REFLECTIONS ON JEREMIAH 23:6 pt.2

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength---Deut.6:5

...but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD...Deut8:3

Love God with all of your being? Live by every word that proceeds from His Mouth? Who has ever lived like that? Who CAN live like that?

Yet, these two verses seem to be God's design for the whole human race. Where it is written " all have sinned and fall short of of the glory of God" it would appear that these two verses are the standard that mankind falls short of; especially since these very verses are echoed by Jesus Himself through Whom God has spoken in these last days.

But, the heart of man is not inclined to love God like that or to obey His word. It is written, " We have turned every one to his own way" and " there is none righteous, no not one: There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable;There is none who does good, no, not one" Rom. 3:10-12.

What an indictment! Paul says that the human race is a "slave to sin". That is, we have a bent towards transgressing God's laws and falling short of His standard.

On the day God created man He concluded--" Then God saw every thing that He had made, and indeed it was very good". Interestingly though, after Adam and Eve disobeyed God His conclussion changed: " Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually".

So that's it:Man became a slave to sin as a result of Adam's sin in the garden, for there God told Adam " for in the day you eat of it you shall suely die". Adam,
and the whole human race with him, died spiritually that day meaning he, and through him, we, became slaves to sin. Loving God and obeying His word then became contrary to our nature.

I must exclaim with Isaiah, "Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips".

Hopeless. Helpless. Utterly lost. Spiritually dead.

Who could possibly stand before God when it was time to give an account of our lives before Him? He is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. He is Holy and Just. Sin must be paid for for His justice demands that. "The wages of sin is death". Who then can obtain a righteous standing before God?

Answer: " But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed---even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe --- being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness---that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus". Rom. 3:21-26.

Oh, the wisdom of God! HE has provided the way for those who believe to have a right standing before Him. It is through faith,no effort or devising on our part, purely of Him. The one believing in Jesus is declared righteous, free from the guilt and penalty of sin. It is by His unmerrited favor. The christian is redeemed from the slave market of sin,paid for by the blood of Jesus.

He will be called " THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS"

to be continued.




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