We Christians like to make things so much more difficult on ourselves with constant effort trying to follow the ten commandments, tithe, church attendance, do this, do that, don’t do this, stop doing that. We have the mentality that in order to be approved by God we have to obey the law and be busy doing things for Him. We think that by doing these things we feel better about ourselves and are more spiritual because we are doing something for God.
Galatians 2:16 and 20 make it plain that we are not justified by the works of the law but we are justified by faith in Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life here on earth. He fulfilled the law, the rules and regulations that God required for a person to be perfect. By doing so, when Christ died on the cross he was qualified to be the perfect sacrifice that would do away with our sinful nature. When He died He fulfilled the law, or the old covenant. He said ‘it is finished’ meaning the old agreement was complete and done.
When He died and rose again he paid the penalty for our sins and set us free. We were spiritually crucified with Him. Now all our sins are forgiven and the sinful nature is dead and buried. We are now raised up as new creatures in Christ and live as the righteousness of God because of the free gift we received through Christ.
We no longer live according to the old covenant and trying to live up to the law. We no longer live trying to do enough good works to be worthy and earn our salvation. We are now free in Christ and we live each day by faith in Him. We live out of love for God because of the grace that was given to us by Christ. When we continue to try to follow the ten commandments and Old Testament law, we are saying that the death of Jesus was not enough to pay for our sins.
Enjoy the freedom Christ purchased for you. Don’t bind yourself to all the rules and requirements of the law. Live a life being free in Christ, and live it out of love for God and love for one another.
Unfortunately it is in our natures to want things to be defined and many of us cope much better with a set of rules that will help us to know that we are on the right track. This is the beauty of the good news of Jesus – the rules are gone and the heart is the key. For anyone who studies the old testament, and the words that Jesus has to say on the subject, it is clear that none of us can ever measure up to the rules anyway and that is why the new covenant came to replace the old. I constantly come across Christans who are seeking to go back to Jewish tradition and quote old testament law as if we are still bound by it, but as you rightly point out – it results in being ‘bound’ not set free. Great post
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It seems the religious system does not want to teach the full truth of grace. They want to be sure we will work and support the organization rather than live in the freedom we have in Christ. Good comment. Thanks.
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