Letter No. 4

Hey Kid, 
We went through Romans chapter 4 over the past few days, and it was a lot.  One of the
questions Romans 3 left off on was, “Why did God give the Law in the first place? And are we getting rid of the Law now that we understand God’s grace through Jesus’ death?  How does New Testament salvation work with the Old Testament Law system?”

In order to answer that, I want to do two things.  The first thing is looking at Abraham and David, the most famous Jews of all time, which is exactly what Paul does, too.  Paul reminds his readers that Abraham technically wasn’t a Jew when God made promises to him and said, “Abraham, I like that you’re trusting Me; you don’t deserve My thumbs up, but I’m going to give it to you because you believe I will do what I said would.” God said that when Abe was about 85 years old; God didn’t give Abraham the sign of circumcision until he was like 99.  That blows any idea of circumcision or Jewish heritage giving you God’s thumbs up completely out of the water.  Abraham also definitely received God’s thumbs up way before God gave the Torah to Moses, so hat gets rid of the idea that having the Law puts you in God’s good books, either. 

King David, on the other hand, was for sure Jewish, for sure circumcised when he was a baby, and for sure knew the Torah.  But in Psalm 32, David acknowledges his sin, but God says the same thing He said to Abraham, “You’re trusting all of the things I’ve told you, so you get My thumbs up, just like Abe!”  The point is, even though David had all of the things the Jews thought made them better than everyone else, he still met God’s standard just by God taking his trust and giving him grace. 

Which brings me to point number two: The Law was still important for people to have.  God gave the Law as an example of His character, His standard and to explain there is a consequence for not meeting that standard: death.  All of this boils down to trusting God to do what He says, even though it is impossible.  Just like Abraham trusted God to give him a son when he was 100 years old, we trust God that He has already accepted Jesus’ death for our sins to give us grace to be His children, meeting His standard. 

After the last discussion on chapter 4, I had to go and talk to Dave Field, our teacher.  I wanted
to ask him to explain exactly why he said the Law was necessary for Jesus to pay our sin debt that we
talked about last time.  Like how can the Law be necessary, but I still feel free from having to fulfill it?  We’re going to get more in depth with this later on in the letter, but I just want to share what Dave
shared with me, because I just think it’s super important to clarify.  Basically, God chose the Law to give humankind an example of His perfection.  While the Law and the sacrificial system were in play as a sin credit card, God showed grace to the people who trusted Him because He knew He would send Christ to pay it off.  BUT THE LAW STILL BROUGHT DEATH! 

So what about the standard?  Because it still exists and it wasn’t thrown away, even when Jesus died and rose again.  NOW, as a believer, I have the Holy Spirit, God Himself, His living standard, alive inside of me.  He lives out the standard through me as I have faith in God like Abraham and David.  The rest I find in that, Kid, is amazing.

I love you, 
Viv