Day #51
Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 29 - 31 ...
Given the choice, who would choose death over life?
The answer will surprise you, because millions have done and continue to
do just that. God offers life to all who obey His Word ... who love Him
with all their heart, but every day people who know in their hearts that they
are doing wrong make the choice to reject what they know is good and right and
do the opposite. That's sin, disobedience to the God who created us to be
like Him: holy and righteous - perfect. You and I are sinners and
as such we deserve eternal death. "The wages of sin is
death" (Romans 6:23). We have "earned" God's judgment.
God made a covenant with Abraham, a covenant that
has been called the "Covenant of Grace." This covenant
was made with Abraham and his descendants in Genesis 12 - 17. God entered
into this covenant with Abraham and his descendants some 800 years before God
gave the Law to Moses and to Israel. And as you read these chapters you
discover something interesting: God KNEW they wouldn't keep His Law!
Read Chapter 31, verses 16-29 ... God even told Moses to write a song and
to have the people sing it as a witness against themselves (31:19). God
said, "I know what they are disposed to do, even before I bring them
into the land I promised them on oath" (31:21).
Then why did God make His covenant with Abraham and
why did He give Moses and the people of Israel the Law? To fulfill His
purpose to gather for Himself a people who would live with Him forever in a new
heaven and a new earth. You see, when God chose Abraham and his
descendants to be His people, He had a plan that required the sacrifice of His
own Son on a cross more than 2,000 years later. Everything that would
happen over the coming centuries would point toward the coming of the Savior.
As we come to the end of the book of Deuteronomy, God had kept His promise to
make a great nation of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and now He
was bringing them into the land He had promised to give them. So why the
Law, given to Moses at Mt. Sinai?
The Law and all the sacrifices and ceremonies and
all the rest pointed to two things: the need for forgiveness and the need
for a Savior. The Law was NEVER intended to bring salvation, for the
simple reason that no one could or would keep it. Moses called the people
together and said to them, "You are standing here in order to enter
into a covenant with the LORD your God, a covenant the LORD is making with you
this day and sealing with an oath, to confirm you this day as His people, that
He may be your God as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob" (29:12-13). God's covenant with Abraham was NOT
based on obedience to the Law! This is a crucial thing to remember in
understanding the Bible. The Law was given to lead people to see their
need for a Savior! God's covenant with Abraham was based on GRACE!
The Bible is all about GRACE ... salvation is all about grace ... LIFE is
all about GRACE!!
As you read these chapters in Deuteronomy, remember
that it is all intended to point to man's inability to save ourselves and our
need for the righteousness that can only be ours by faith ... in the promised
Savior ... in Jesus! God anticipated
their sin and their rebellion and had made a way for salvation to come: "The
LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants,
so that you may love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, and
live" (30:6). GOD would do what THEY couldn't! That's
GRACE ... undeserved favor!!
As the Spirit led him, Moses was "preaching
the Gospel" 1400 years before Christ came!! You have to
BELIEVE that GOD will make a way ... and that way is FAITH ... receiving the
righteousness of Christ by faith. Salvation is by grace through faith.
It was NEVER by keeping the Law because "through the Law we
become conscious of sin!" (Romans 3:20). So Moses declared, "This
day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you
life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life ... For the LORD IS
your life, and HE will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your
fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (30:19-20).
There it is: the choice! Belief or
unbelief? Obedience or disobedience? Life or death? What
would they choose? As God tells Moses that Joshua will take over leading
the people, He also predicts that these people "will forsake Me and
break the covenant I made with them" (31:16). Yet, God will
fulfill His covenant through these people as God says through Ezekiel centuries
later, after these people had proven God's point through their disobedience:
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will
remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I
will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to
keep my laws" (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
Who will make the right choice? Those whom
God chooses; in whom God is at work by His Word and Spirit! God has the same plan today that He had when
He made His covenant with Abraham. God
is still offering the way of life through faith in the Savior all over the
world through His Word, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And those who
receive His Spirit, from every people, tribe, nation and tongue, are now able
and willing to make the right choice ... to choose LIFE in Jesus! Have
you chosen life? Have you heard God's law and felt guilty, only to then find
His grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ by the power of His Spirit within
you? This is the covenant God has made with those who are His people,
Jews and Gentiles alike.
"By grace you have been saved, through faith
(and that not of yourselves), it is the gift of God, not by works so that no
one may boast!" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Thank God for His
Word and celebrate grace every day. Choose
life and rejoice in the amazing grace of God!
"Almighty God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, You have offered me LIFE through Jesus and by Your grace and Your Spirit
at work in me I CHOOSE LIFE!! Giving thanks to You, my Creator, my God,
my Lord, my Savior, consumes my life, for in You I find all I need ... ETERNAL
LIFE!! Help me daily to so live that my hope, my peace, my joy is found
in You, O Lord God Almighty, my Savior and my God. In Jesus' name,
Amen"
Amen.
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