No More Excuses – The Kingdom Curriculum III (7)

No More Excuses

“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:20

When most believers think of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Law of God is not a factor. As we have seen, many – perhaps most – believers today consider the Law and the Gospel to be opposed to one another. When we proclaim the Gospel it is to get away from the Law and to find forgiveness, not some onerous burden of “dos” and “don’ts” with which to be shackled.

Yet Paul insisted that God is calling all men everywhere to repent of their foolish, law-unto-themselves ways and to seek out the righteousness which pleases Him, which they can only attain through Jesus. To repent is to turn away from something unto something. When Daniel called Nebuchadnezzar to repent it was so that he would turn away from his own laws to obey the Law of God. Paul, stricken and guilty because of the Law, turned the Jesus, and then, having turned to Jesus, established the Law as a holy and righteous and good standard for all who would truly follow the Lord (Rom. 3:31; 7:12). Jesus gave His Spirit so that, as John explained (1 Jn. 2:1-6), they who believe in Jesus might walk as He did, in the path marked out by the Law of God. To separate the Law of God from our proclamation of the Gospel is thus to fail to tell all the Good News to those who so desperately need to hear it.

According to Paul’s message at Athens, crucial to the proclamation of the Gospel are three things: First, all have sinned. They may not have understood this in the past, and God was gracious in bearing with them up to now. But now, in the light of coming judgment under God’s Law, they are without excuse, and they need to face up to their sin and repent. We cannot explain the meaning of sin apart from resorting to the Law of God (Rom. 7:7). The Law of God must be included at this point in our proclamation of the Gospel. Second, we must explain to people that they need to accept what Jesus has done for them and, in gratitude, embrace Him as Lord and Christ. As we have seen, Jesus fulfilled all the righteous requirements of God’s Law and bore all its wrath, thus perfectly fulfilling the Law and providing both necessary righteousness and justice for us to be able to enter into the presence of the eternal God without fear. Believing in Jesus – into Him, as John has it – we enter into salvation through His righteousness and by right of His suffering and resurrection. Finally, in the Gospel we insist that they who believe will begin to follow in the way that Jesus indicated, the way of obedience to God’s Law (Matt. 5:17-19). Jesus is ruling the world even now according to His Law, and, by His Spirit within us, is making His people willing and able to live according to His good pleasure (Ezek. 36:26, 27; Phil. 2:12, 13). All who believe will thus take up study and obedience of God’s Law as the core curriculum in their sanctification (Jn. 17:17).

For whom is this message of Law and grace intended? All people. Everyone needs to know the Law – to know it as that which convicts them of sin, to know it as that which Jesus fulfilled on their behalf, and to know it as the standard of holiness, righteousness, and goodness that God now commands all people in all places to follow. And everyone needs to know that, in Jesus Christ, God has provided both the righteousness we require and the justice we deserve so that, justified by grace and just in the eyes of our God, we may live unto justice and goodness and love in the light of God’s Word, at the core of which is His holy and righteous and good Law.

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.