May 22nd, 20

MAY 22,  THEY WILL COME FROM DISTANT LANDS

Our readings today are I Kings 8,  II Chronicles 5, Psalm 99, and Romans 3.  We are reading from the New Living Translation.

In the future, foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will hear of you. They will come from distant lands because of your name (I Kings 8: 41).

All the nations will come.  They will all have a place before his throne.  But their place before God’s throne won’t be won because of the 120,000 lambs that David’s son, Solomon, had sacrificed.  No.  The nations of the world are able to come because God’s son offered a far better sacrifice.  Jesus was sacrificed.  He was the pure and spotless Lamb of God.  The life that Jesus lived, qualified him for the death he died.  And His death, purchased for me, and for all the nations, a place before God.  

But it is not only  a place before his throne but a place before Him each and every day, here and now.  We live our life now, by faith, trusting in him, not relying on our obedience and piety.   That’s the only way God’s people have ever lived before him – by faith – trusting in Him.  This was what Moses wrote about and what the prophets pointed to.  This is the Gospel that Paul proclaims here and now, for us, today.  Paul reminds us that we are not justified by our obedience to the law.  No one will ever be saved by obeying the law.  The law’s purpose was to point out to us how badly we break the law.  We are all lawbreakers, in need of Someone who  will come and fulfill the law for us.  That someone is the lamb of God, Christ himself.  He alone is the One who has fulfilled the law’s purpose.   As we trust and rely on Him, we can be found in Him.  We can live in Him as He lives in us.   Christ’s Spirit has come to re-inhabit all those who believe.  

The power of Christ living in and through us, gives us the strength, courage, and joy to move forward in this life.  The true adventure of life with God, is made possible now, because of Jesus.  Believe Him.  Live in the new life he offers, by faith, and be free.

You are loved!