God's Law Reveals Our Need for Jesus

Every page of the Bible is about Jesus Christ.  He is the one to which all the Laws were given to point us.  He’s the subject of every book of the Old Testament.  

I love this explanation by John MacArthur.  It’s long, but it’s worth it:

In Genesis, He is the seed of the woman. In Exodus, He is the passover lamb. In Leviticus, He is the high priest. In Numbers, He is the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. In Deuteronomy, He is the prophet like unto Moses. In Joshua, He is the captain of our salvation. In Judges, He is the judge and lawgiver. In Ruth, He is the kinsman redeemer. In I & II Samuel, He is the trusted prophet. In Kings and Chronicles, He is the reigning king. In Ezra, He is the faithful scribe. In Nehemiah, He is the rebuilder of the broken wall. In Esther, He is the Mordecai. In Job, He is the ever-living redeemer. In Psalms, He is the Lord our shepherd. In Proverbs & Ecclesiastes, He is true wisdom. In Song of Solomon, He is the true lover and bridegroom. In Isaiah, He is the prince of peace. In Jeremiah and Lamentations, He is the weeping prophet. In Ezekiel, He is the wonderful four-faced man. In Daniel, He is the fourth man in the fiery furnace. In Hosea, He is the eternal husband, forever married to the backslider. In Joel, He is the baptizer with the Holy Spirit. In Amos, He is the burden-bearer. In Obadiah, He is the Savior. In Jonah, He is the great foreign missionary. In Micah, He is the messenger with beautiful feet. In Nahum, He is the avenger. In Habakkuk, He is God's evangelist pleading for revival. In Zephaniah, He is the Lord mighty to save. In Haggai, He is the restorer of the lost heritage. In Zechariah, He is the fountain opened in the house of David for sin and for cleansing. In Malachi, He is the son of righteousness arising with healing in His wings. He is the theme of the Old Testament; every bit of it is His story. Jesus is the culmination of Scripture.  And because of that, the law of God is steadfast.

The Law teaches that God’s standard of moral perfection is so high that no one can ever achieve it.  And then it points us to the one who did achieve it and has offered us the gift of his righteousness in place of our failure.  

We’ve left the law empty.  Either through our outward actions or inward thoughts we have fallen short of God’s standard set before us in Scripture.  And so we fail when it comes to righteousness.  James 2:10 says ‘For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.’

The Pharisees biggest problem was not that they tried to appear righteous, it’s that they actually believed they were.  They created a substitute set of standards.  They took God’s standard and set it aside for something more manageable.  And then when the Messiah showed up they not only missed Him, they rebelled against Him and they killed Him.

Christ fulfilled the Law not just so that we won’t have to, but because we can’t.  Just like with the Old Testament law, our sin had to be paid in blood.  This time, it wasn’t the blood of an animal that was our substitute.  It was the blood of God’s own Son, who was able to live a righteous life and was willing to die in our place.  

Jesus fulfills the Law and in doing so reveals our need for a Savior.  Have you recognized that need?

--Pastor Chris