What is The Way of True Peace, Joy and Liberty?
When Moses came down from the mountain after receiving the law and the old covenant from God his face shone so brightly that he had to veil his face so that the people could look at him.
He had been with God and God’s glory and the glory of the covenant reflected in His face. (The covenants were like contracts between God and His people.)
As Paul tells us in his letter to the Hebrews, that the glory of the law reflected in Moses face would fade and ‘be done away with’.
But what would replace it? The far more glorious beauty of the new covenant in Christ Jesus for all who trust in Him.
The old covenant brought a ministry of death by opening our eyes to that truth that we cannot keep God’s law perfectly and so it condemns us to death as guilty sinners before a just and holy God.
The law commands but doesn’t give the grace we need to keep it.
Those under the old covenant could only look forward in faith to the new covenant.
But we have this far more glorious covenant.
We have the new, eternal covenant and the promise of righteousness, not by our own efforts, but through Christ Jesus!
The justice of God being satisfied in Jesus and all our sins washed away, when we by faith trust in His perfect work upon the cross.
The price for our sins paid, redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ!
The old covenant, the law, condemned us to death, the new covenant, by the Spirit, brings righteousness through Christ.
The old was temporary, the new is eternal.
The old, like the veil of the temple, separated us from God. The new, unites us to God through Jesus Christ. The veil, being torn in two, brings a ‘new and living way’. By which we can come boldly to God’s throne of grace and enter that holiest place and ‘obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’
For us today, the law opens our eyes to our need and our utter inability to keep the law or save ourselves by our own efforts. The gospel brings the glorious news of One who fulfilled the law perfectly in our place and offers the remedy for our condemnation.
As Paul tells us, ‘Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. But our sufficiency is of God.’
So where the law, under the old covenant once condemned, now by the power of the Holy Spirit, (who, under the new covenant, dwells in each true Believer,) we have all the grace and power we need to keep the law.
So the law and the Spirit work together to produce the fruit of the Spirit for the glory of God. So that we, like Moses might reflect a little of God’s image and the glory of the New covenant.
What wonderful truths these are!
The law wasn’t bad, we just couldn’t keep it perfectly and so God made another way through Christ.
And now by the power of His Spirit working in us and writing the law on our hearts, we have all we need to joyfully walk in God’s ways.
Not by our own effort, that is a heavy burden, an impossibility, as we soon prove. But by the Spirit working in us and giving us new desires and by His power producing that fruit in us.
This way of faith is the way of true peace, joy and liberty!
With Love
Ex 34, 2 Cor 3, Heb 10:19-20, 4:16.
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