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JESUS THE AUTHOR OF THE LAW
FRIDAY, JULY 4
John 7:19-31

Exodus 20:1-17

 

“Did not Moses give you the law,

and yet none of you keepth the law?…”

 

JESUS THE AUTHOR OF THE LAW
 
Jesus then went on to argue that He is true and righteous on the basis of His conduct. He did not seek to glorify Himself but His Father who had sent Him. Jesus obeyed His Father in every way. He humbled Himself totally by giving up His divine glory to take on human form. And now on earth, He who is Author of the law, became Keeper of the law. The Law was given by a holy God for sinful man to obey. There was no need for God to obey the law, He is law Himself. Yet, He made Himself subject to the law for our sakes, and in the keeping of it was faultless. His accusers, on the other hand, were blatant breakers of the law. For wanting to kill Jesus, they broke the Sixth Commandment (“Thou shalt not kill”) for sure. When their murderous intent was exposed, they retorted, “Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee?” By so replying, they broke the law even more. For calling Jesus demonic, they broke the first three commandments, having blasphemed against God. They lied when they denied that they wanted to kill Jesus, hence breaking the Ninth Commandment. They were beyond doubt criminals, guilty to the core!
 
Jesus demonstrated how He was a true keeper of the law by proving that He was its true interpreter. The law of Moses not only forbade anyone to work on the sabbath, it also required every baby boy to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. The question is, could circumcision be performed if it fell on the sabbath? The answer of course is yes. The Jews had to circumcise a child even on the sabbath. Doing God’s work, in this case circumcision, on the sabbath in no way violated the sabbath. In the same way, when Jesus healed on the sabbath, He was doing God’s work. The sabbath is meant to be a blessing for man. “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). By making someone whole on the sabbath, was not Jesus doing something good for man? Jesus told them, “Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (cf. 1 Sam 16:7). Then they tried to arrest Him, but no one could do so because it was not God’s will for Him to die at this time. Man may fight God, but he fights a losing battle for sure.
 
THOUGHT: “The Law proceeded from God, and Moses was not its author, but its minister.” (Calvin)

PRAYER: “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” (Ps 119:97)

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