippians 2:6 NLT.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form Philippians 2:7 NLT.
He became Jesus, born not of the seed of Adam but of the seed of the woman, the Virgin Mary.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, he is fully God and fully a man but without a fallen nature.* He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This perfect God Man did as the Prophet had foretold, that is Jesus would magnify God’s Law which he himself kept perfectly! He put the self-righteous Pharisees to shame and guilt. He magnified God’s Law by telling them that if you even thought evil you have done it in God’s sight. How tough is God’s Law? Jesus said you would have to pluck out your eyes, and cut off your hands if that’s what it would take to keep you from going to Hell! We know as Christians that God’s purpose was never to have us to be saved by keeping the Law. It is through faith in Jesus Christ who fulfilled the Law for us and then gave us his righteousness for our justification before God.
For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17 NLT.
This is the perfect man, Jesus who kept God’s perfect Law then offered himself on the cross as a ransom for our sins, the Just dying for the unjust!
It stirs my soul when I read in God’s word that Christ died for us while we were his enemies. How many would give their lives for their enemies? For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. Romans 5:10 NLT.
What a wonderful God we serve, he had prevented Abraham from killing his only son. Jesus became the sacrificial Lamb of God, an act of his pure love! We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 1-John 4:16 NLT.
I love that Hymn which includes the words; “I had a debt I could not pay,
Jesus had a debt he did not owe; I needed someone to wash my sins away.
And now I sing a brand new song, Amazing Grace, he paid the debt that
I could never pay”.
*Jesus is the “Second Adam”, the first had fallen through sin, Jesus the second Adam could not sin as Jesus was not of Adam’s fallen seed, he did not have a fallen nature! He was tempted in all ways as is common to man but he COULD NOT SIN! His temptation by Satan was to show us, who he is, the Second Adam from God who would defeat Satan no matter what he threw at him. When you test a diamond you expect it to cut glass to prove that is a real diamond. Jesus was tested to show us he is the perfect diamond and the perfect sacrifice!
Jesus is joined with God the Son (Forever) he has the sinless “New Nature” through the Holy Spirit. We are joined to him through faith and have this same sinless New Nature in our regenerated spirits. (The inner man, the “New Creation”, the Temple of God, not made by hands.). Some say that Jesus could have sinned, this is false, as it would go against God’s Will which no one can resist! It would have God’s Will a failure, he would cease to be our Sovereign God! Jesus always did the Father’s Will perfectly, even going to the cross.
I remember thinking as a young man that the God of the Old Testament was hard, and always angry at us. I was very afraid of him. I knew that I was a sinner that could not live up to what my religion had told me I would have to do to be right in God’s sight, so I gave up. I now know that Jesus didn’t give up on me!
God is love and always has been love, from the fall of Adam to this day and beyond. In both the Old and New Testaments he is the same, he does not change! “I am the LORD, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed” Malachi 3:6 NLT. Jesus sought me out, delivered me from my darkness and sin even though I was his enemy. “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” Luke 19:10 NLT.
Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28 NLT.
Author Ken
October 2012