The Law Came Through Moses, Obedience Came Through Christ
Deuteronomy 31 is not a cheery chapter. In it, God makes clear He knows Israel will depart from His ways very quickly and very extremely. It's as if there's nothing that could stop their disobedience and inevitable downfall. Consider that the main ramification of Moses' death would be vast disobedience nation-wide.
Deuteronomy 31:16 (ESV) And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.
Deuteronomy 31:18 (ESV) And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.
Their history testifies to us today that we are all powerless in keeping the law. We can love it, honor it, believe it, and adhere to it, but we cannot do it. We need the power of God in our lives to change our hearts.
So God will have Moses deposit the law by the Ark where sacrificial blood will be spilled.
Deuteronomy 31:26–28 (ESV) “Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. 27 For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death! 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them.
It's interesting to think about this. If they had left the Book of the Law near the Ark it would have been covered in blood eventually. Remember the annual sacrifice of atonement was sprinkled on the mercy seat (top) of the Ark between the Cherubim and blood would have inevitably fallen on the Law. What a picture of our redemption. Christ's blood was shed and covered the Law so that we might come boldly into the presence of God and receive MERCY to help us in time of need.
Now the Bible says in John 1:17, "the Law came through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
And...
Romans 8:3–4 (ESV) God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Don't you see how God is speaking? He's not condemning us, He's showing us the way. Without Him we cannot fulfill His law. Without Him we cannot obey and do what's right, no matter what miracles we see outside of us. No! Only His work of salvation can transform our hearts to cause us to live for Him. The blood of Jesus has COVERED the book of the law. NOW we can live from HIS acceptance and grace empowered by His Spirit to produce fruit in His Name.
Whereas Israel would "rise and go after other gods", we are resurrected to new life to serve the living God. Whereas the anger of the Lord went out against them, the love of God is the banner over us. Whereas the Lord turned away His face, we with unveiled faces behold the Lord of Glory and are transformed! All that the law could not do Christ has done!
2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV) And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
LIVE from it!
It's true!
It sets you free!
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