What Jesus did...

"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished."--Matthew 5:17-18.  Jesus, reminding us what He came here to do without fail.  What He came here to do, Jesus did.

I may have shared this previously but recently I was having a conversation with an individual who was reluctant to give their life over to God because they did not like the idea of someone else being in control.  The question that has since arisen in my mind is if life remains in our control, do we have the ability to maintain control perfectly?  Of course the answer is no.

Let me ask you, even as a Christian, have you ever had this same attitude thinking you can do it on your own only to find out later that you can't?  Lord knows I sure have.  As a matter of fact if I had a dollar for every time this was the case, I could probably pay a year's rent all up front.  This is one reason I am thankful that I have given my life over to Christ through obedience to the gospel.  It is because I can't do it on my own. As I have mentioned before, much of the reason I am the man I am today is because of what others and ultimately God have done for me.  Only Christ can do it all and as we see here in Matthew 5:17-18, He did.

What Jesus did.  Of course it is no secret that Jesus died for our sins, He was buried and raised again on the third day according to the Scriptures as described in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 thereby putting to death the old system of law that whether we were Jews or Gentile, we were all under law of some sort.  What we need to remind ourselves of is what made it possible for Jesus to accomplish this?  

What Jesus did.  What made what Jesus did possible was the fact that He would fulfill or as Arndt & Gingrich define, Christ would "bring to a designed end" (BDAG 829) the Law and the Prophets.  As we read through the pages of Scripture, we see that God's Law as given to the Jews through Moses was impossible to uphold perfectly since the Jews were imperfect people just like you and me.  Furthermore, all humanity e.g. Gentiles could not hold up their own standard of morality.  Anyone like myself who is not of a Jewish background would fall into the latter category.

Something we have to understand here is that law by its very nature carries with it a penalty if broken.  Allow me to illustrate quite simply.  We know that if we are caught for something as simple as breaking the speed limit, we receive a ticket and depending on how fast you were going maybe something worse.  The point is we break the law, there is always a penalty no questions asked.  I can guarantee that every one of us  has broken some kind of law within the last week whether it was a government law or something that has broken our own standard of morality.  The point is when this happens this reminds us that we are not perfect. So what does this have to do with what Jesus did?

What Jesus did.  At the outset I mentioned we needed to see what made this all possible.  What made this all possible was the simple fact that Jesus would carry out the Law, namely the Jewish Law perfectly during His entire 33 years of life.  This fact would be the reason Satan would have no power over Him and thereby giving us hope to conquer spiritual death through Christ and spend eternity with Him.  Oh and not to mention the fact that Jesus was in fact God per John 1:1-14.  But realize that Jesus was also man so He was susceptible to the temptations you and I face on a daily basis.  But despite the fact that He was tempted, Jesus never sinned thereby making Him the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

What Jesus did.  So how does what Jesus did apply to us?  Well let me ask you again, have you been in a situation where you have discovered you could not do something on your own?  You probably are saying yes.  The fact is we cannot conquer our sin problem on our own.  It can only be done by giving control over to Christ who was, is and will always be the only one who could live up to God's perfect standard.  The good news is the fact that through Christ and Christ alone we have guaranteed victory over sin if we will only lean on Him.  Does this mean that we won't make mistakes along the way? Of course not but when we do, we know that we have the grace of God to cover us through Christ.  This of course does not give us license to sin freely as described in Romans 6:1-2.

So what do we do in response?  Well first take a good look at your relationship with God if you need to repent of a sin, do not delay in giving that over to Christ because only He can make us perfect in the eyes of God.  But if you have not done so, repentance needs to be followed by baptized for the forgiveness of sins as described in Acts 2:38.  Why? 1 Peter 3:20-21 tells us that this is how we are saved.  So I don't know where you are at, maybe you have obeyed the gospel but have taken back control.  It is not too late to give control back to God.  But if you have not yet obeyed the gospel, do not delay.  The time is now and encourage others with this as well.

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!