Years ago my mother was invited to a very prestigious dinner party in London, England. As she conversed, Mother discovered that the distinguished-looking older gentleman seated beside her was the former head of Scotland Yard, Great Britain’s equivalent of the FBI. Fascinated, she respectfully began to probe him for anecdotes. As he opened up under her genuine interest, he revealed that the departments under his authority had included those for forgery and counterfeiting. When she surmised that he must have spent a lot of time studying counterfeit signatures, he corrected her. “On the contrary, Mrs. Graham. I spent all of my time studying the genuine thing. That way, when I saw a counterfeit, I could immediately detect it.”
My mother’s dinner partner had unwittingly touched on a very important principle. If you and I want to be able to detect counterfeit truth, we need to immerse ourselves in the real thing. We need to saturate ourselves in the truth of the Word of God.
The Christian life is motivated, not by a list of do’s and don’ts, but by the gracious outpouring of God’s love and blessing. We want to live our lives to please God because before Jesus “the law was given through Moses” (John 1:17a, NIV). Think of the law as summed up in the Ten Commandments.
The law didn’t make us feel better. It made us feel worse.
The law didn’t help us to be good. It revealed how bad we were.
The law didn’t give us joy or peace. It made us feel guilty.
The law didn’t help us measure up. It showed us we fall short.
The apostle Paul said the law was like our schoolmaster, teaching us how much we need a Savior. But “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17b, NIV) because He perfectly fulfills the law. His life measures up to the standard established by the law, and when we receive Him by faith, His righteousness is credited to us. Therefore in Christ we too fulfill the law.
