“But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.”

John wanted to talk about the greatness of Jesus and the power of His eternal ministry with his pastor, so that they could rejoice together about Jesus’ ministry. Pastor Moses however, seemed to be far more impressed with his own ministry. Not just any minsitry; it’s the one that has the whole church world’s attention: The super duper, apostolic, five-fold kind!

The Apostle Thomas had a very similar thought. At the last supper Jesus said:

‘You know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas replied ‘Lord, we don’t even know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’

Thomas had a very sincere question. He was basically asking Jesus just how exactly they would ever be able to know the way if didn’t have any map or written directions?

What was Jesus’ response to Thomas? Did He say “you know the way because you have been instructed by the law?” Or did He say “you know the way because you have the Ten Commandments to guide you?” If not, then what did He say? Jesus answered:

“I am the way”

As Christians, we know the way to live, because we are led by, and are living in, ‘the way’ Himself! The Holy Spirit is not just a nice idea, He is real! One thing is for certain: When we do our part,  He does His! Our part is to look to Christ for our justification before God, and the Holy Spirit’s part is to bring about the transformational life.

You can’t go the wrong way by putting all your confidence in Jesus and the fullness of His grace, because He is the way! It is when we try to find the way by following a written code that we actually lose our way, because our focus is no longer on our glorious saviour, but our own failed attempt at legalistic righteousness.

Christ loves righteousness, and Christ loves to see his beloved living in God’s ways. Christ also knows that this will only come to pass if we can look to Him alone. Complete dependence on the Spirit of Christ to lead us is what brings about a transformed life! The Apostle Paul also testifies to this wonderful truth:

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Anything that is loving and moral and good is from God, and we can rest assured that these good qualities will bear fruit in our lives by the power of the Spirit without ever seeking direction or help from the Law.

Why can we say with confidence, as Paul did, that Christ is the end of the Law for all who believe? Because now that we see Jesus; we see the power of His life, and understand that His powerful life is now living in us!

The law was never the Saviour of wicked mankind; it was given to mankind that we might find the saviour. Now that we have found Him, let us believe him when he says ‘I am the way’ and follow without looking back to the law.

Living in the New Covenant of God’s grace and being led by the Spirit isn’t a licence for immorality, it is freedom to let Christ transform your life without fear of condemnation that comes from the law, praise God.

Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Romans 10:4

Moses just doesn’t get it, and besides, he likes the law, with it’s rules and principles. He finds it much easier to control his flock with a good dose of the law. Eric seems to be torn between believing the Jesus/grace centred message the Apostle Paul preached and believing the law/principle centred message Pastor Moses preaches.

Poor little Bobby doesn’t even know who Jesus is, but he loves serving in church, and sure does think Pastor Moses is an amazing man of God! Hmmm, something is not quite right in this equation.

One of the false charges, it seems, that was brought against Jesus time and time again was that Jesus was trying to abolish the Law. The religious leaders spread rumours, even from the early days of His ministry, that He was trying to just throw the Law away, acting as if it never existed.

They did this because Jesus was presenting God in his true form; the God of all grace. Jesus preached, and lived a life full of grace and truth. His message and his actions were so focused on extending the grace of God to those who wanted and needed it, and this really annoyed the religious teachers of the Law.

And so the accusations were made. They probably made the charge along the lines that Jesus wanted to preach His own ideas about God, that He’s not interested in the Law of God, that He doesn’t like the law and simply wants to smash it to pieces and throw it away.  It’s interesting to see in scripture that this was not something Jesus ever tried to do, but it is what Moses tried to do!

When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. Exodus 32:19

Moses had just received the Law, written on two stone tablets, and as he returned to the camp he saw the whole camp openly sinning and indulging in idolatry. The first thing he did was try to abolish the Law! He threw it on the ground and smashed it to pieces! Moses saw first hand how the Law was powerless to bring a change of heart in the lives of the Israelites, and knowing that the Law he was holding would only be good to condemn the people, he tried to destroy it.

Now although Moses attempted to do this, God simply made him make another two tablets so he could write the Law down again.

The LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Exodus34:1

Jesus however, never came to abolish the Law by simply smashing it to pieces, He came with greater intentions. Moses just wanted to get rid of the Law, but Jesus wanted to bring it to fulfilment! Moses knew neither himself nor any of God’s people could fulfil the Law he was holding in his hands, and so he looked for a quick solution. Jesus however, never looked for a quick fix, but He was focused on a permanent end to the Law by fulfilling it on behalf of all mankind!

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Galatians 4:4

What Moses failed to abolish by smashing it on the ground, Jesus accomplished by nailing it to the cross!

