Episode 13

Day 13: Reading the Law in Light of the Cross

We continue our Lent series, In Light of the Cross, using the image of overlapping transparencies to show how the Old Testament stories progressively reveal the coming Messiah: a savior like Noah, a faith-filled righteous one like Abraham, a king from Judah in Jacob’s blessing, and a prophet-mediator-deliverer like Moses.

From Exodus 6, we highlight God’s promise to deliver, redeem, claim a people, and restore them, undoing the effects of the fall and ultimately fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

We then reflect on the Mosaic Law (613 commands): the law is good as an expression of God’s righteousness and love, but human sin makes it accuse us and show our need for a Savior. Jesus alone fulfills it perfectly and applies his righteousness to those who trust him, so our focus isn’t burdened rule-keeping but faith in Christ that becomes embodied in a transformed life of love.

We end by reflecting on trust and praying the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Lenten Series Welcome

00:26 Overhead Transparency Illustration

01:19 Messiah Promise Unfolding

02:40 Exodus Redemption Preview

03:15 Pause and Center on Christ

03:51 Why the Law Matters

05:03 Law Is Good but We Fail

05:52 Jesus Fulfills the Law

08:05 Not Under Mosaic Covenant

09:38 Heart Posture and Sermon

10:32 Faith as the True Work

12:24 Living Faith in Practice

13:24 Reflection and Invitation

14:49 Closing with Lords Prayer

Transcript
Nathan Beasley:

Well welcome back to another episode of In Light

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of the Cross this Lenin season.

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We are simply trying to put the

cross before our minds daily

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in order to see how it really

impacts every other part of life.

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And so we've been tracing this,

um, old Testament narrative story.

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Recognizing that all of it points to

Christ and is fulfilled in Christ.

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As I was thinking about this, an

image came to mind of those old,

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transparent, films that we used

to use on the overhead projector.

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Do you remember those?

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Daniel Jepsen (2): I do actually.

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I used those.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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You'd write some lyrics on 'em for singing

worship songs together in youth group

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back in the day, those kinds of things.

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But I remember people using,

those in various kinds of.

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Art or creative projects, and they would

put various markings on a number of them,

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They would lay one on top of another.

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And as they did, this image or scene would

emerge that all of the collective sheets

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together as the light shown through it,

uh, this image or scene would be revealed.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Yeah.

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Nathan Beasley: And that was a neat

thing and an apropos image for.

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How we are seeing, the Old

Testament narrative come together.

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the more we've reflected on this,

the more we see how God is at work.

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You know, we have that promise, uh, after

Adam and Eve ate of the fruit That one

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of their offspring would ultimately come

up and crush the heel of the serpent.

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And, we've seen that.

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Nope, it wasn't.

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Noah, no, it wasn't

Abraham or Isaac or Jacob.

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it wasn't Joseph, it wasn't Moses.

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But as we've read these stories,

we've seen that each of them

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is revealing a little bit more

about what kind of Messiah.

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Is going to come and

what they're going to do.

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I've just been struck by this idea

of God's faithfulness throughout,

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and especially yesterday as we

saw, uh, God speak to Moses.

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he said, I will deliver you from

under the Yoko of the Egyptians.

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So the Messiah's going to be some

kind of deliverer ultimately.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Yeah, I love that

illustration of the overlapping.

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transparencies because

that's what happens.

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You see the promise of the seed and then

you see from Noah, he'll save the world.

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you see through, Abraham, the

righteous life of simply trusting God.

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You see through the words of,

Jacob in Genesis 49, he'll be

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a king from the line of Judah.

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We see from the symbology of

Moses, that he'll be a prophet

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delivering God's words to the people.

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He'll be the mediator between God and

people, and he'll be the deliverer.

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So Moses is this great figure that

expands our understanding of what

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Jesus or what the Messiah will be.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah, and as we

looked at last week in Exodus six,

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the way that that is going to happen,

actually comes to fruition in Exodus.

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In a certain sense, but then

ultimately in in Jesus Christ

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and his death and resurrection.

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But there, God says to Moses that he's

going to free them from being slaves.

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He's going to redeem them.

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He's gonna take them as his

own people, and he's going

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to restore them to the land.

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So really, we see.

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All of the undoing of what is caused

in the fall in Genesis chapter three.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Exactly.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Nathan Beasley: But just a, just a

snippet of that and then ultimately

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in Christ, the fulfillment of that.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Yep.

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Nathan Beasley: So, we're gonna

continue this story and, and Exodus

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and talk about, the, the law.

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But as we've done the past few days,

let's begin with a, a moment of pausing.

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use this time to, calm your scattered

senses and put them on Christ.

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Use it as a time to center yourself

and invite the spirit into our

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time of devotional reflection.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): So as Nathan said,

we're gonna talk about the law and what we

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learn about the law because of the cross

and also the cross because of the law.

