God kept His promises through Jesus
Our look at the law has revealed our shortcomings –
Romans 5:20a | God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were.
But thankfully, that isn’t the end of the story!
Romans 5:20b | But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.
Where the law left us guilty and hopeless, God had a plan to lavish us with forgiveness and hope. As we’ve seen over and over again, God’s rescue plan was Jesus–
2nd Corinthians 5:21 | For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Jesus never sinned. It was His right living that qualified Him to be the offering for our sin– our substitutionary sacrifice that satisfied the penalty for sin the law condemned us with. Jesus didn’t deserve death, but His death was part of God’s plan since [before] the beginning of time (2nd Timothy 1:9-10; Genesis 3:15). God’s plan to fulfill the law through Jesus was set in motion a few days before Easter–
Acts 2:23a | But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed.
At the end of Jesus’ perfect life, Judas betrayed him (Luke 22:3-6, 47-48). Like Acts says, this didn’t surprise God the Father and it didn’t surprise Jesus either (John 13:11). The day after his betrayal and arrest, Jesus’ innocence was confirmed and declared in his trials [Luke 23:4, 15, 47]. This verified that His death could pay for our sins [Isaiah 53:4-11].
As God planned and revealed through the prophet Isaiah hundreds of years before, Jesus, the Rescuer, was led like a sheep to the slaughter– brutally punished and nailed to the cross. But Jesus wasn’t trapped or overpowered – He willingly laid down His life [John 10:18] and bore the sins of us all–
Isaiah 53:4-6 | Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
The penalty for breaking the law was death and paying for that penalty requires our eternity – separation from God forever. But God loved us too much to leave us helpless in sin. So instead, Jesus bore our punishment and in the final moments of His crucifixion, showed us that the separation that existed between us and God [physically represented in the temple veil] was removed forever through His death.
Luke 23:44-46 | By this time it was about noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle. Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.
Because of Jesus’ death, man can be united with God and right in His sight; Jesus’ death fulfilled, or satisfied all the law required–
Galatians 3:13 | But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
You see, the giving of the law to Moses wasn’t to condemn us. It was the fulfillment of the covenant between God and the Israelites as promised to Abraham (Genesis 17; Exodus 24:3; Galatians 3:17-19). The Israelites accepted the terms of God’s covenant agreement (pledging to live under the law), and like us, quickly violated it. But this was part of God’s way of showing them (and us) they needed Jesus.
The Old Testament Scriptures foretold the final perfect Passover Lamb who would satisfy the covenant on mankind’s behalf. Jesus confirmed that these scriptures were speaking of Him and the power of His death and resurrection–
Luke 24:44-47 | Then he said, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’
Jesus’s death and resurrection fulfilled the law and rendered sin and death powerless, providing forgiveness for all who would turn to Him as the rescuer–
Romans 8:1-4 | So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
When we put our faith in Jesus as our Rescuer - the sacrifice for our sins and fulfiller of the law, we receive the same promise given to Abraham – we are brought into God’s family and blessed to belong to Him for eternity.
Galatians 3:8-9, 14 | What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would make the Gentiles right in his sight because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.” So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith. [14] Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.
Our Timeless Truth today is God kept His promises through Jesus. God, the Way Maker, crafted a way of rescue far more intricate and beautiful than we could imagine. He foreshadowed Jesus as the Son of Promise, our Substitutionary Passover Lamb, and the Fulfiller of the Law. Jesus lived His life under the law and kept the law so He could die in our place. His fulfillment of the law satisfied its requirements and reminds us that God is the Promise Keeper. He promised that through Abraham’s lineage, all the nations would be blessed and the Lord always keeps His promises. God kept His promises through Jesus. We become blessed heirs of God’s promise when we put our faith in Jesus as our Rescuer–
Galatians 3:29 | And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
What is something that stood out to you today about Easter and its connection to–
Fulfilling the law?
The promises God made to Abraham?
What parts of Jesus’ life, betrayal, death, and resurrection were part of God’s rescue plan? How do you know?
Why was it important for God to share how His rescue would happen, as He did throughout the Old Testament?
How do we know that Jesus is the rescuer and that faith in Him makes us right in God’s sight?