6.02.2013

The Promise & The Law

God gave us a promise before He gave us a law.

For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. // Galatians 3.18, NIV

A rule-follower, until Jesus changed me, and the thing most goody-two-shoes won't tell you is that the rules aren't followed for fun, but out of fear. The fear of losing, something or someone, if you break the rules so you follow all of them without question, you know, to be safe.

Wrapped up in a false security since rule-abiding is a guarantee that nothing bad will happen until eventually you've wrapped yourself up so tight you can't breathe.

Because rules weren't meant to be broken but everyone, and I mean everyone, breaks one eventually and we wait for the other shoe to drop and expect something to be taken away.

God, though, gave us a promise first, because it's in the promise that the first steps are taken toward freedom, not the rules. Not the law.

This is the God I worship.The one who showed me that rules may not be meant for breaking but they certainly aren't meant for suffocating; and all that false security fell away when I realized my relationship with Christ began with a promise.

Not a set of standards.

It is His standards that show me I need Him.
But it is His promise that binds me to Him.

In His grace, indeed.  

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