Jesus never sinned once! He was faithful; all the way to the cross he was perfect in his actions towards God. He did what no other man was capable of doing: He fulfilled the Law perfectly!

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:13-14

When we understand this, then we can understand with greater clarity what Jesus meant when he said:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” Matthew 5:17

Jesus did not come for a quick fix, he came to completely fulfil any obligation that the Law commanded, and through His perfect finished work He did exactly that: Jesus fulfilled the law, he brought it to an end so that now, we can be made righteous by our faith in Him, and we can gladly and freely accept the New Covenant of grace that is our rightful inheritance from God.

Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Romans 10:4

Jesus indeed came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it – and he has done exactly that! We have received our New Covenant of grace, because Jesus, in his goodness, fulfilled the Old Covenant in our place, so we could now live in union with God based on his glorious grace!

The Old Covenant of law was only ever going to be temporary, but the New Covenant of grace will last for eternity! Thank you Jesus!

The Apostle Paul gives some interesting analogies when talking about the relationship of the Law to the Spirit of Jesus. In one such example, he likens the Law to a school master who was over us, was strict with us, enforced rules upon us, but ultimately was only doing it with the honest intention to lead us to graduation.

Graduating from the Law, being thankful for it’s role in leading us to the point where we could graduate, and yet equally thankful we could also leave it behind us as we move forward into the next stage of our lives.

We have now graduated from the need of the Law, and have been employed, so to speak, on a permanent basis by the Spirit of Jesus. We are no longer ‘in School’ with all the written rules, which we try our hardest to bend or break, but now we are ‘in Christ’ with no written rules, only a loving and wonderful Lord who we have the privilege of following, listening to and learning from.

My old School master’s name was Mr Humphreys. I’m thankful for the job he did back then, but I also use the past tense when referring to him on purpose. He “was” my school master, he isn’t “still” my school master. The same is true with the law. It is not still our school master, it was in the past, but now it’s role as school master has long been completed. We belong solely to our Lord now.

Praise God, we’ve graduated!

We are now led by the Spirit. We can trust the Spirit can lead us into all truth by His power. This year, let’s all really enjoy living by the Spirit.

Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” Romans 8:14-15

I find it amazing that Jesus, the almighty Son of God, would come to earth to finish something for His Father. It was a task that couldn’t be finished in heaven; he actually had to come to earth to complete it. It was a task that couldn’t be done in his divinely powerful body; it had to be done in the weakness of a man’s body. It was a task that wasn’t completed with him sitting on an earthly throne in Jerusalem, but rather it was finished with him dying on a lonely cross outside Jerusalem.

So what exactly did Jesus finish?

Jesus, in His own words, said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”.

The finished work of Jesus upon the cross is what gave all of us the opportunity to take hold of eternal life. Eternal life is often associated with heaven, streets of gold and singing angels, but that wasn’t how Jesus defined eternal life. Jesus’ definition of eternal life is this: “That they may know you, the only true God”.

Jesus’ death upon the cross allows us all to see God for the first time as he truly is. The whole world has an opinion on who God is and what He is like. Some people have a good opinion, some have a negative opinion, but ultimately nobody has the right opinion. No matter how good someone may have believed God was, they could not possible have imagined he was this good. It was Jesus Himself who, for the first time, revealed God as He truly is.

Jesus came as a servant to the Jewish people, fulfilling an Old Covenant not one of them had ever succeeded in doing, so they could now enter the better covenant promised to them. “It is finished”

Jesus established a New Covenant for both Jew and Gentile, tearing down the walls of hostility and opening up a new and living way; a new covenant of grace, apart from law. “It is finished”

Jesus took the punishment for all our sins, all our rejection of God and all our faults, so that we could inherit the blessing of complete forgiveness and acceptance from God. “It is finished”

Jesus revealed the depths of God’s love for mankind. That He so loved the world, He sent His only Son to die for us all, so that we could live with Him forever. “It is finished”

If you want to know who God truly is, just look to the cross. Take a moment to see Jesus, and remember who He is. He didn’t have to come, but he came freely that you may know the truth about your Heavenly Father. God is not angry with you, nor is he disappointed. His love for you truly knows no limits.

I think, as Christians, we will never truly know how to rest if our focus is on anything else.

Maybe so many believers are burning themselves out trying to finish something for God because they have the wrong focus? This is only my opinion, but I think it is only when we look back to the cross and see the fullness of what Jesus accomplished, and the fullness of who He is, we can breathe easy, rest in His presence, and joyfully declare together with our beloved saviour, “It is finished”.