Creation groans

In Romans 8: 18 – 27 we learn about three different groans that are characteristic of the current age in which we live. We read that the creation groans to be delivered, that we, Christians, groan too as a result of living in this imperfect world with its pains and death. But then we will also hear that the Holy Spirit groans for our sake, in compassion with us, before God.

Rom8: 18 – 22 tell about the groaning creation.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

All three groans we read about in Romans 8 remind us that we are not home with God, yet!
While we wait for the glory of the new world to come, we are aware of the suffering of creation as a result of our sin. The planet suffers because we are a greedy, selfish race with little love and respect for the works of the hand of our Creator.

We clearly hear the ecological groans and turmoil of all species – and earth itself. We also see that the economies that placed the biggest burden on God’s creation are the most unwilling to correct the selfish torture of what God has made.

This is not only a serious charge against Adam’s race and unquestionable evidence that we stand guilty before God. It emphasizes that the end, the final Word of Christ, is still to come. It is as if Creation is sighing and crying before its Maker, to be delivered from man’s heavy hand and selfish greed. Creation waits for God’s children to be revealed as caring, respectful and responsible representatives of the Creator, to speak for it and resist its destruction in word and deed.

Creation came under this curse, not by its own doing, but because of the sin of mankind. Creation itself expects to be delivered. The word "expectation" in verse 19 brings to mind the image of "a person standing on their tiptoes in order to see something." So, too, creation yearns for that time when it will in fact be "delivered" from the devastation of the curse of our sin.

While our world and all of creation groan and sigh, there is still great beauty left in this world. Call to mind the many wonders of plant and animal life: the scenic views that take our breath away and the wonderful variety to be found in the plant and animal kingdoms.

Try to imagine the most beautiful natural sight you have ever seen. With that image in mind, remember that what you see is a sight blemished by man’s sin. Now, try to imagine how glorious that same sight will be when the curse and consequence of sin is forever removed! Creation longs to be free and God longs to free it! He will some day, for when Jesus died on the cross for the redemption of sinners, he also redeemed this sin cursed world. One day, the shackles will fall off and all creation will rejoice! One day, we will not only inherit a new heaven, but also a new, delivered and perfect earth!

If we believe this we will, as God’s children, serve, protect and save as many wonders of God’s creation as we can. We will be passionate about God’s great work of art. And as we endeavour to leave the smallest possible footprint of our sinful existence - we will testify that what God will do on the day of the Lord, will exceed our greatest and most imaginative expectations. We, then also delivered from our groans as a result of sin, suffering, illness, sadness and death, will live in wonderful harmony with everything God has made.

What a perfect and complete salvation we receive! What a glorious inheritance!
What a magnificent Saviour we serve!

Covenant of Grace

When Abram was frightened by many dangers and enemies, God said (Gen. 15: 1): "Do not be afraid, Abram." I am your shield, your very great reward". A shield is used by soldiers to protect themselves against the spears, swords and arrows of the enemy. But Abram is shielded by the Lord. The Lord's protecting care is all around Abram. God is his refuge and strength.

The Lord is Abram’s reward: to know him and to be known by him, to love him and to be loved by him, to walk with him, to talk with him and to serve him. Abram's reward is a living, loving relationship with the Creator and King of heaven and earth!

God made a covenant of grace with Abram, vowing to be his God and the God of his descendant. It is called a grace covenant, because God not only agreed to take responsibility to maintain this covenant, but to also be responsible for the penalties if Abram, because of human weakness would lapse in keeping the covenant “to be God’s people”.

This means that from beginning to end the grace covenant that ensures God’s children of salvation, is one of grace. God makes the promises. God gives the guarantees. God puts himself under a curse, so to speak, if the promises are not kept.

The full significance of what God did for Abram is therefore not really seen until the New Testament or New Covenant in the blood of Christ.
There, in Christ, the covenant of grace reaches its highest expression. In Christ God keeps the covenant promises and suffers the covenant penalties. For it is Christ who perfectly kept the covenant to be God’s people in our place, and it is Christ who also bore the curse when we break the covenant, when he died in our place on the cross.

Do not be afraid – for the God of Abram, the Father of Jesus - is your shield and your great reward!

