Glorious Impossible

(Don't miss the chance to win a scholarship to She Speaks. Info at the end of this post.)

Impossible. That's the word that comes to mind each night as my family reads through the Old Testament recording of the law.

I have to say that it's been a challenge. It's new reading for our boys since Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy don't tend to be subjects of Sunday school lessons for children. I'm watching their faces and seeing incredulity. How can the God of grace and love that they've always learned about make such a list of rules? How could he command his people to wipe out whole towns and stone lawbreakers?

I have to admit that I'm glad to have been given an additional assignment for teaching my own Sunday school class. I'm reading Romans 5. The New Testament informs and enlightens my reading of the Old Testament. Without the New Testament, I might come to the conclusion that God is harsh, cruel and nit-picky.

With the New Testament, I understand that God is holy and sin is serious. In fact, the wages of sin is death. In that light, I see the Law as mercy. Instead of killing the sinner, God allowed the blood of animals to be shed and His law protected His people from their own self-destruction. Punishment and exile were also merciful ways to draw His people back to Himself and away from the precipice of total annihilation.

Romans 5:20-21 reminds me of this glorious truth, "The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

So last night, I reminded my boys to remember as we go through the law that Hebrews 1 tells us that Jesus is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being. We need to see the Law through that truth to remind us of the glory of God's loving and grace-ful character.

Now on to She Speaks....Lysa TerKeurst, the wonderful leader of our Proverbs 31 team, is running a contest on her blog this week for a full scholarship for She Speaks. This conference for speakers, writers, women's ministry leaders, bloggers and teen girls is an AMAZING experience. Not only is it a nuts and bolts treasure trove, it's a spiritual retreat. Don't miss going to Lysa's blog and reading all about the contest.