Only Jesus Can Ensure Our Entrance into God's Presence

A while back, I accomplished a feat that I've never undertaken before: I read the book of Numbers.  To my surprise, I found it pretty fascinating!  One thing that stuck with me for sure is how overwhelming the law is.  My eyes became glazed every time I read through chapters filled with the minuscia of regulatory language.  I couldn't help but to feel weighed down by the intricacies of the law that God handed down to Moses. Chapters 19 and 29 particularly, with all the rigor of cleansing and all the sacrifices required to celebrate the different festivals...I could not make my brain concentrate on how many bulls, lambs, goats and rams needed to be offered for each day, let alone the burnt offerings, the wave offerings, and the drink offerings...the grain, the oil...I got so very confused, my mind began playing tricks on me, picturing priests wearing fancy robes, waving flower-tortilla-type of bread at the sky while saying: na na, na na, na NA...sorry, please forgive me.

My point is... I cannot fathom even the thought of having to live under the law the way the Israelites had to....THANK YOU JESUS for coming to fulfill the law!

There's no way I could do this.  There's no way.  Reading through Numbers I understood how true it is when preachers tell us that the purpose of the law is to show us our need for Christ.  God chose the Jews to be the recipients of the law for humanity, as the great testimony of His "standard of absolute righteousness." (I love this phrase I read at Bible.org) In other words, to be saved by the law, we must fulfill every letter of the law.  It's not enough to do a good job at meeting most of the requirements.  Like James 2: 10 states:  For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

And who could ever say they have fulfilled all the law without ever stumbling over just one tiny point? Nobody!  Paul says it best in Romans 3 when not only he blurts it out by saying that Jews as well as Gentiles are all under sin, (Romans 3: 9) but he even goes farther as to prove it by quoting Old Testament Scripture in verses 10 - 18, a sample below of verses 10-12:

As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.” [Crossed referenced of Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Eccles. 7:20]
There is  NO ONE righteous, not even one.

Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice, and the Only One who can cleanse us in order to be worthy of being in the Presence of God. We cannot do it on our own. It is Jesus' righteousness, which He placed on us as He took our sins on the cross, that makes us heirs, adopted sons and daughters, members of the family of God.  Otherwise...we would be the fools yelling that there is no God.

This does not mean, however, that we, as Christians under the New Covenant in Christ, are not under the 10 Commandments.  We are, Jesus said it.  In Matthew 22: 27-40.  In this passage, He says, in response to a Pharisee who is trying to trap Him by asking Him what is the greatest of all the 10 commandments: 

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus came to fulfill the law, so we would not have to be judged by the law, but while we are still on this earth, we better strive to keep the law, for we are not under the dominion of sin anymore.  This means, our hearts have been claimed by God through Jesus.  Therefore, our desire is not of the flesh, but that of the Spirit...and, though we are still in a fallen world, we still strive towards the goal of sanctification by longing for what Jesus wants us to long for:  to seek Him first and obey His commandments!

What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”  So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. Galatians 4: 1-7

I pray the Holy Spirit opens our minds and hearts to Scripture in order to discern the truth of God's love and the perfection of His plan, so we can have peace and be content in Christ, Our Lord and Savior, the Perfect Lamb, the Holiest Priest, The Redeemer of Our Souls, the Sustainer of our faith.  In His Precious Name, Amen!