Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
If we read the Ten Commandments with "New Covenant eyes," they become ten promises of right living by faith. But how does this transformation take place?
It's not motivated by fear, the popular Old Covenant motivation. Rather, "the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men"; "grace abounded much more" than all the sin Satan could throw at us (Titus 2:11; Rom. 5:20). It teaches us "that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age" (Titus 2:12). Grace becomes our tutor in the New Covenant school, and actually trains us in total obedience to God's holy law. Plus, the tutelage is a joy all the way.
But how does grace "teach" us? Titus 2 explains: "Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ... gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed ..." (vss. 13, 14).
Long ago, before the foundation of the world, Christ as the Son of God "gave Himself" in a solemn covenant with the Father that if sin should ever arise on earth His love would constrain Him to give Himself, that is, to die for us.
Laying aside all the advantages and prerogatives of divinity as He became incarnate in the womb of the virgin Mary, Christ grew to manhood as one of us (though still the Son of God "in the likeness of sinful flesh," Rom. 8:3), and now again He prayed to His Father, "Not as I will, but as You will" (Matt. 26:39). That "not as I will" included His human (as well as divine) will to live.
The "death" on His cross was the real thing. No thought of resurrection crossed His mind as He cried out, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" He "poured out his soul unto death," the second and final, everlasting one. A wise writer has said: "The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a Conqueror." His emptying Himself was total (see Isa. 53:12; Phil. 2:5, 6).
Grace is undeserved favor. When it's of Christ, like love, it constrains to total devotion to Him (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). The old fear is forgotten.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 26, 2006.
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