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Item 4:
Jesus has a purpose.
God has always required obedience from His people,
from those who lived in the Garden of Eden, through the Israelites,
to all those living today. There has always been a law for man to
follow.
Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to
destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to
fulfill." (Matthew 5:17)
Jesus's own people, the Jews, rejected Him even
after they saw the miracles he performed. John 12:37 says, "But
although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe
in Him." It is man's nature to question
others.
Yet Christ was making history! In
fairness to the Jews of Jesus's time, none of them saw all of
his teaching. They did not have the advantage that we have to day:
We have His written word, which reveals it all to us. The apostle
Paul knew this when he wrote his first letter to the church at
Corinth in 1 Corinthians 13:9-10:
For
we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is
perfect [the recorded scripture] has come, then that which is in
part will be done away.
Until Christ's death, the Jews served God according
to a written Law given to them during the time of Moses. This
"old Law" was of physical worship: Sacrifices, seasonal
feasts, and festivals. The Jews were waiting for a Messiah, an
Anointed One, to come and establish a kingdom for them, as it was
written in the Scriptures. They thought, incorrectly, that the
kingdom would be earthly. Instead, Jesus came to create a heavenly
kingdom. In John 18:36, Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of
this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would
fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews [to die]; but
now My kingdom is not from here."
With Christ's death, a new Law began. The apostle
Paul said in Galatians 3:23-29:
But
before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the
faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our
tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you
are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of
you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if
you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according
to the promise.
If you are faithful to Christ, you are justified --
that is, made pure -- so you can live eternally with God.
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