Blessed assurance and awesome inheritance.

Not only have we been adopted into the family of God as his children, but we are given a precious assurance of that fact in our hearts every day.

Rom 8: 16, 17: The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

God’s children have fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit spends time with us. He testifies that we are God’s children. He leads us and teaches us all we need to know about how to live for God. God’s Spirit will speak to your heart. He will show you things. He will guide you. He will warn you. He will lead you. He will feed you. He will comfort you. He will teach you the truth. Like a mother who wraps her arms around her child everyday, expressing her love, the Spirit of God does the same for us.

But our adoption as children of God does even more. The Bible says we now are wealthy beyond measure.
We have been made the heirs of God. And will anyone dispute the fact that our heavenly Father is wealthy beyond measure? God is able to meet our needs no matter how great they may appear to be. What he has belongs to us now, and eternally.

Not only are we the heirs of God, but we have been made joint-heirs with Jesus. Yes, we do share in his sufferings while we are here on this earth. But we also are given an equal share with Jesus in the wealth of our Father. Under Jewish Law, the eldest son would be given a double portion of the father's wealth. However, under Roman law, all sons were treated equally. In God’s kingdom, we have been placed on the same footing with Jesus. No, we will never be like him: God’s eternal divine Son, - but we have been made like him in the Father's eyes! How glorious is the gospel!

The fullness of our inheritance will not be seen until we arrive at home in our Father's house. But when we go to heaven, we will see just how rich we are and were. One look around there, will tell the tale forever.

Why not bring your needs to your Father, who owns everything, and has given it all to you! Draw on your inheritance in Christ. We are a blessed people and we do not have to live as depraved slaves of sin, but as grateful and blessed children in the presence of God. Speak to your Father now of your neediness and insecurities. Allow the Spirit to show you the wealth of assurance of being God’s child!

Word and Faith!

God's greatest requirement is that we believe him. When he calls us to be his own and reveals to us his grace, mercy and love, we must believe what he says. When we believe, we want to obey him and live as he wants us to.

Through our faith God makes us righteous and justifies us in Christ. When we hear God’s Word, we receive salvation through believing it and doing it. This is the only way our faith becomes stronger and we see his purpose for us clearer.
Listening to, studying and contemplating God’s Word, is therefore essential to having a faith relationship with our God

Do you have this faith?

Psalm 130 - Remember, me Redeemer.

Ps 130
Oppressed and lost, I’m calling,
in darkest night to God.
Downhearted, hopeless, ailing:
to die remains my lot.
O Lord, now hear my wailing.
I plead, I beg, depraved.
Remember me, Redeemer,
for only you can save.

My sin disgraced me, shamed me.
I cannot, Lord, face you.
Your holiness, LORD, broke me,
defeated, shattered me too!
Lord, will you still forgive me,
as you have always done?
I thirst for rest, for knowing:
a new day has begun.

As soldiers guarding a fortress,
wait for the sun to rise,
for countless, endless hours,
through nights with darkest skies.
So I wait on the Lord God,
I’m waiting long, its hard!
But God in grace and mercy,
will not my plea discard.

Have hope, have faith, God’s people,
and trust in God who saves.
With sunrise comes his mercy!
God rescues from the grave.
His love, his grace, his pity
bring light, create the day.
Absolve my sins, forgive me,
LORD, while I wait, and pray.

(Andries Combrink - copy right)

Through the Holy Spirit, we call God our Father

Imagine being born into a very poor family that is also dysfunctional. A family with no hope, no future and that does not care for you. Now imagine that a kind and wealthy man comes to you and offers to take you into his home and family as his own child. He offers you everything you desperately need, free of charge. All you have to do is believe that his offer is real and agree to it. It does sound like a fairy tale, but this is what happens when we trust God’s promises and we place our faith in Jesus Christ as our living Lord.

As Paul continues with Romans 8, he moves deeper into the wonder, the miracle and the joy of the freedom we have in Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit in us. He assures us that every saved person becomes part of God’s family and enjoys all the privileges of his own natural Son, Jesus our Lord.

We read these comforting words in Romans 8: 14 – 15: Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons (or children) of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."

