(John 1:17)
�For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.�
The text verse for this week explains why we have a New Testament. The Books of the Old Testament were written over a period of hundreds of years. First, there were the Books of Moses. Then came the various histories of the people of Israel. Then, after these, came the messages which God gave via the various prophets. Three basic divisions; yet there was never any attempt to call these sections as differing Testaments. No one referred to I, II, and III Testaments in the groupings of the Old Testament Books.
So, why do we refer to an Old and New Testaments in the Bibles we carry to church on the Lord�s Day?
As He was officiating at the Last Supper, Jesus referred to a New Testament. �Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.� (Luke 22:20)
The fact of the matter was that the Old Testament Scriptures had been concerned with the Law of God. Although the Law had not changed, it was to be fulfilled in the life, coming death, and coming resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament had been a time of man being obedient to the Law of God, and failing at every step of the way. The Old Testament is a continuing story of the failure of man to live up to the demands of the Holy God of the Universe.
The New Testament, however, conveys the story of One Who was obedient to the Law of God. He was �...obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.� (Philippians 2:8b)
The grandeur of this Life was that Jesus was virgin born into this world. He was without the stain of sin in His heredity. Along with this fact went the fact that He did not sin in His life upon this earth. Therefore, when He was obedient to the Law, the Law was fulfilled. The standards of the Law were satisfied. Because of this, when Jesus died upon the Cross of Calvary, He was able to lay upon Himself the sin of every person who would accept Him. In doing this He made it possible for our own debt of sin to be paid.
The New Testament is the continuing story of the completion of the Word of Jesus Christ to effect salvation on our behalf.
The �story� contained in the Bible is all the same �play.� Act one was the Old Testament failure of man to achieve the righteousness which God demanded. The concluding act, Act two, is the victory of Jesus to offer His righteousness on our behalf.
The Glory of our position in Christ, Jesus!
Our text verse begins with the burden of sin. �For the law was given by Moses...�
This verse does not mean that the Law of the Old Testament was the invention of Moses. When God spoke to Moses through the burning bush, Moses was reluctant to follow the directive to speak to Pharaoh and lead the Children of Israel from the bondage of slavery in that land. God was gracious in that He did allow Aaron to speak in the place of Moses speaking. But, God did not let Moses shirk his duty. God said, �And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.� (Exodus 4:16)
The meaning of this verse is that Aaron would be allowed to speak only that which God gave Moses as a message. God gave Moses the message. Then, Moses gave Aaron the message to speak. The Law came in this way �by� Moses. It was the Law of God; God explained the Law to Moses and told Moses to relay this message to the people.
We tend to look at the Old Testament Law through the eyes of New Testament grace and consider that the Law was harsh. It was not. The Law was Holy. Only our sinful natures made it appear to be harsh.
Paul notes of the Law: �But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.� (Galatians 3:23-25)
Note the blessing of the Law. It was our schoolmaster, Paul said. What is a schoolmaster? Simply, a teacher. The Law came to teach us the holiness of God and the utter depravity of man. The Law did this well.
The Law also came to teach us of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Each of the sacrificial elements of the Old Testament Law pointed to the fact of the sacrifice which Jesus would endure on the Cross of Calvary.
Each of the elements of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament came from outside the body of the person who offered that sacrifice. In effect, we see that someone, or something in the Old Testament sacrificial system, had to be sacrificed in the place of the penitent individual. Even under the Law we can see that the simple �good works� of an individual can not save a person.
The business of the Law was to point mankind toward the coming Savior. It was not the simple act of sacrifice which saved. It was faith in obedience to the One Who demanded the sacrifice which was the determining factor in the salvation of an individual.
That principle of faith has never changed. We no longer need to sacrifice elements, as did the Old Testament saints. Our salvation is predicated upon the one time sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. (see Hebrews 9:28) Proof of this fact is offered in Hebrews 10:1-2:
�For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.�
Do you see the point being made? The sacrifices of the Old Testament Law were not permanent. They had to be done over, year after year. This was simply creatures being offered on behalf of other creatures. This was a picture of the perfect sacrifice to come.
