One of my friends and I are going through Elyse Fitzpatrick's book, Idols of the Heart. In the chapter we reviewed last night, she listed out four benefits of the law. I appreciated her insights and wanted to share them with you...
The law helps me by serving as a tutor - it helps me understand I don't possess any natural goodness - by examining myself against God's perfect law, I see my failings
The law also humbles me and brings me to the end of my self-righteousness - it shows me that I am not worthy of salvation - I have nothing to commend myself before a completely holy God - it strips away my illusions of goodness and helps me see how much I am in need of God's forgiveness
The law teaches me how thankful I am to be for Christ's perfect keeping of it - I am bound to Christ because He kept the law perfectly, then bore the punishment for my law breaking in His body - by this my heart is prompted to overflow with love and obedience - as I compare my lawless life with His perfections, I am overcome with gratitude
The law becomes the standard of righteousness that I seek to obey out of thankfulness - my desire for holiness swells up out of a heart filled with gratitude - the law no longer condemns me because I have been given the perfect record of Christ - as I grasp the truth of my utter dependence on His mercy, the law causes me to see my sin and long for His character in my life - I desire to be holy because I love Him and want to be like Him
from pages 51-52
correction - a couple of days ago I wrote that 400 lightning strikes hit the ground, Dave said it was actually 4000!
a couple more pics from our time in Index
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