The Final Events.
Sinai and Calvary. The Riven Rock.
Part Forty-six in a Series.
https://secondcoming.org/blog/
When God spoke the law from Sinai, that living stream of water, which gushed forth from the smitten rock in Horeb, was still flowing. If it had ceased to flow, the Israelites would have been in as bad condition as before, for it was their only water supply, their only hope of life. It was from Horeb (Sinai) from which the water came that restored their life, that God spoke the law. The law came from the same rock from which the water was already flowing, “and that rock was Christ.” 1 Corinthians 10:4
Sinai is rightly regarded as a synonym for the law; but it is no more so than Christ is; for in Him it is life. Jesus said: “I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within my heart.” Psalms 40: 8
The law was therefore Christ’s life, for out of the heart are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23
“He was bruised for our iniquities” and “with His stripes we are healed.” When He was smitten and wounded on Calvary, the lifeblood flowed from His heart, and that stream still flows for us. But in His heart is the law; and as we drink by faith from the life-giving stream, we drink in the righteousness of the law of God. The law comes to us as a stream of grace, a river of life. Both “grace and truth come by Jesus Christ.” John 1:17
When we believe in Him, the law is not to us merely “the voice of words” but a fountain of life.
All this was at Sinai. Christ the giver of the law, was the Rock smitten in Horeb, which is Sinai. That stream was the life of those who drank, and none of those who received it in thoughtful gratitude could fail to know that it came direct from their Lord– the Lord of all the earth. They might have been assured of His tender love for them, and the fact that He was their life, and therefore their righteousness.
Although they could not approach the mountain without dying– evidence that the law is death to men out of Christ, they could drink of the stream that flowed from it, and thus in the life of Christ drink in the righteousness of the law.
The words spoken from Sinai, coming from the same Rock from which came the water, which was the life of the people, showed the nature of the righteousness that Christ would impart to them. While it was “a fiery law” it was at the same time a gentle- flowing stream of life. The prophet Isaiah knew that Christ was the rock smitten at Sinai, and that even then He was the One Mediator, “the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time”, he could say, “He was wounded for our transgressions”, and “with his stripes we are healed.”
For the ancient Israelites there was emphasized the lesson that the law comes as life to men only through the cross of Christ. The righteousness which comes to us through the life given to us on the cross, is precisely that which is required by the ten commandments and none other.
The Final Events will end with the splendor of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ also known as the Parousia. The Signs of Parousia are detailed in the Final Events Blog series and emphasize the Imminent Return and Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and the Love of the Father for all mankind.
The Cross with its healing, life giving stream was at Sinai, therefore the Cross cannot possibly make any change in the law. The life proceeding from Christ at Sinai as at Calvary, shows that the righteousness, which is revealed in the Gospel, is none other than that of the ten commandments. Not one jot nor tittle can pass away. The awfulness of Sinai was at Calvary, in the thick darkness, the earthquake, and the great voice of the Son of God. The smitten rock and the flowing stream at Sinai represented Calvary: Calvary was there; so that it is a fact that from Calvary the ten commandments were proclaimed in the identical words that were heard from Sinai. Calvary, not less than Sinai, reveals the terrible and unchanging holiness of the law of God, so terrible and so unchangeable that it spared not even the son of God, when “He was reckoned among the transgressors.”
However great the terror inspired by the law, the hope by grace is even greater; for “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Above all stands the oath of God’s covenant of grace, assuring the perfect righteousness and life of the law in Christ; so that although the law spoke death, it only showed what great things God promises to do for those who believe.
It teaches us to have no confidence in the flesh, but to worship God in the Spirit and to rejoice in Christ Jesus. God was proving His people, that they might know that “man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord, does man live.” Deuteronomy 8:3
In conclusion, the law is not against the promises of God, even though it cannot give life. On the contrary, it backs up those precious promises in thunder tones as demonstrated on Sinai and Calvary; God’s oath is ever steadfast. The greatest requirement of the law is to have the unyielding faith of Jesus, demonstrated in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the promise of faiths fulfillment in the daily life of the believer. The Lord Jesus has clearly taught us this precious truth at both Sinai (Horeb) and Calvary.
The Final Events.
Sinai and Calvary. The Riven Rock.
Part Forty-six in a Series.
https://secondcoming.org/blog/
The Final Events will end with the splendor of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ also known as the Parousia. The Signs of Parousia are detailed in the Final Events Blog series and emphasize the Imminent Return and Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and the Love of the Father for all mankind.