Following Jesus can be hard. Sometimes He leads us through terrain of temptation to remind us of our need of His Lordship.
If we lived in Old Testament times, I think the work of keeping the Law felt like less “work” because you didn’t have to think.
What makes it “easy” is that it’s simply transactional. Don’t do this & you’re good. Make a mistake? Offer a sacrifice & you’re good again.
I’m sure the repeated trips to the Temple, however, would eventually feel pointless.
AND that would BE the point! We don’t have a transactional God. We have a God Who loves us SO much that He set a Law in place we can’t meet to point to our need of a Savior!
Jesus fulfilled the transactional Law through a relational act of sacrifice!
He became the last spotless Lamb so we’d no longer have to make repeated trips to the Temple! All we need is to accept His gift of salvation & follow Him.
Accepting a gift is easy! It’s the following part that can be hard. I like systems & measurable metrics, but relationship is much messier because it involves the heart.
Jesus tells us in Mark 7 that it’s not what we put in our bellies that defile us, but rather what comes out of our hearts!
The thing about the heart is that it’s deceitful above all things-even to the point of deceiving ourselves!
Jesus tells how many people honor Him with their lips, but their worship is a farce. The root for farce means pointless & without fruit. The thing about the Law is that it gave a WAY to cover past sin, but it didn’t give the WHY to not sin again.
When we come to the realization of what Jesus did FOR us, something happens in our heart. His sacrifice becomes a greater motivator than the temptation we face on the daily!
On some levels, the transactional Law may have been easier to track than the intangible following of Jesus, but He, The Way, provides a why that doesn’t just impact past sin, but gives a vision-like “why” that leads us to an eternal future!
Father, may our worship not be a farce! You’re a relational God who cares about the state of our hearts! Remind us that the fruit we bear is an indicator of its health! Thank You for giving us an eternal why that helps us stick to Your Way!
LEVITICUS 15:1-16:28
MARK 7:1-23
PSALM 40:11-17
PROVERBS 10:13-14
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