I feel so sorry for those who still believe they need to keep the law, or say something similar to; “This year I will continue to strive to better myself”. If you are to keep the law you cannot pick and choose. You must obey all the commandments, and if you break one you have broken them all. God demands perfection.
If your will is to better yourself you obviously regard yourself as an independent entity in this universe. What you really are saying is that you are going to ascend to the most high and become like God. That was the Serpent’s mistake.
One of the concepts which are used in the Scripture to describe our human condition is containers. We either contain sin (the devil) or we contain the Spirit of God. What we never must assume is that we are independent units.
If Jesus, who was a perfect image of us, could do nothing outside His Father, neither can we. A container is designed to receive, so that is what we do. We receive, and God gives and gives and gives. Our only hope thus in achieving the perfection God demands is to die from our self-effort (the flesh) and by faith receive our perfection from the resurrected Christ in whom we now continue to live.
The Law's principal task is to expose self effort as futile and void, and to expose our wretchedness. To use an image from the Old Testament; the law is our desert experience which God utilizes to lead us to the Jordan River, which we cross by a leap of faith in order to enter the Promised Land which is Christ.
What do you prefer: The limitations of the desert or the abundance in the Promised Land? May The Holy Spirit be blessed in His mighty work in leading people from bondage to freedom!
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