FLESH AND STONE
Genesis 24:12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. 34:18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
Oh, the legality of law, the condemnation of commandments, and the unyielding strength of stone. Is it any wonder hearts turn cold and hard when pitted against the stone of law? Every broken commandment only solidifies and hardens the bedrock of law and makes it exponentially impossible to assail. Why doesn’t the violation of one commandment lead to the slow dissolution of law? It goes against the wisdom of man for the law to gain strength with every chip and blow we make against it. Isn’t that the way it works in our world? Every wrong action or attitude becomes more acceptable, simply through familiarity or repetition, and our standards become less stringent, our observance bothersome. With the first broken commandment, God’s law becomes unassailable. Every breach is just another chip in its mirrored surface until finally our reflection becomes unrecognizable, marred, and corrupt. Man can fly higher than the highest mountain, plunge the depths of the deepest sea, and overcome the hostility of vacuum’s nothingness. Yet, the law of God remains beyond the grasp of the most righteous, exposes the underbelly of the lowly, and is more hostile than the most violent offender.
God knew man could not overcome the law. The law only gave men an unattainable goal and an attainable sentence. Was this God’s intent? The law was God’s standard, yes, the violation was man’s intent, and even when unwritten it was apparent. But, it was a law of teaching not a law of reaching. It teaches us our sin and of a redeemer’s necessity.
Who will fulfill the law, inviolate, perfect, and sinless? If the violation of commandments leads to a strengthened law will the fulfillment lead to its shattering annulment?
Who can stand beneath the might of an overgrown, weighty law and not have it grind them to dust and destruction with its testament to sin?
Who can stand against such overwhelming impossibility?
Matt. 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
II Cor. 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Heb. 9:13-15 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Testaments; one of stone to our undoing, one of blood to our redemption!
Under the first testament, the law has power to condemn; the mediator of the new testament has power to deliver us from that condemnation.
Flesh and Stone! Which has proven stronger?
Many of us can see the law, grasp it firmly, and even, perhaps, embrace it. Yet, it is unyielding, unloving, and cruel. In the end it will testify to our transgression, condemn us in our sin. The ledger of our life in concert with the testament of law can only condemn and destroy our soul.
The blood of Christ, innocent, pure, and loving can free us of the testament of the law. For, in Jesus was the law made ineffective, its purpose ineffectual, its power inept. By one man sin entered into the world and by one we are made righteous. We can be washed in the blood of Christ, through faith in the Gospel of Christ, to live by the Grace of Christ, unto righteousness and forgiveness of God, forever. And, above all, it is a free gift because Christ willingly paid the price for our sin.
Do you trust in yourself to fulfill the law, or does it already condemn you?
Which do you believe and put your trust in; Flesh or Stone?
