Fulfillment
Posted by Karah
Pause
Put your phone in another room so that you won’t be tempted to check social media or respond to texts for the next few minutes. Focus completely on communicating with God—through His Word and through prayer.
In your journal, write down as many of the Ten Commandments as you can remember without looking it up. Then, turn to Exodus 20 to see if you remembered them all correctly. Ponder these questions:
How many of these commandments have you broken in your life? No one will see this, so you can be honest.
Why is it so hard to keep all the commandments God gave humanity? Explain.
Read Matthew 5:17-20 in your Bible.
“Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”
—Matthew 5:17
Why does it matter that Jesus has perfectly kept all these laws? How does that relate to your salvation? Explain.
Jesus accomplished what you could not; He lived a perfect, sinless life that fulfilled the law completely. Even our best efforts to live up to God’s commands fall painfully short. That’s why Jesus is our only hope. But because Jesus fulfilled the law, we can put our faith in Him and find complete forgiveness all our sins.
Respond
Do you find yourself trying to keep all the rules and earn God’s love? Jesus came to set you free from that. Be honest with God about it. Ask Him to help you to rest in what He has already done. Talk to Him honestly today, asking Him to set you free from the temptation to rely on your own good works to earn His favor.
Write out a prayer, thanking Jesus for His perfect sacrifice and for fulfilling the law in every way. Praise Him for doing what you never could have.
For further study, read Ephesians 2. This chapter is a powerful reminder that our salvation is not a result of keeping the law and being good. Salvation is all about Jesus.
Behind the Story
In Exodus 20, Moses delivered the Ten Commandments to the people from God Himself. For hundreds of years, the people did all they could to keep each law, hopelessly falling short every time. That’s why God created the sacrificial system; it was a way for people to atone for the sins they committed. But it was a temporary fix. It wasn’t until Jesus came that complete and perfect forgiveness was possible. The Sermon on the Mount is all about reminding people that apart from Jesus, we cannot please God. We will disobey Him. We will break the law. But Jesus came to set us free from our hopeless attempts at perfection. He is the answer.
The Point
Jesus has done what we cannot do. Only He completely fulfilled the law and only His righteousness makes it possible for us to enter God’s kingdom.
Posted in Boys, Devotions | Tagged Camp Ridgecrest Alumni and Friends, Camp Ridgecrest for Boys, Reprinted from ec magazine. © 2012 LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Used by permission., Weekly Devotions