The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
Law(s)
Part 4 - "To Seek the Surgeon"
"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).
In yesterday's message, we referenced Dr. Christian Banaard, the surgeon who performed the first heart transplant in 1967 on patient Louis Washkansky. Dr. Banaard was likely not the doctor who diagnosed Mr. Washkansky's need for the radical procedure. In many cases, the diagnostician and the surgeon are not one and the same. One identifies the malady. The other treats it. This fact regarding medical treatment reflects the spiritual realities of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.
"The law is holy, and the commandment, holy and just and good" (Romans 7:12).
"The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24).
"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).
There is nothing at all wrong with the law of Moses. The "holy and just and good" standards handed down by God to Israel wonderfully reflect His character, nature, and way. The standards also bear witness to what human beings should be. However, God gave the law of Moses to diagnose rather than treat the terminal nature of our sinfulness apart from God's grace. The inability to fulfill God's ordinances according to His perfect standard reveals problems with the spiritual heart of human beings.
"But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine" (I Timothy 1:8-10).
The perfect diagnostician, the law of Moses, revealed to the Jews (and indirectly to all) that in and of ourselves, we are not what God made us to be. However, the diagnostic law could not perform the radical surgery required to save us - "the law made nothing perfect" (Hebrews 7:19). It rather exposes the need for surgery. This led to "the bringing in of a better hope, " namely, "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" as our spiritual surgeon. Thus, we give thanks for the old law and its necessary diagnosis of our need for a heart transplant. And we give thanks for the new law that extracts our old corrupt heart, and provides "a new heart... a new spirit… a new man, created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ezekiel 36:26; Ephesians 4:24).
The law was an advantage for Israel, given by God (Romans 3:1-2). The Jews could realize their spiritual and moral corruption by this diagnostician. A perfect law revealed their spiritual and moral imperfection. Interestingly, even lesser moral codes by which human beings seek to be right and righteous result in crumbling clay feet failing to walk the path prescribed by the codes. Diagnosticians cannot save us. Only surgeons can do that. However, we desperately need someone to detect our illness in order to motivate us to seek the surgeon. The law of Moses fulfills this role, leading sinners to hope for rescue through "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:27). Thus, we give thanks for the diagnostic purpose of the old law, which revealed our need for the dynamic performance of the new law, the saving grace of Christ "by the which we draw nigh unto God" (Hebrews 7:19).
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
(Romans 3:20-24)
"He (Christ) is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord."
(Hebrews 8:6-9)
Weekly Memory Verse
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
(Romans 8:2).
5724
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