"The law of God, although beneficial and beautiful, cannot advance us on our way to righteousness because we cannot obey it. Although the law demands perfection in only two areas, none of us, no, none of us fully complies."
If only I realized this younger! Legalism served me well for two reasons.. at least for awhile. I am somewhat a perfectionist and a people pleaser, so growing up being a "rule follower" was easy! I had a good heart and loved the Lord, but to me if I just followed the "law" perfectly, my life would be perfect. I felt like life was an equation...(if I follow the Bible perfectly) I would be somehow in control and I loved control. It made me feel safe.
The sad part of that is I felt if I did wrong that I was condemned by God and that his love could be conditional. Also, it is kind of hard to need a Savior if you feel you could do things perfectly and be in control.
The law is important and has it's place...obviously we all want our children to have morals and values and the law is there to help us and protect us from harm. Obeying the law isn't God being mean and there to torture us...it is there to guide us and to protect us. But that is only part of the story. Grace is huge and I can't wait to implement that part with my son. The part where we aren't perfect, and don't need to be perfect. The part where we are loved unconditionally and have a Savior who we get our strength from. The part where life isn't ever going to be perfect but he have someone who is in control and whose story IS perfect and we are a part of his love and plan. The Lord helps us in our weak areas and helps us obey the law, and at the same time he showers us with grace.
Love it!
The above is posted by Kristin Harris. Kristin -- knowing your story, this is a BEAUTIFUL insight. God has obviously changed your heart to one that LOVES his GRACE because you clearly love Jesus more than the law. That unconditional love you talk about that has been give to us... VERY imperfect sinners is just TOO beautiful not to teach our children about!
ReplyDeleteI was convicted as well in this chapter about my own self-rightousness in thinking that I somehow could obey God's law on my own. "To love God and love others". It only leads to despair when we realize we CANNOT perfectly obey (or foolish Pride in thinking we somehow have obeyed on our own). Any part of us that does obey only can do so because of Jesus doing a miracle in our hearts.
Thanks Kristin for sharing your thoughts!