According to Paul we became the children of God. We know this because we are led by the Holy Spirit. We have a new family. God is our Father, Jesus is our friend, king and Lord and the Spirit provides us with a sense of “sonship” by gracefully working in our inner consciousness.

Paul tells us that when we are part of God’s family, through faith, the Sprit helps us to act like God’s family. If a person in faith accepts the offer to be a child of God, he soon develops traits that are common to the Father's family. Every child of God has the Holy Spirit living within him, and the Spirit makes God’s presence known in us as we walk with God every day.

We have a new Father. We are not slaves of sin who fear punishment, but we now call God by the intimate, personal name which is Father, or even the less formal word, “Abba” that translates to “Daddy”.

When we came to Jesus, we were taken out of Adam’s family which is cursed and damned, and adopted into the family of Jesus which is free to serve a loving heavenly Father.
Praise the Lord! We have a new family and a new Father!

Which means that we have a new freedom. No more forced labour for Satan or the tyranny of our own weakness. Our minds have been changed by the Spirit to love and serve God above all. As a result of our relationship with God, we are able to call him Father. Abba!

This message is one of intimacy and dependence on God, and one of a complete lack of fear. Yes, there must be respect and reverence, because our heavenly Father who cares for us and leads us by his Spirit, is the almighty, most holy God.
The wonder is so much greater when we remember this, when we come to him as a child comes to a loving Father.

Noah

We learn from Noah’s story how much security we have when God, in his grace and mercy, shuts us into his security – just as he shut Noah and his family into the ark and kept them safe. We also know what happened to those who were shut out of the ark!

Gen 7: 16: "Then the Lord shut him in."
Do you see what God's mercy does, time and again? God's mercy provides a “security gate and door” in times of judgment and calamity.

Those inside the door – whether it be Noah, or old Israel, or the Church, or us, do not need to fear judgment, for our security is from God and in God’s promise of grace. Noah did not shut the door of the ark. God did. And Noah and his children and his grandkids, were safe!

Jesus says, "I am the door" (Jn 10:7). Jesus is our Door of Safety in the time of judgment. It is Jesus alone who saves us and is able to keep and protect us.
I urge you to come to Jesus. It is he who delivers you and me from judgment and from calamity! He weathered the storm and was victorious on our behalf! On Golgotha!

His covenant of grace, meaning his firm promise to be our God and the God of our children, will keep us safe. We walked through the “door” Jesus Christ, and now we are shut in to be safe within his Body.
Do not fear! Have courage!
Because the Lord is with you!

"Surpassing the Pharisees"

The law of God is important to Christians. Not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, has disappeared. Every jot and tittle must be fulfilled. The law is as relevant today as it was on the day God engraved it into the tablets of stone. Therefore, says Jesus,
(Mt 5:1) Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

By grace we are forgiven when we break the law. But grace brings more than the forgiveness and redemption. It also saves from the tyranny of sin. It brings obedience and holiness.

What is grace? It is that amazing free gift of God which delivers a man from the curse of the law and enables him to keep the law. Grace is that which brings me to love God and keep his commandments. "If you love me," says Christ, "you will obey what I command" (John 14:15).

I The Righteousness of the Pharisees
In many ways the scribes and Pharisees were outstanding people. The scribes, for instance, were men who spent their time teaching and explaining the law; they were authorities on the law of God. They gave their whole life to the study and explanation of it. They were the men who made copies of it, exercising great care as they did so.

The Pharisees were the men who were famous for their law-obedience. They were people who set themselves apart by their careful observation of rules and regulations that they themselves had set up. By their rules and regulations they tried to "build a fence around the law." Their intent was to protect the law and to prevent them from breaking the law.
The Pharisees, for example, said that on the Sabbath there is to be no cooking of food, no tying of knots, no loosening of knots, no separating of threads, no baking, no washing, no writing; you are to neither light a fire nor put out a fire. Of course, the Bible doesn't teach any of this. But, to keep the Sabbath holy, the Pharisees built a wall around the fourth commandment to make sure they don't break it!.

In this contaxt, it is even shocking to hear the words of Jesus in our text:
(Mt 5:20) For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus says that the righteousness of the Christian must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees.