When Jesus offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice, this was not a picture. This was a fact. This was not a creature being offered for a creature. This was God sacrificed in the Person of Jesus Christ as a payment for sin; not a simple covering. The Sacrifice of Jesus does not have to be repeated because it is a perfect sacrifice. Perfection does not become better by repetition.
Neither does the fulfillment of the type need, anymore, to be repeated because that sacrifice of Jesus was a fulfillment of the Old Testament Law. After the Actual had come in the Person of Jesus Christ, to again offer the former sacrificial type would be a repudiation of Jesus. The sacrifice of Jesus was the full perfection of the Law of God. Any other sacrifice would be a repudiation, by the creature - man - of the revealed Truth of the Creator - God.
Jesus did die in time so that we might live in eternity!
There is a two-fold burden of the Law. First, it is something for which its time has passed. We no longer follow the law as a way of life because Jesus has done that in our place. The faith, required of God, is to be placed upon He Who fulfilled that Law rather than on the creature whose only purpose was to point toward that fulfillment.
The second burden of the Law is that we would need to keep it perfectly. History has shown that no one has done this. Scripture has shown that no one has done this. Finally, to perfectly keep the Law we must follow it to its natural destination. That destination is the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Simple logic leads us to the conclusion that we cannot be saved by our own good work. Passages such as Acts 4:12 make it very clear that the obedience to God which will effect our salvation can come only by accepting Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. We can not effect our own salvation; to try to do this is sin because it is in direct contradiction to God�s expressed desire.
Now, we can look at our text verse and see the breakthrough of grace. �...but grace and truth came...�
Notice that grace and truth �came.� Now, had there never been any �grace� or �truth� in the past? Of course there had been. Even in the Law we had a picture of the grace of God as He allowed sinful mankind to view both His holiness and mankind�s need of something from without himself to reach out toward God.
But, the fulness of grace and truth did not come into the world before the entrance of the Savior. Jesus came and showed us a way to do what the Law could not do for us. He came to show us, to give us actually, a way to remove the burden of the sin nature which would forever separate us from the love of God.
Jesus came to give a perfect sacrifice that would allow man to enter into the Holy of Holies - into direct spiritual contact with the God of the Universe.
I am going to go into the kitchen in a few minutes and make myself a grilled cheese sandwich. I don�t have to grill the sandwich. It is just fine without all that heat. But, I happen to like grilled cheese. It just tastes better to me. Besides, it�s rather chilly right now and I want something warm!
The Law was that plain cheese sandwich. Jesus came to finish the job of grilling it. He made it into something which could warm our souls in the cold night of sin.
I�m also going to drink coffee with the sandwich. I could put the coffee grounds into a cup and drink them. While unpleasant, it wouldn�t hurt me. But, how much better if I use the grounds to brew the coffee in a coffeepot. Jesus took the grounds, the general essence of the teaching of the Law, and completed the process in the coffeepot of His sacrifice and love so that we could enjoy the salvation He offers.
When Jesus came into the world and fulfilled the demands of the Law, He made it so that there would be an exit of the �schoolmaster� of the Law.
This doesn�t mean that the Law is no longer important. It does mean that we no longer have to rely upon our obedience to that Law. We exercise an obedience to the Lord Who fulfilled, Himself, those demands so that we would not have to do so to obtain salvation from our sins.
I went to high school many years ago. I remember walking to school trying to dodge all the dinosaurs that roamed the earth back then. O. K. Not really. But it was a long time ago. I haven�t even been in the old High School building since I was a substitute teacher there about five years ago.
But, I�m still a graduate. I have a paper hanging on my wall to prove it.
But, that was not the end of my scholastic endeavors. I have completed over three hundred hours of college credit. When I am asked if I am a high school graduate (Which happens when people see my inability at spelling!), I can say, �Yes.� But, generally, when anyone inquires about my scholastic history they are talking about my college and university degrees.
The fact that I have college degrees does not change the fact that I have a diploma from High School.
Neither does the fact that Jesus has come to fulfill the Law of the Old Testament abrogate the truth of the Law of the Old Testament. It is just that He has brought more, and more germain to the discussion of sin and salvation, facts to the discourse.
