January 28th, 21

New, From the Inside Out

Exodus 21-22, Psalm 12 and Acts 4

It’s hard to make sense of these laws in Exodus.  They’re hard on the ears.  These rules we hear, dictating treatment of slaves and women, seem so cruel and barbaric.  They’re hard to hear. In understanding them, it’s important that we try to see them in their historical and cultural context. But maybe even more important, is that we see them in the context of the fallen human heart.  These hard and distasteful laws that are being described, are a result of the fallen human heart  living in a fallen world. God is conceding to this state of affairs, but only for awhile.  He will not tolerate this forever. 

He has done something about this hard hear - the promised Messiah, that Peter so boldly proclaimed in Acts.  Peter is living out of a new heart, part of a growing community of 5000 who were waking up to a new reality in Christ.  

This new community we see in Acts, is so different than the one being formed in Exodus. In this new community, God is no longer conceding to hard hearts, instead he has drawn them into his own heart, his own life.  And out of this place of wholeness and life in God, they are learning to walk in this new reality.  As the New People of God.   Not living out of a place of dominance, or superiority, or ownership of one another, that we see in Exodus, instead, we see a community of self giving, generosity, compassion and love.  In Exodus, we see a only shadows, glimpses of the heart of God in the laws that are described, but in Christ, we see the very face of God, his unfiltered and perfect reflection of the nature and character of God.  Fully seen and known in His Son.  

You have been invited to wake up! Wake up to this new reality in Christ.  Through him you have been enveloped into the Triune life of God, you are free, you are holy, you are his, you are loved! This is what is true, this is what is.  Ours is to agree with God, to turn from the lies that have kept you living like a slave, and begin to live as the daughter that you are, the son that you are.   

You are loved!