But, their righteousness was not righteous at all. They thought of themselves as being righteous. Others saw them as being righteous. They deluded themselves and fooled others. Jesus simply called them hypocrites.

II The False Righteousness of the Pharisees
The righteousness of the Pharisees was external and formal, rather than internal and of the heart. The Pharisees made a big show, a big drama, out of their righteousness. They prayed on the street corners and then they prayed out loud. They wanted everyone to see them and hear them when they prayed. When they gave money to the poor, they had someone blow a trumpet. Everyone would stop what they were doing and look to see who was giving and how much they were giving.

Some of the Pharisees were surprised that Jesus' disciples once sat down at the table and began to eat without first washing their hands. Jesus replied that the Pharisees are so concerned about the outside, but so negligent about the inside.
(Mat 15:19-20) For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. (20) These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.'
In another place Jesus compares the Pharisees to whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean (Mt 23:27).

The second charge which our Lord brought against the scribes and Pharisees was that they were more concerned with the ceremonial than with the moral. Their religion was all ceremony and no morality. As long as he had washed his hands, fasted, offered prayers, and went to the Temple, the Pharisee thought all was well with his soul. All that counts, he thought, was that he had been to temple worship. He did his religious duty. That was sufficient.

It is so easy to have the same kind of attitude today. There is a type of religion which does not hesitate to teach that as long as you go through certain ceremonies – like Sunday morning worship, or baptism, or confirmation – it does not matter very much what you do with the rest of the week. They think that all is well with their soul, because they have done their ceremonial religious duty.

The third charge that Jesus brings against the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is that it was full of excuses. For instance, the Pharisees said that if you devoted your money to God you were thereby excused from giving help to your aged parents. They covered up their greed and their disobedience under a camouflage of religion (Mt 15:4,5). We can all rationalize our own sins and explain them away. It is so easy to find excuses. "Everyone does it," we may say. Or, "The government is so wasteful it is dumb of me to declare all my income to SARS." This is what the Pharisees did. They twisted things around to make what is wrong, look right.

The fourth charge the Lord brings against the Pharisees is that their righteousness was self-centred rather than God-centred. Jesus said,
(Luke 20:46) "Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets."

The fifth charge the Lord lays against the Pharisees is a complete absence of love and concern. They neglected mercy, justice, and faithfulness (Mt 23:23). They devoured widows' houses and dealt harshly with the poor (Lk 20:47).

The sixth and final charge is that the Pharisees thought their righteousness not only earned them a reward, but even gained them eternal life. They forgot that no one is righteous, not even one (Ps 14 & 53). They forgot that the good we do is not good enough. They forgot that no one deserves and earns anything; all rewards and salvation itself are only a gift of grace. In effect they were denying the power of sin and the grace of salvation.

We have to surpass the righteousness of the Teachers of the law. We have to be sincere. We have to change inwardly and not ceremomially, outwardly. We have to love and care. We have to seek God's purpose and desire to serve God wholehaetedly.
We have to be unselfish, God-fearing, Christ-loving followers who from the heart seek the Kingdom of God.
We cannot be hypocrites. We need to be righteous, because we love and because we love to serve - God and others! We need to surpass the scribes and the Pharisees, because we are from the depth of our souls excited about the grace and the mercy of God!

The Holy Spirit desires true life for us.

The Spirit challenges us to choose true life.
Last Wednesday we learned about the contrast between the natural sinful mind of man and a mind that has been changed by the Spirit of God. (Rom 8: 5 – 7).
This brings us to a challenge in verses 8 – 12.

Rom 8: 12 – 13 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

This challenge is also a contrast. It is a contrast between two choices. The first is is to pay to the sinful nature what we think we owe it. The second is to live by the Spirit.
Today we are bombarded by the untrue saying, that we need to pay ourselves first, before anything else and that we owe it to ourselves and deserve it. We buy the lie that implies that if we are completely sold out to God's Spirit, we are not going to experience the same degree of happiness, as when we live selfishly.
The result may be that we are trying to live for Jesus, yet we are at the same time trying to live most of all, for ourselves.

