God of More

A few days ago, we said that God doesn't need the law. Now, just a few pages later in the Bible, Paul tells us why: 

Because God does more than the law does (8:3). 

Because the law is limited by our flesh. That is, it can only do what we are capable of doing. It can hold us accountable for the places where we fail, but it accepts that we will fail. It can teach us how to atone for our wrongs, whether they be against persons or against God. It can give us guidelines for how to live with one another. 

But it can never put our broken pieces back together. 

The law does not eliminate our brokenness. It does not eliminate our sin. It does not make us whole. 

It can never redeem us. 

That's why God is so far above the law. God does what the law cannot. 

The law makes us pay for our failures; the Lord washes us clean. The law teaches us to make up for our shortcomings; the Lord makes us whole. The law requires payment, atonement on our part, some kind of sacrifice; the Lord took the sacrifice upon His own shoulders. 

In this verse, Paul even says the law is powerless. And he's right. 

But the Lord....the Lord is powerful. The Lord loves us into doing things the law could never convince us of. 

All things considered, I'd rather have the Lord than the law. And I think that's what Paul was getting at. 

For so long, the law guided the lives of the faithful. The law taught them how to live. But in the life of the Lord Himself, Jesus, all of that changed because the ministry of Christ, the sacrifice of the Son of God, the resurrection and the empty tomb, it doesn't teach men how to live; it teaches men how to love. 

And love is better.