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If there's one area of the Old

Testament that I think people have

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a real problem with understanding

and applying it is the law.

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So for those who aren't familiar with

that, it's called the Mosaic Law because

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God gave it through the Prophet Moses

to the people of Israel at that time and

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place and how to live within the land.

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There were 613 commands.

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They're often summarized with the

10 Commandments And some of them

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are easy and some of them are very

difficult and some of them just

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strike us as very weird, to be honest.

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So how does the cross illustrate that?

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Well, the New Testament tells us a

couple things about how we should

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understand the place of the law.

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One is that the law is actually good.

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The law is good.

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And Jesus talked about how he fulfilled

the law that the law would not be

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done away with until it was complete.

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I have not come to do away with

the law, but to fulfill it.

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He says in Matthew chapter five, and then

Paul talks about how the law was good.

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He talks about this in, for

example, the Book of Galatians.

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Why is it good?

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Well, it's good because the law

is simply the expression of how.

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Adam and Eve were supposed to be

God's image within this world.

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They're supposed to have God's

righteousness and reflect that out,

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and therefore mediate God to the world.

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The law becomes the expression

of how Israel is to do that

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within their time and place.

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So the law is not some

arbitrary list of rules.

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It is the expression of who God is

and what God's righteousness is within

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a certain time, place, and culture.

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So the law is good in that way, but

Paul says what the problem with the

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law is that we couldn't keep it.

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Nathan Beasley: Mm-hmm.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): The problem

wasn't with the law itself, but human

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nature was not able to keep the law

and so it became something accusing

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us and showing us our failure.

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And the third thing we see in the New

Testament is that Jesus is the only one

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who could fulfill the law perfectly.

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And he does that by fulfilling at

every point in his life, all the

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spirit of each of those 613 laws.

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So he does this now by this rigid rule

keeping like the Pharisees tried to

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do, but simply by living the life of

love, which is what the law was about.

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It was showing what love looked like

towards your neighbor and toward

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God within that time and place.

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does that make sense?

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah, yeah.

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Yeah.

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so let me see if I

understand this correctly.

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The law is good and that the law

really is about protecting the

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relationship between us and God.

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So you see that Genesis two,

principle coming out once again,

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but because we are sinful.

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The law shows us of our own brokenness,

and then the law also points to Christ

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and that Christ fulfills the law by

keeping it, keeping the spirit of

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it, and then also, in his death and

resurrection, forgiving us of our sins.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Right, I can't explain

the full logic of this perfectly, but

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because he fulfilled the law, he was able.

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Then to apply that righteousness to those

who place their trust in him is the idea.

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And so the law shows us then

our need for the savior.

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We can't keep the righteous

requirements that God desires of us.

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We can't be that, but Jesus can.

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And if we placed our trust in him, There

is this restoration that God begins

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within us to make us people of love.

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And if we're able to do that

fully, we are able to live out

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the law, the spirit of the law.

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None of us get there entirely, but

that's the goal within this life that'll

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be fulfilled completely in the next.

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Nathan Beasley: So it's like,

it's the second part of what

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God says to Moses in Exodus six.

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He says, I'm gonna deliver you

and I'm gonna redeem you, but

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then I will make you my people.

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And so that's this.

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You'll, you'll come into a right

relationship with me that's guarded by.

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some instructions that protect the

relationship and really help you

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receive, the goodness of life that was

intended back in Genesis chapter one.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And so when we read the Law in Light

of the Cross, the goal isn't to try to

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obey all the laws of the Old Testament.

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In fact, it says in the New

Testament, we are not under that law.

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That's not our covenant.

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And that's a good thing because

those will be hard, in several ways.

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Number one, we can't do a

lot of them because we're not

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living in the land of Israel.

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So we can't fulfill all those sacrificial

laws at all, even if we wanted to, but

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Nathan Beasley: because those

had to take place at a particular

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LA at a particular location.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Yeah.

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Had to be at the temple.

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Yeah.

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And there is no temple now.

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Nathan Beasley: Mm-hmm.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): At least

physically in that sense.

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Nathan Beasley: But also there's

just so many of them that, I mean,

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new Testament writers pick up on

this too, that it's, it's kind of

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easy to get bogged down, overwhelmed

with, trying to keep them all.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Yes.

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Nathan Beasley: And then you throw

into the equation or sinful nature

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and you're like, okay, yeah.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Yeah.

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So when we read the law, it

should not be something that we

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impose a burden upon ourselves.

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Rather it should be something

that points us to Christ.

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He fulfilled the law because the law

is good and the law is an expression of

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love for them in their time and place.

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Therefore, because of what Jesus has

done for me, how can I fulfill the law

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of love using these as maybe an example

and a guide, but not a law over me.

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How can I show this kind of

love within my own time and

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place, following Jesus Christ?

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So in that sense, it's

not a burden over us.

