At The Center

Some discoveries just have to be shared right away. Today's meditation and scripture reading revealed some very interesting things to me. I have been reading Galatians about the Law and the Promise made to Abraham. I had previously studied the Abrahamic covenant in the Old Testament, so this was not new to me.

The promise given to Abraham through the covenant "...stood at the center of the relationship between God and His people"until the Law was given. When the Law came, over time, the relationship between God and man seemed to shift. The law was given because of sin. It shows us what sin is. It acts as a tutor leading us into a right relationship with God, growing us up. It is not the center of our relationship with God. It is only given to teach us how to be obedient.

As children of the promise, our obedience comes from believing God's promise. Somehow this line of thinking led me to the rich young ruler in Matthew's gospel. I was always a bit puzzled by the interchange between Jesus and this man. It was a little unsettling, because it asked the question I had asked myself, before I received Jesus as the LORD and Savior of my life. "What must I do; when will I know I have done enough, God?"

He asked Jesus, "What good thing must I do to obtain eternal life?" He was stuck in the rut of believing he could actually do something for himself to receive the promise of God. Jesus told him to obey the commandments, for Jesus knew the young man's heart. The reply of the rich man was a justification of how he was, indeed, obeying the Law. There was no declaration of faith, no acceptance of God's grace in the young man's reply. He went away sadly because he did not believe God's promise, he believed it was all up to him. He seems to be saying, "Well, I have done all I can, but I am not going to make a total commitment to believe that God's promise is enough, surely there is something else I can DO."

So, my point is this: The promise was at the center of God's relationship with us from Abraham until Moses. Then, Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Law and the (words of) prophets. He is the Promise and so He is the center of God's relationship with man once again. D. B.