a repost from my old blog: Law and Grace in an Unlikely Place
I heard a great soundbite by Nick Lannon
the other day about the way we celebrate special holidays. He said
that at Halloween everyone dresses up as evil beings and gets given
candy! While at Christmas Santa is keeping a list and checking it
twice. If you’ve been a naughty boy or girl Santa knows about it and no
presents for you! Just a lump of coal. In this way Halloween is now
more of a Christian festival than Christmas he said. This is because
the God of the Bible is all about freely giving “candy” (forgiveness of
sins) to evil people who don’t deserve it. We don’t get forgiveness
from God because we have met some kind of standard (like Santa’s list)
but because He wants to give it to us. And He has through Jesus’ life,
death and resurrection for us.
All this talk of Christmas and
Santa got me thinking about Christmases when I was a kid. I wasn’t a
very good child and if Santa had kept his word then I would have
received a lump of coal every Christmas. But you know what? I never
got one. I always received presents!
So I must respectfully disagree with you
Nick; Santa is a good picture of Christianity. All the naughty children
out there are threatened with the law but it cannot change their
behaviour. All it can do is show them how far they fall short of
Santa’s standard. But on Christmas Eve, all their sins are forgiven and because of "Santa’s" great mercy they receive what they don’t deserve –
presents!
“Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins.
But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who
was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the
mediator between God and the people. Now a mediator is helpful if more
than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not use
a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham.
Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If
the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by
obeying it. But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of
sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus
Christ.” Galatians 3:19-22
No comments:
Post a Comment