Preparing for Pentecost预览

Pentecost The Old and The New

The first Pentecost appears to end in disaster. It marked the giving of the Law, written on tablets of stone, that Moses received inscribed by the very hand of God. It should have been a glorious event, for the Law reveals God’s righteous requirements and is the very embodiment of God. But ironically, at the very time it was to be received by the people, they were breaking many of those laws. So aptly, the Law is described as the Law of Sin and Death (Romans 8:2). Paul teaches us that the Law, even though good, provokes our sinful nature to break it and to sin. This Law was given to account for sin even though sin happened before the giving of the Law.

Three thousand people were executed at the giving of this Law, a Law that was good but revealed our own sinfulness and our inability to keep it in our own strength. 

The second Pentecost in the Book of Acts is in marked contrast. It commemorated not the giving of the Law which was powerless to transform us, but the giving of the Spirit—the Spirit that transformed fearful believers into bold evangelists when they were filled on that day. What a contrast: 3,000 people died at the first Pentecost; 3,000 people were saved at the second.

Romans 8:2 NIV: Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. This is a New Covenant with better promises. Pentecost promises us freedom from the Law of sin and death. We now live by the Spirit who gives life and helps us fulfill the Law. Are you living under the Law or under the Spirit?