Oct 15

Romans 7:12
Memorise Matthew 5:18
“…for all thy commandments are righteousness.”

Seeing that so many of the Old Testament laws and practices are now done away with, there are Christians today who believe that the whole OT is no longer relevant to us, except perhaps for the book of Psalms. Hence, there are Bibles published where only the NT books and Psalms are found. In so doing, they have shown a lack of understanding of what the Bible, the complete Word of God is all about.

In our passage today, Paul was dealing with a doctrine that related to the law, which referred to the 10 Commandments. In earlier chapters of Romans, Paul showed that the law was incapable of saving souls. Indeed, the law was never meant to do so. Instead the law, like a schoolteacher, was meant to teach us about sin, to help us distinguish what are sins and what are not. It is only the work of Christ that justifies us before God and redeems us from sin, not the law. In Romans 7:6, Paul says that we are delivered from the law. This is often misunderstood to mean that we no longer need to obey the law. What Paul meant was that we were delivered from the bondage of the law in sin. The law points us to the existence of sin within us and our enslavement to it, but the work of Christ delivers us from this and therefore also delivers us from the effects of the law which was to show us our sins. He was not saying that the law was no longer relevant. Paul reaffirms this in Romans 7:12. He stated clearly that the law is holy, just and good. Hence, the law is not discredited in any way. On a broader scale, this also tells us that the OT is by no means irrelevant to us today. As believers, the Holy Spirit works in us to affirm this in our hearts. With His help and through His Word, we are able recognise both the OT and NT as God’s Words. As we study God’s Word diligently, we can see the wonderful unity that exist in all 66 books of the Bible. Doctrines found in NT are affirmed in the OT and vice versa. The character of God is seen both in OT and NT and with both we get a complete and consistent picture of who God is. We see Christ and the gospel message beginning from the very first book to the very last. What is lacking is not God’s revealed Word to us, but rather, it is our understanding and knowledge of it. We put in so little time and effort in the study of God’s Word. We know so little about God and His will for us. Instead we put in a lot more time into the things of this world. The irony is that God’s Word is what will last for eternity. May we change our ways and be determined to spend more time to study God’s Word.

Thought: When was the last time you were blessed by the OT?
Prayer: Father, forgive me for my laziness in studying Your Word.