UNDERSTANDING THE OLD TESTAMENT IN SEVEN WORDS...

Why do we see such a different picture of God in the old Testament, a compassionless, demanding God, a cold, oftentimes unfeeling God? How many there are who do not see the one main lesson that the Old Testament was to teach us.

And what is the lesson? The God we serve hates sin. HATES! He is Holy. How we do not understand that concept. We cannot comprehend perfect purity. The entire purpose of the old covenant was to makes us realize how much God hates sin, the evil that has infected and corrupted every living soul of His creation. The entire old testament was a lesson for our benefit and was written to be our schoolmaster to bring us to the feet of God, broken, contrite, aware with God's awareness of the depth of the evil inside us so that our sin becomes exceedlingly sinful to us. Why was the law so hard, so demanding that one error tainted all? Because evil cannot enter His presence, not one shred.


Sadly, how often it has not taught us the very thing it was meant to accomplish, and many of His children still cling to the ministration of death as if it were life giving. It is called the ministry of condemnation and it is well named. Here is the summation of the old testament (the old covenant) in seven words...seven.



"The soul that sinneth, it shall die."



Yet, even now, many Christians walk with sin in their lives, and worse, far worse, they are content to have it there, and protect themselves from ever fleeing it by believing that since it is impossible for a man to do good all the time, for we are only human, why really get bent out of shape about it? God forgives us anyway, doesn't He? Do we have any earthly idea how we are fulfilling the verse in Romans that says "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?"

But what did Jesus say?

"If your eye offend you, pluck it out, for it is better to go into eternity blind than with two eyes be cast into hell. If your right hand offend you, amputate it, for it is better to go into eternity with but one hand, than with two enter hell."


Do we hear him with ears that take Him seriously? He was not lying. He spoke truth and we water away its meaning so as to placate the conviction in our hearts and lives. Do we not comprehend how incredibly important it is to figure out how to get sin out of our lives, that the soul infected by it cannot please God and will not see His face? How comfortable we have gotten with poison running in our veins. How the lies of our enemy have taken their toll.



Do we even comprehend what God had to do that was against His very nature in order to convince us of His hatred of sin? Jesus said, "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more your Father in Heaven....", remember that story?



Now, if the actions of killing children and striking down a man who simply touched the ark of the covenant or slaying entire societies, men, women and children is repulsive to us, and we are evil, how much more repulsive and horrible is it to a loving God to have to act in a manner that is not one of love, just to convince us of His hatred of evil, and to make us comprehend the seriousness of the problem, to finally make us see that evil cannot enter His presence, and thus if it is still in us, we cannot come home to Him?



This is how much He loves us. He did the most evil act of all, to send his own perfect, loving, unblemished son to die a horrible death to pay the debt He did not owe, so that we infected, miserable souls with destruction as our only future might be offered life instead. He not only forgave us of sins past, but also offers us new natures uninfected by the power of sin so that we might spend eternity with Him.



There are but two types of peoples in the world- two. Those that are infected with darkness, who are aware of it, and weep for it, struggling to get free because they love the light and those that are infected that do not mind being infected. This truth is found in every nation, every society, every culture, and yes, even in God's church.



Ultimately this will be the tipping point, the cutting edge of seperating wheat from tares... do we hate the sin inside us and long to be free of it or are we content to just have our ticket to heaven punched yet very mich strill in love with our sin and our rebellion to His lordship over us? Have we learned the one lesson the old covenant was to teach us?



Has sin in us been made to us "exceedingly sinful"?



It is these and these alone who will find relief for their weary sin-sick souls. It is these who will finally see and receive the gift of a pure heart by the same faith that obtained for us the gift of forgiveness. Nothing else will profit us but a new creature, a new heart, a new man and this is done by faith alone in the promises of our God.



"Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart."

Psalm 24:3-4



It is only when we who have seen the depth of our sinfulness through God's eyes that we will be desperate enough to do something so foolish as to believe that just as we have been liberated from the penalty of sins past by His death, in the same way we are cleansed of our fallen nature by His resurrection life. It is God's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Will we believe and receive? It is our only hope to see Him.



"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."


Blessings,



Bruce