The Law

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments as a moral law for Israel to follow. Likewise, the law also showed God’s holiness, and the standard up to which Israel was to live. But the Ten Commandments went much deeper than directing one’s actions. It also reveals one’s heart and how wicked it is. Jesus says in Matthew 5:27-28 that if you lust after a woman, you have already committed adultery in your heart. So the moral law was to show just how wicked and evil humanity is.

And though the moral law was given to Israel, it reveals to all of humanity that we do not live up to God’s holy and moral standards. This is a real problem that comes from deep within the human heart.

But there is hope, because the moral law points to Jesus. It points to Jesus by reminding humanity that we need a Savior, which is only found in Jesus Christ. John says in John 1:17, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The moral law could not give grace, but merely showed us our own evil ways. On the other hand, grace came through Jesus. It was by his grace that he was born on that night in the manger, and it was by his grace that he went to the cross to die for our sins. And it is by his grace that we are made holy and righteous, while the law was wholly insufficient to do so.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This Christmas season, let’s worship Jesus with our whole heart. Where we were once under the law and condemned because of it, we have the grace of Jesus who has brought us from condemnation to life.