But if we are living by the Spirit, we are challenged to make two commitments. Firstly we need to put to death the misdeeds of the sinful human nature. Then secondly we need to aspire to wholeheartedly giving ourselves in thought, in energy, and in ambition to live by the Spirit.

The first commitment we have to make is to put to death the deeds of the old unsaved person. It means a radical (“put to death”) rejection of all practices which we know to be wrong. It results in a daily repentance, a daily turning away from all known sins. Jesus said, “If your eye offends you, pluck it out! If your hand offends you, cut it off!” This is a tough word from Jesus, and then he says: “It is better for you to go into heaven with one eye than into everlasting damnation.”

You do not owe your sinful nature anything! The Devil has tricked us into believing that we cannot live without self indulgence. But God has said, “I have set you free. You can and you will live an abundant life by walking in my Spirit.

We do not owe the old lost person we used to be, anything, but we owe the Lord a debt of love and gratefulness we cannot pay even if we continue to worship and serve him for all eternity.

Someone said that the opposite of love is not hate, but apathy. An attitude of, “I really do not care”, a complete disinterest in what the Spirit desires for as to aspire to.

The Spirit desires that we sincerely say, “Lord, I am yours. My time is yours. My talent is yours. My budget is yours. My family is yours. Everything I am is yours. I want to serve and love you, because I want to be 100% yours.”
May God give us such love because he has set us free from the bondage of the old mind and changed our minds to love and serve him more than anything!

Be blessed as you use the freedom Christ afforded you by his death and resurrection to be sold out to God, as his grace, mercy and fellowship remains with you, today and always.

My purpose in the Body of Christ.

1 Cor 12: 25 – 27 But God has combined the members of the body (of Christ) and has given greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

If we all have different functions and responsibilities, then what is our purpose in the body of Christ?

1 Cor 12: 25a “There should be no division in the body “ - Our first purpose is to promote unity - When every member does his/her part and submits to God in willingly working according to the gift of the Holy Spirit that God gave them, then the body of Christ will function in peace and unity. There are too many feet who want to be hands and too many ears who want to be eyes. When this happens, the Body is fractured and chaos results!

Verse 25b-26 “but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” The second purpose is to practice mutual care - We are a unit and as such we each have responsibilities, according to our gifting, to the other parts. When another believer is hurting, we need to respond to that need. We are not to seek a position that glorifies self, but we are to seek the good of the body of Christ and thereby glorify God. .

Verse 27 “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” The third purpose is to participate together in the activities of the Body - When a member hurts, it affects the entire body. When one is exalted, the entire body should be blessed by it. When all functions according the gifts received from the Holy Spirit, the Body operates well and accomplishes much.

Together we are a complete body, and individually each one of us is a small, but vital component of a very important instrument in the workings of the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, the Church!

Did Christ abolish the law and the Old Testament?

When Paul says we are not under law, but under grace (Rom 6:14), isn't he also saying there no longer is any place for the law? When John the Baptist said the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus (Jn 1:17), wasn't he also saying the same thing? Someone once said to me, "We are a New Testament not an Old Testament church. It is the New Testament we should spend time with."

All of this leads me to ask: Is the law still applicable today? Or, what about the whole of the Old Testament – should we ever read or preach from it?
In today’s verse from the sermon on the mount, Jesus speaks to this. He says, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets ..." Matt 5:17 - 19.

I. Jesus: A Threat to the Law and Prophets?
As a teacher in Israel Jesus was unusual. First, at that time all teachers in Israel were Pharisees; but Jesus was not a Pharisee. He had not been trained as a Pharisee. So the people looked at him and said, "Who is this man without any formal training or education, who teaches and makes all these pronouncements?"

Second, in word and deed Jesus deliberately criticized the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. Don't forget, they were the leaders and teachers of Israel; almost everyone obeyed them and believed their every word. Jesus, who did not belong to their schools, dared to denounce what they taught.

Our Lord was not content with making only positive statements. He also criticized other doctrines. Our Lord was not hesitant to condemn wrong doctrine and we shouldn't be hesitant either.

Third, in contrast to the Pharisees, Jesus did not spend all his time explaining the law. He often preached grace and the love of God.