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It's, an expression of

our heart, from within us.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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A lot of these laws, a lot of the 613

deal with the actions and it seems

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like God has always been, after a heart

posture, there's a, an actual reality in

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which we become the people of God, but.

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Like we said yesterday, it's,

it's possible to take people out

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of Egypt, but it's more difficult

to take Egypt out of the people.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Right?

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Nathan Beasley: And so there's

this ongoing transformation where,

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we begin to write the law in

our hearts as the Psalmist says.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Nathan Beasley: And that's

what, Christ reveals.

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especially in the Sermon on the Mount.

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You've, you've heard this law,

but I'm gonna tell you like, if

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your heart is not in it, you know,

you've heard it said, do not murder.

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But if you're, if you're angry.

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You know, that's, that's

committing murder in your heart.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Mm-hmm.

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Nathan Beasley: And

God is after the heart.

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So even if you could fulfill all

the law in your actions, it's

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not about just exterior actions

as much as an interior posture.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Right.

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One other thing we could mention here

is that, uh, when Jesus comes, he's

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asked, and this is in the Gospel of John.

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I forget what chapter, but he's

asked What works of God must we do?

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He's asked by the, by his Jewish

audience there, what works of God must,

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must we do to inherit eternal life?

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And Jesus says, the work of God is

to believe in the one that he sent.

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In other words, me, there is a sense

because we can't keep the law, but

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Christ did and applies it to us.

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There is a sense we can learn

from the law like we talked about,

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but ultimately the issue is.

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Have we chosen to trust God?

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The law was supposed to be an

expression of the way they trusted God

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in this particular way of putting my

faith and my trust in Jesus Christ.

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When that happens, then he creates this

new birth within us that will ultimately

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result in lives that fulfill the

purpose and the, the spirit of the law.

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But it starts there.

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We have to do one thing.

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We have to place our trust on Jesus

Christ for our salvation and follow him.

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Nathan Beasley: So the faith is

attributed to us as righteousness.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Yep.

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Nathan Beasley: Just as we saw

with Abraham and just as we see

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the author of Hebrews pick up.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Nathan Beasley: And the expression

of faith for the Israelites at the

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time of Moses was adherence to the

law and the sacrificial system.

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But it's not about that.

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There's a spirit that undergirds

that that is still, the

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principle is still true today,

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Daniel Jepsen (2): right?

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Trusting God.

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Yeah.

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Uh, Paul picks up that phrase

from Genesis that we talked about.

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Abraham believed God and God said,

that counts for your righteousness.

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And Paul says that's the same thing.

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Now, the object of a belief

is a little bit different.

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It's more specific.

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It's in Jesus Christ himself

is the one sent from God.

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And the one who shows God, uh,

but he says, do that and God

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counts it as your righteousness.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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And importantly as well, I think, is

the idea that faith still is lived and

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embodied in following the way of God.

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So it's not just this cognitive

ascent that I believe that

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Jesus, you know, is God.

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To really, truly believe in the spirit of

belief, that means to base our life on it.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Yeah.

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Nathan Beasley: And so that comes with

a certain lifestyle that oftentimes is

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in congruence with the law of Moses,

but like you said, it's not always

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gonna be so, so, still not lying and not

murdering and not committing adultery.

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These are all in alignment with

the way of God and the way that

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we demonstrate our trust to God.

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But ultimately, it's Jesus is the.

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Pinnacle point.

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Trusting in Jesus as the son of God who

came to take away the sins of the earth

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is the ultimate way that we demonstrate

now this side of the cross that we trust

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in God and God's ability to save us.

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And is the desire to do,

and His desire to do so.

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Daniel Jepsen (2): Yeah.

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Well said.

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Nathan Beasley: So as we move

to a time of application.

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We thought that it would be good to

spend a moment, reflecting on our trust,

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our faith in Jesus, and to consider the

ways, that we live out that faithfulness.

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I think if anybody's listening and

they've never made a, a definitive

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decision to say, you know what?

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I recognize, I don't understand

all the ways that this works, but I

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recognize and I believe that Jesus is.

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God who has come to save

me and save the world.

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faith begins with making that

decision, but it doesn't end there.

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Once we put our trust in Jesus, then

we recognize in multiple iterations

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throughout the remainder of our lives, the

ways in which we can live out that faith.

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as the Holy Spirit leads us and

guides us into deeper holiness?

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So let's spend a minute reflecting

on, our trust in Jesus and our trust

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in his completed work of salvation

on the cross and in the resurrection.

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And then spend some time reflecting on

your day ahead and the ways that you can

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walk in faithfulness to his way of life.

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let's end our time now with a time

of yielding to God's will and God's

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way by praying the Lord's Prayer.

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Our father in heaven hallow it.

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Be your name.

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Your kingdom come, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us today our daily bread

and forgive us our debts as we

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also have forgiven our debtors.

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And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

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Amen.

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In Light of the Cross
Lenten reflections on seeing all things in light of the cross from Franklin Community Church

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