Today's Ruminating in the Word of God: God gave the law to point me to his Son.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Romans 10:1-4,

 

"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes."

 

The contemporary challenge of the day for Paul was to provide an explanation as to why his own people, the Israelites, as a nation, did not embrace the gospel message Paul championed. As he points out in the previous chapter, "Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!" Romans 9:4-5. Certainly, this people of all peoples should have embraced the gospel message if it were authentic and true. However, as a people they did not.

 

Here in chapter ten, Paul points to the zeal with which his countrymen who rejected Jesus Christ pursued God. Many in our day maintain that unsaved man will not ever take an interest in the things of God, will not pursue God. I find this a baffling position to take, but when there is need to shore up an incoherent theology, what is one to do? The truth is people always hunger for the spiritual. One doesn't have to look far to see that most folks pursue God in a variety of ways. Some look to the mystical, some to the occult. Some go on spiritual pilgrimages, some seek the spiritual elites of our day. All the religions of our day, all the cults and -isms point to the intensity of interest and fascination many are drawn to. While most appear to reject the gospel message of Jesus Christ, it does not mean they are not hungry for God. In this passage Paul points out that the problem wasn't the unsaved in his day didn't pursue God, but that they pursued him in ignorance. Rather than accepting God's forgiveness, they sought to establish their own right standing.

 

God gave the Ten Commands and the rest of the law to demonstrate how unlike him we are. God commanded these be kept and the conclusion God intended was for mankind to recognize his sinfulness and seek the redemption he provides. Paul says earlier in this letter, "I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet.' But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death." Romans 7:7-11.

 

This thought is brought to a conclusion offered by Paul in Galatians 3:24, "So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith." Somehow the Israelites of Paul's day missed this conclusion and rather than embracing the redemption Jesus Christ wrought on the cross, paying the penalty for our sins, they "doubled-down" attempting to establish their own righteousness in a hopeless and misguided effort to keep laws that, were they to succeed, would establish themselves on a par with God himself.

 

What grips my heart in this is all that God has done. He has taken steps to ensure we recognize our sinfulness, he has sent his Son as a propitiation for our sins, and he reaches out to us, imploring us to avail ourselves of the forgiveness he offers. As for the Israelites of his day, Paul points to God's posture toward them by quoting from Isaiah 65:2, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people." Romans 10:21.

 

Was there anything God didn't do to draw us to himself?!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com