What do YOU Know?

The Law

The purpose of any law is to instruct people in the right way.

The outcome of that law is that people will know when they are doing right and when they are doing wrong.

When we break a law, we are convicted--not always publicly or in front of a judge, but we always know that we've done something wrong.

Recognizing that we did something wrong doesn't make us better people. Obeying the law in the first place makes us better people.

But none of us are perfect. We all make mistakes. We all suck at obeying the laws--because they're hard to follow

Flashback

When God created the world, the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, were absolutely perfect and living in an absolutely perfect world.

They only had one law.

It wasn't to dress a certain way. It wasn't to eat certain things. It wasn't even to love God.

The law was to NOT eat the fruit of the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."

The outcome of that law is that people will know when they are doing right and when they are doing wrong.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed that one law, they introduced the effects of the law into the rest of the world.

• Knowledge of Good
  Knowing that we've done something good makes us proud
• Knowledge of Evil
  Knowing that we've done something bad makes us ashamed

God knew that it would be impossible for us to live within the standards of the law. So what did He do?

He took away the effects of the law by GIVING us righteousness--making us morally right.

Justice and Mercy

God is supremely just AND supremely merciful. That means that no one in the world cares more about crimes being punished than God does, and no one in the world wants to set guilty people set free more than God does.

This would be quite a quandary--if it wasn't for Jesus.

Jesus came to earth and lived a perfect life according to the law. At age 33, he died by crucifixion--a Roman torture method for murderers and severe criminals.

In the moment of His death, Jesus received from God every ounce of wrath that would have been unleashed on us for breaking God's law.

God's justice was satisfied, because the death penalty for disobeying the law was met, AND God's mercy was satisfied, because by taking the punishment on Himself, we do not have to experience death.

God gave us righteousness--costly to Him, free to us. We no longer HAVE to meet up to His standards.

• Knowledge of Righteousness
  Knowing that you have been made righteous before God gives us peace

 #WeeklyReading Romans 3:19