Fourth, again in contrast to the Pharisees, Jesus mixed with tax-collectors and sinners. He sat down with them and even ate with them. He not only broke all the Pharisees' rules and regulations, he actually seemed to be breaking them deliberately.

B All of this caused questions to arise. People wondered, in condemning the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees, was Jesus perhaps condemning the law and the prophets, our Old Testament, too?
Is this actually the case? What is it that Jesus is teaching us today?

II. Definitions: Law, Prophets, Fulfill
A To understand clearly what Jesus was saying we have to make sure we understand the terms that he used. First, what did Jesus mean by "the Law"? The law, as given to the children of Israel, consisted of three parts: the moral, the judicial, and the ceremonial. The moral law is the Ten Commandments and the great moral principles that were laid down once and for all. The judicial law is those rules given to Israel for that time and place telling them how to treat others jutsly and fairly in matters of the community and the state. The ceremonial law has to do with worship and offering, the ritual and ceremony used to approach God. By "the Law" Jesus has all of this in mind.

Second, what is meant by "the prophets"? The prophets would be those Scriptures in the Old Testament that do not fit the term "law" in the strict sense of the word. The law and the prophets therefore refers to the whole of the Old Testament. So Jesus says, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Old Testament."

B Jesus adds to this: "but to fulfill them." "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Fulfill here does not mean to complete, to finish.
What Jesus says to us can be summed up in two principles. We find the first principle in verse 17 and the second principle in verse 18. I want to look at them in reverse order.

III The Demands of God's Law are Permanent
A The second principle stated by Jesus is that God's law is absolute; it can never be changed, not even modified just a wee bit. It is absolute and external. Its demands are permanent and can never be put to the side. Says Jesus,
(Mt 5:18) I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

B The law which the voice of God dramatically announced from Mount Sinai, is as much for you and me as it was for Israel. It wasn't only Israel but also you and me who can have no other gods, who can't take God's name in vain, who must not steal, who must not commit adultery. It wasn't only Israel but also you and me who must worship God alone, who must use God's holy name only with reverence and awe, who must work to share with those in need, who must keep thoughts pure and holy. The law and the prophets, the whole of the Old Testament, says Jesus, is still applicable, relevant, and appropriate to us today.
We too must strive for a just society and we too must worship God in truth and in Spirit.

IV Jesus Came to Fulfill the Law.
A The first principle stated by Jesus is that he has not come to destroy, to abolish, or even to modify, the teaching of the law or the prophets. Rather, he has come to fulfill them, to carry them out, to give them perfect obedience:
(Mt 5:17) "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."
We need to ask: in what way exactly does Jesus fulfill the law and the prophets? Everything prophesied about him, also through ceremony, happened when he came to us and was fulfilled.

B Jesus is the fulfillment not just of the prophets but also of the law. First, Jesus is the fulfillment, in and of himself, of the ceremonial laws and rules about worship. All these decrees speak of him and point at him.

Christ is also the fulfillment or the fulfiller of the Law's moral requirements. As the Son of God Jesus is eternally above the law; yet, he came as one under obedience to the law. And his comlete obedience is imputed righteousness, given to us, as if it is our own.

As we read the Gospels we can't help but notice how very careful our Lord was to observe the law; He obeyed it down to the smallest detail. Not only that, but he also taught others to love and obey the law. At the end of his life there was nothing of the law, not a jot or a tittle, that he had broken or disobeyed or violated. So Christ fulfilled the law by his perfect and unwavering obedience to it.

C. It was especially on the cross, however, that Christ fulfilled the law. Because of the Fall in the Garden God had pronounced judgment on all sin. Punishment of sin must be carried out. The law must be fulfilled. And it was, at Golgotha, when Christ suffered the punishment demanded by the law, when he completely and finally fulfilled the law of God.

And this is the Gospel - that Christ fulfilled the law, freed us from its punishment and wrath and kept the law in our place.
Therefore we become children of God only by grace, and only through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Men's Breakfast - 29 May!

What an exciting atmosphere for fellowship was created by the "bulls-stormers-geesvang" theme, followed by e message from Nehemiah 1.
Thanks Mark, Michelle, Babs, Pat and Salomi!