His sacrifice saves our soul completely because He has completed the demands of the Law perfectly. He has the authority, and the power, to do this in our stead. Our only requirement is to accept His offer of this salvation based on His work on Calvary.
Do you understand that if we attempt to add our reliance upon any keeping of the Law, we are refusing to accept His perfect sacrifice? To do such is to refuse Him and His great work. It is an attitude that stems from a lack of faith which refuses to accept, completely, the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. That refusal is a repudiation of Him and His salvation.
From this realization should come the excitement of our salvation. Jesus saves us in spite of ourselves. We don�t have to be �perfect!� We don�t even have to be �good!� We can come to Jesus with all of our sins and just accept Him as He accepts us!
My car is being fixed. The fuel pump went out. I didn�t go out and fix the car before I allowed the mechanic to go to work on it. That would have been ludicrous. Especially is that so when one considers my complete lack of expertise in anything mechanical.
Our salvation is like that. We don�t try to fix the problem on our own. We don�t even begin to understand the spiritual forces that are at work in this world. We need the intervention of an expert in the field. Jesus is that spiritual mechanic. He can fix our souls sin problem if we just allow Him to work. We just need to accept His sacrifice and go our way as a redeemed people!
That is exciting!
We also should be impressed by the brightness of Jesus Christ. �...by Jesus Christ.�
First note that, as the writer of John has mentioned earlier in this same first chapter of John, Jesus is the Light of the World.
As I sit at the computer typing this sermon I can hear thunder outside. My shades are currently drawn so I can�t see the lightning. Still, I do know that the lightning is flashing over the skies. I have had enough experience with these types of storms, although not always in November, that I know the lightning is there even if I don�t see it.
That lightning is the cause for all the thunder that I can hear.
The effect of the lightning at night is to illuminate the dark skies for a short time. We can look up and see the clouds from which the storm is coming our way. We can even count the time between the flash of the lightning and the sound of the thunder to ascertain the distance that the storm clouds are away from us.
Jesus is the Lightning that illuminates His clouds of compassion. The thunder is the voice of the Christian to tell of Him. The distance between the Light of the World and the sound of the Christian witness will tell us how far that Christian is from the known will of God.
We are called to be witnesses. May we be such in obedience to the Lord and from love of His gracious gift of salvation!
Yes, there is the important aspect of the luring of the Word. I am not a fisherman. Never was! I couldn�t catch a fish unless it was already in a can of tuna. My wife, on the other hand, could fish. We would drive by lakes and the fish would get out of the water and stop our car to ask if she had brought her fishing pole.
Sometimes, though, she would drag me out to a lake with her. I would be sitting on the bank with a pole in one hand and a book in the other. My line would be wet. All I would be accomplishing was the drowning of the worms I used for bait. Still, I was fishing. I just wasn�t catching.
Linda would be no more than two feet from me. She was fishing, too. But, she was catching fish!
Sometimes our witness becomes like that. Sometimes it shows immediate result. Sometimes it does not. We still need to be out fishing for souls.
Sometimes we won�t catch fish because we use the wrong bait. The best bait we have, the only real bait, is the Word of God. We can use all kinds of psychological meanderings and come up empty. But, with the Word of God we will have results. Those results may not be immediately obvious. But, those results will come.
We may only draw the �fish� over a little closer so someone else will have the duty to reel them in. That�s O. K. The souls won for the Lord are not for our trophy case. Those souls are the Lord�s!
The important thing is the leading of the witness. The leading should point to Jesus Christ.
It would be nice if everybody realized what a great preacher I am!
You know what�s wrong with that last sentence? First of all, it speaks of pride. Second of all, it is not I that am important. The important part of soul winning is the Lord. We do need to be in prayer for those whom we �angle.� We can�t properly do the task of witnessing without the leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit. If we try to witness without seeking- and accepting - His leading and empowering through prayer, self gets in the way. With self comes pride. Pride is sin.
May we move in prayer, with the Scriptural message that Jesus Christ died in time so that we might live in eternity. May we do this for the Lord and lost humanity.
What about you? How is it with your soul? Have you accepted Jesus as your Savior? If not, why not? Being a true Christian is the greatest plateau to which humanity can aspire.
Accept Jesus as your Savior today!