Jesus exponentially greater than the Law

Every morning on my way to work, I stop in the deli in my building to get a bagel with cream cheese.  I have learned a long time ago that slicing the bagel in two and toasting it makes the bread so much better.  But as much as toasting it makes it better than eating it cold, in the same way adding cream cheese makes it so much better than eating it plain.  It's like toasting doubles the goodness, and adding cream cheese doubles it again.

Well, this past week I was talking with the new assistant manager at the deli.  He is originally from New York, where they have great bagels.  He asked if I'd ever tried lox and bagel.  I never had.  So he promised to bring some for me.  Well, the last day of the week, I went in to get my usual bagel and cream cheese, and the assistant manager said to wait.  He reached into a cooler under the counter, and pulled out a plate.  As he uncovered the plate, I could see strips of smoked salmon, as well as capers and finely diced pieces of boiled egg.  He took my bagel with cream cheese, and added a layer of smoked salmon.  The he sprinkled the capers and diced egg onto it.  He wrapped it up and gave it to me.

When I bit into it, the flavors all hit me at once.  It was so good, I closed my eyes and slowed my jaws--there was no gobbling that morning.  The enjoyment I had eating this special bagel was more than double the enjoyment of my normal breakfast.  I am salivating even as I write this.

I want you to get your Bibles and look at two passages, one in the Old Testament, and the other in the New Testament.  Put a marker in Isaiah 64:4-5.  Then turn over to Hebrews 10:1, and let's start reading there:

The Law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves.

Let's stop there and think for a moment.  The writer of Hebrews is not saying that the Law was bad.  Not at all.  The law was good.  It was a way that God provided for His people to be reconciled with him.  It was like toasting the bagel--it was twice as good to know that God had set a way for us to overcome sin and separation from Him than it was to just know that we were sinful, that we failed to measure up to His perfection.

We know from early on that there are standards that we fail to live up to.  As children we disobeyed our parents, and usually suffered consequences from our disobedience.  Later, we all started school; and if we failed to turn in the work, or failed to study for the test, we would receive a failing grade.  So we all learned that to get along in the home, to get along in school, we had to follow certain rules.  Failure to follow the rules brought consequences.

Hopefully, at some point in our lives, we made the connection from the physical realm, with its rules and regulations, to the spiritual world.  We all must come to the realization that God is holy, and we are not.  To bridge the gap, we try to lay a foundation of works.  This is the Law.  We strive to be good enough for God. But soon we discover that the Law is not enough: we will never be good enough on our own to have a right relationship with God.  Let's go back to Hebrews 10, and read on.

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves.  For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.  If it could, would they not have stopped being offered?  For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for heir sins.  But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. --Hebrews 10:1-4

So we see the insufficiency of the law.  God required that animal sacrifices be made for our sins.  But as the sacrifices were made year after year, they only served as a reminder of how sinful we truly are.  The fact that God does not kill us on the spot is a sign of His abundant grace.  We bring ourselves into judgment if we fail to follow His commands, but he does reward righteousness.  He always has.  Look at Isaiah 64:4-5, where it says:

Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.  You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.

The Old Testament looks back to what God had done from the creation of the world.  He has always been faithful.  He has always done right.  He has always punished the wicked, and rewarded the righteous.  He has always opposed the proud, but given grace to the humble. (Proverbs 3:34).  But when Christ came to fulfill the law, as we will see in a moment, it changes our perspective from backward looking to forward looking. This is why, when Paul quotes this Old Testament verse in 1 Corinthians 2:9, he uses it as an encouragement of what God can and will do in our lives if we are controlled by His Spirit: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."

What Jesus did was to take us out of the Old Testament, and into the New Covenant of His blood.  He took us out from under the Law, which accused us and left us feeling guilty, and offered his own body as a more perfect sacrifice for us.  Look at Hebrews 10:5-7

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a Body you prepared for Me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.  Then I said, 'Here I am--it is written about me in the scroll--I have come to do your will, O God.' "

If you want to know what scroll, he is talking about the Old Testament law.  This passage is a direct quote from Psalm 40:6-8, where David prophesied about the Messiah.  The Bible is so rich!  Just as giving us the Law was better than allowing us to die in our sins, the sacrifice of Christ in his body is so much better than relying on the annual ritual of slaughtering bulls and goats. The ritual is still followed by some, who do not realize the better sacrifice has been made for them. "Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.  But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.  Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." (Hebrews 10:11-14).

But that's not even the best part.  Remember when I told you that the cream cheese toasted bagel was infinitely better than the plain, untoasted bread, but that the addition of the lox was far and away the best thing ever put on a bagel?  Well, Jesus told his disciples in John 14:26 that when he was taken up from them, he would send a Comforter, a Helper, who "will teach you all things and will remind  you of everything I have said to you."  Jesus came as a fulfillment of the Law, but in the earthly body he was limited in what he could do.  The body served as the perfect sacrifice, but the Spirit is the one who indwells us.  Look at Hebrews 10:15-17

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this.  First he says, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after that time, says the Lord.  I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds, "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." (see Jeremiah 31:33-34)

The sin that broke fellowship between us and God was covered by the blood of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is God Himself living in us, the fulfillment of His righteousness.  "And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin." (Hebrews 10:18.)  We don't have to go back to the Temple every year with a lamb to offer up.  The priest does not have to lay a bull on the altar for the sins of the people any more.  It is finished.  Jesus offered His body as the final payment for all our sins--past, present and future.  The Holy Spirit seals the deal by living in us, and etching the Word of God on our hearts.

No human mind could have conceived of such a plan, but God had it all worked out from the beginning of time.  We worship him in spirit and in truth, but the revelation we have is still incomplete; none of us can fathom what lies in store for us at the end of time, when He brings us home with Him in heaven.  "Praise be to God for his inexpressible gift." (2 Corinthians 9:15)