In Matthew 22:36:40, we find recorded an exchange between a religious leader who was considered an expert in the law and Jesus Christ, The Only Begotten Son of God The Father. In verse 36, the lawyer asked Jesus what he considered to be a loaded question, one designed to entrap Jesus. He asked, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus answers in verses 37-40. “Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Here Jesus makes it clear that the law is encompassed in these two commandments. The law is not “done away” but rather fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The payment for sin demanded by the law, was paid by Jesus Christ upon the cross. Hebrews, chapters 7-10, make it very clear that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice prepared by God the Father before the foundation of the world. As the perfect sacrifice, the shed blood of Jesus paid the penalty for ALL sin, for ALL mankind, for ALL time. Jesus Himself said, “I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law.”
Since the Law was fulfilled in Christ Jesus, we are no longer under the law but under Grace. Being under Grace means that we are no longer bound by the law -- we are no longer prisoners of it. Jesus Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death. Obtaining salvation, cleansing, justification, sanctification, holiness, goodness, and a host of other positive attributes in no longer something we strive for but rather qualities, which are ours as a free gift of God through Christ Jesus our Lord. We are saved solely through God’s Grace on the basis of Christ’s redemptive act of sacrifice upon the cross. God makes us a “New Creation” in Christ Jesus. He imparts to us His Righteousness, His Sanctification, His Goodness. He pronounces us a “Holy People,” a “Royal Priesthood,” “The Righteousness of God.” We are these things -- We have these qualities, only because we are in Christ Jesus and He is in us. All our sins were nailed to the cross upon Jesus. He literally “Became Sin for Us.” We are not our own. As the Bible says, “We are bought with a price -- the Blood of Jesus.” It is now in Jesus that we live and move, and have our being. God has done it all -- in and through Christ Jesus, our precious Lord and Savior.
We can do nothing that will make us Holy! It is not something to be achieved by our works. God, through Christ Jesus has already done this and He pronounces us Holy. As a child of God -- as one who has believed in and on the Lord Jesus Christ -- for me to make a statement such as, “Oh, I’m not very Holy,” or “Oh, I’m trying to achieve Holiness,” is to deny that God has declared us Holy, to call God a liar, and to exalt ourselves into the seat of judgment which belongs to God alone. When God has declared me Holy -- Righteous -- a Royal Priesthood, let me be very careful not to deny this truth and display a great ignorance of the truth and a great contempt for God. Instead, let me confess it and recognize that I can do nothing to achieve it or deserve it. Rather, God has chosen in His Great Compassion, to give these qualities to me in and through Christ Jesus. I have absolutely nothing to brag or boast of, for all the credit -- all the Glory, goes to God Our Father and to Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior. PRAISE GOD!
Amen! Amen! Amen!
Pastor J. Gilbert Hammond