I love to cook without recipes. When I was a child, I made milk shakes in a blender. I would throw in bananas, berries, ice cream, a raw egg, chocolate syrup, honey, milk, vanilla extract, and more. You really can’t mess up a milk shake. But boy, have I ruined a few meals! I once carved into a salad what I thought was a mild pepper. Instead, it was the hottest pepper of my life. My mouth was numb for hours after only one bite!
We use mercury—the only metal that is liquid at room temperature—in thermometers, barometers and similar measuring devices. In fact, the deadly poison is a treasure with many uses. As a small child, my brother thought he would use a mercury thermometer to measure the temperature of a pot of chili that had been on the stove for hours. Unfortunately, the mercury instantly burst the tiny glass tube and the glass and mercury sank to the bottom of the pot. Dennis had no idea how dangerous mercury was. But that night he went to my mother and told her what he had done. She was upset about her chili. But she was horrified to think her family might have eaten a meal with mercury in it. Mercury is one ingredient that will ruin a chili recipe—and all other recipes.
You know what ingredient will ruin the salvation recipe? The LAW.
Though, like mercury, it is an amazing treasure in its proper place, the law is poison to salvation. But don’t miss that first point: the LAW IS A TREASURE. See Psalm 119:11 and the words of Jesus in Matthew 13:52.
The law is our TEACHER, Galatians 3:24. Jesus said He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, and thus, none of it would pass away, Matthew 5:17-18. The law of Moses has incredible value.
But the law cannot save anyone. Adding the law to your salvation “recipe” will ruin the recipe. “If you get yourselves circumcised [to follow the law], Christ will not benefit you at all” Galatians 5:2. Paul explains you can’t sprinkle in a pinch of law. If you try to be justified by law, then you have to follow the WHOLE law. “You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from GRACE … A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough” vv. 4,9. Paul is saying that adding any law to your salvation recipe requires you to perfectly follow ALL the law.
And as every Jew in Israel knew, no one could follow the law perfectly. We all sin. We all were corrected a thousand times as children. We have broken so many rules. We KNOW we will never be saved by perfectly following rules, because we are not perfect.
Faith in the God Who will provide another way is humanity’s only hope—and always was our only hope.
From the beginning of time no one was ever saved by following the law. The law reveals our sin, convincing us we will only be saved by our faith that a good God will provide for salvation another way. The law is our schoolmaster, teaching us that we can only be saved by trusting in the Man who became the perfect sacrifice. Jesus was “God’s Son, born of a woman, born under the law, sent to redeem those under the law [everyone], so that we might receive adoption as sons” Galatians 4:4-5.
The law of Moses is a priceless treasure. But following the law has never saved anyone.
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