Like most everyone else, I’ve broken a number of the ten commandments in my lifetime…
It’s just so overwhelming to be set free by Jesus. How can anyone not fall in love with Him when they clearly see that His death has set them free from trying to be right with God through “works?” (Isaiah 64:6)
It’s amazing how the cults talk about “works” and what we must “do” to be saved. To me, “doing” always sets too high of a bar for me to ever reach, and I can never discover how much I need to do to be saved – people aren’t able to agree on an exact list of works that guarantee salvation. And, that should lead us to Christ.
I’m so thankful for the Apostle Paul’s remarks about his desire to keep the law but finding it impossible to do in Romans chapter 7.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:2
and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.
Philippians 3:9
Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
Galatians 2:16
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
These scriptures have a tendency to bring me back to Christ’s all-atoning death on the cross, to my “first love.” That is, Christ has set me free from the law and the striving the law once produced in my life. Oh, thank you, Jesus, for the grace you made available to us. What incredible love.
I’m set free from the law that I tried but failed to keep. At times, it seems too good to be true that Jesus has set us free. But then, that’s the gospel, that’s the immense “Good News.”
God bless,
Mark