Find Salvation in Jesus

March 6

The Essence of the Law is found in one passage of scripture which says, “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good. Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it,” Deuteronomy 10:12-14.

The Lord Himself reiterates this principle in numerous places including in Luke 10:27 where He says, “The first and greatest commandment is this, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

We must remember that the Pharisees were always trying to trap Jesus in His words, to catch Him in a fault. They were forever applying the letter of the law to Jesus and His actions and in so doing they continually revealed the total lack of the spirit of the law within their own hearts.

It is traditionally believed that Moses is the author of Deuteronomy so it is beyond question that the Lord would have had him (to whom the law was given) include the importance of obedience to the Commandments among His requirements for fulfillment of the divine ordinance. Jesus’ statement in Luke supposes that in loving God and loving our neighbor, we will be keeping the law.

How can He make that presumption? Because if we love God and man, we will not kill, we will not steal, we will not covet, we will not commit adultery, we will not bear false witness, nor will we abridge the rest of the law, for we understand that in so doing, we are failing to give the Lord His due and we are abrogating our responsibility to allow our lives to be living epistles, read of all men, (see II Corinthians 5:15.)

In Matthew 5:16, Jesus says, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.” He is conveying the truth that “We are not our own,” I Corinthians 6:20, “but we are bought with a price; not at a cost of silver and gold but of the precious blood of Jesus.”

When we recognize that amazing truth, we grasp the magnitude of our responsibility to love the Lord and to keep His law. Our Christ-surrendered lives are the little love notes God uses to direct lost men to His Holy Word, the Bible, and to enable them to find salvation in Jesus Christ, our Savior and soon-coming King.