Promises Kept: A 6 Day Devotional From the Old Testament Covenantsናሙና

Day 4 - Do We Need the Law Now? - Where is Christ in the Story?

When you read the Ten Commandments or Leviticus or other Old Testament Laws, do you feel exhausted? Do you get to the end of it and wonder then who can be saved? It’s hard to read the Mosaic Law and not feel the weight of God’s holiness and our inability to measure up. There’s just so much blood. There’s so much expectation. There’s so much requirement.

That’s the point.

Each covenant reveals another aspect of God’s divine plan in saving a people for Himself, of restoring His people to His place under His rule. As they leave Egypt and wander about in the desert, they need to know how to live in the land they are about to possess. After hundreds of years waiting for the Abrahamic Covenant to be fulfilled, they are now ready to receive their portion. But they don’t know what godly living looks like. And they can’t just live in God’s presence and live. Something–someone–needs to stand in their place. Someone has to ready them to enter His presence.

The Mosaic Covenant pulls back the curtain even more and makes a way for God’s people to live in His presence. But it was never complete. There was a perpetual need for cleansing because the “blood of bulls and goats isn’t enough to remove the stain of sin” (Hebrews 10:4).

They needed a perfect substitute.

In John 1:29, John the Baptist cries out “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” In every aspect of his earthly ministry, He was preparing Himself to be the sacrifice they (and we) need to remove the stain of sin and lead them into obedience.

What the Law could not do, Jesus did once and for all (Rom. 8:3-4). If we only had the Mosaic Covenant, we would be crushed under its expectations. But it was never meant to crush us. It was meant to lift our gaze and stir our longings for the Messiah who could keep the law perfectly.

We stand condemned under the Mosaic Covenant, ever in need of a substitute. Jesus Christ is that substitute. In Him, we stand forgiven and free to walk in obedience. The law keeper and the law bender meet and find hope at the foot of the cross.

Read: Hebrews 1:2-3 and Hebrews 10:1-4

Pause and Reflect: How is the law a shadow of the things to come? How does it point to Christ? What did they have to do to find forgiveness? What does Christ do for us?

Pray: Lord, we thank you that today we stand forgiven if we are trusting in Christ. His perfect record is our perfect record. Help us to believe that no amount of law-breaking or law-keeping will save us or condemn us. He has paid it all. Amen.