MUSINGS - November 04, 2018
LAW VERSES REDEMPTION
Mark 10:1-12
Jesus left there and went into the territory of Judea along the other side of the Jordan River. Crowds gathered around him again, and he taught them as he usually did. Some Pharisees came to test him. They asked, "Can a husband divorce his wife?" Jesus answered them, "What command did Moses give you?" They said, "Moses allowed a man to give his wife a written notice to divorce her." Jesus said to them, "He wrote this command for you because you're heartless. But God made them male and female in the beginning, at creation. That's why a man will leave his father and mother and will remain united with his wife, and the two will be one. So they are no longer two but one. Therefore, don't let anyone separate what God has joined together." When they were in a house, the disciples asked him about this. He answered them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman is committing adultery. If a wife divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery."
Jesus continued in his travels teaching and healing. He had returned to this area of Judea where he had previously attracted crowds of listeners. Once again the crowds have come to him. And once again the religious authorities have come to argue with him. They come with a question do designed to be a share to trap him.
They could have posed a question about any of the finer points of the law of Moses, because they came not looking for an answer but for a way to dispute him. Which ever way he answers they hope to trap him by his words. They asked, "Can a husband divorce his wife?" Jesus, however, doesn't answer their questions until they have answered his. They answer tells him how they interpret the law. Rather than argue with them, he agreed that the law does indeed allow for divorce under certain circumstances. But he expands on that by saying that God's perfect will is that marriage be until by death they are seriated. The law was given because of the hardness of humanities heart. Without the law of divorce, the only way to be rid of an unfaithful spouse would be to have them stoned to death. "If a man commits adultery with another man's wife or with his neighbor's wife, both he and the woman must be put to death for their adultery (Leviticus 20:10)
Jesus did not refute the law but said only that it was because of man's sinful nature that the law was given at all. The apostle Paul writes to the church in Galatia, "No one receives God's approval by obeying the law's standards since, "The person who has God's approval will live by faith." Laws have nothing to do with faith, but, "Whoever obeys laws will live because of the laws he obeys." Christ paid the price to free us from the curse that God's laws bring by becoming cursed instead of us. Scripture says, "Everyone who is hung on a tree is cursed." Christ paid the price so that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to all the people of the world through Jesus Christ and we would receive the promised Spirit through faith." (Galatians 3:11-14)
The law can only exposed our sins and condemn us. Jesus took that condemnation upon himself and saves us from all our sin through faith
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