To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 3:7 “. . . the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone . . .”

Some years ago, I was fishing off a pier at Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware.  I was catching lots of fish and having the time of my life.  I was catching croakers and had a five-gallon bucket half-full of them.  But then someone else on the dock mentioned to me that there was a size limit of 8 inches, something I was unaware of. I hadn’t measured a single one. All of a sudden, my attitude changed from one of enjoyment to one of fear, wondering if a warden would be the next one to check out my catch.  I was ignorant, but as they say, ignorance of the law is no excuse.  Soon after this I borrowed a ruler and checked my catch. Thankfully, all the fish were legal. What a relief! 

Isn’t this an apt illustration of the effect the law can have on us, particularly when we learn about it when we were otherwise ignorant.  That’s the way the Law of God is actually meant to affect everyone who becomes aware of it. We can be blithely living our lives, ignorant of God or His Word, and never giving either a second thought. However, what the Law is meant to do is to inform us of how our life compares to the Law that God has established, not for fishing, but for living all of life.  Every single one of us, while living in ignorance of the God’s Law, will find that we are guilty of breaking it if we read its words.  Not only that, but the law includes the penalty of death for all who have broken it.  Unlike me when I found out that I had unwittingly kept the fishing laws in spite of my ignorance of it, God’s Law is designed to show us that no one can keep His Law in their own strength.  It is meant never to justify us, only to condemn us. As the verse above tells us, God’s Law is the ministry of death. 

Yet, as we read on in 2 Corinthians 3, we learn that the Law, God’s Ten Commandments written on tablets of stone, “came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory.”  The Law was glorious because it came from a glorious God.  It revealed His righteousness, holiness, and perfection.  When any person sincerely compares their life against it, the infinite contrast between their nature and God’s nature is revealed. But that revelation is actually a glorious thing, because in that revelation is the actual truth.  It’s a truth that is fundamental to any remedy for that sin. As Jesus said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). The Law is a glorious thing because it reveals our need for forgiveness.  It opens our eyes to our sinful condition.  It’s a devastating Law, meant to strip us of any self-righteousness and prepare us to receive the only hope of true righteousness, which comes by placing our faith in Christ. 

Because Jesus never broke God’s Law, He and He alone was qualified to sacrificially pay the penalty for the sins of others. He fulfilled the Law perfectly by not only obeying it, but by taking on himself the “ministry of death” for us all.  By putting our faith in Him, we avail ourselves of the new covenant that is far more glorious than the Old Testament Law, for where the Law brought the knowledge of sin and spiritual death, Jesus’ death for that sin brings life to all who will believe. 

So, what about you?  Do you know you are a sinner? Have you ever acknowledged this fact by comparing yourself to God’s perfect Law?  Do you realize that because you have sinned, you deserve death, for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)?  Yet, do you realize that there is One who has paid that debt for you, so that you can be absolved of all guilt and declared righteous in the sight of a holy God?  It’s the truth, for God has declared it. You need only believe it to be gloriously saved.