Performance Oriented

My reading for today was from Luke 24:44-53.

As of late, my journaling has shown me where my concerns are:
I want to live for Christ.
I want to leave behind a good reputation
My love for my wife.

The one thing that is really central to my thinking of two of the above listed concerns is death. I have had to think about this recently. Not that I am sick or my wife, she is fine. But there are three people whom my wife and I interact with and one other person at church who are dealing with very serious illness. So, maybe it is natural for me to put myself in their shoes. I can’t really. But, I have tried to imagine.

Does any Christian stop to consider what life was like for a Jew prior to Christ having removed the burden of The Law?

As men grew consciously aware of getting close to their last days, did they think, “I wonder, did I live life well?” The Old Testament Jew had a different focus from what I am about to say. And here it is: Somehow, we live performance oriented.

Under the Law of The Old Testament, performance was futile. However, I have no doubt the overwhelming majority competed fiercely with themselves if not with one another. But still, performance meant nothing, only observance of the law mattered, and one would wonder, ‘for what’?

That would be answered by what imagery David set up for us when he called God his Shepherd.

A shepherd is the path finder and protector of the flock. And that is what God did. In His goodness, He provided a way for man to follow, that their relationship with God would be secure.

The Law pointed to something significant; The Christ and God’s redemption. The Old Testament Jew may have looked at The Law as a basis for a superficial relationship with God. The Jew's eternal future was in the hope of a savior who would visit men of the past and rescue them from the sleeping bed of the grave. Even with this hope, would they strive before death? Could the Old Testament Jew, steeped in the traditions set up to prevent them from breaking God’s commands do enough to be deserving of this hope? “Will I be left in the grave for not having done enough?”

Romans 8:3 tells us that the Law was powerless to save a man because of our sinful nature.
Romans 5:6 says Christ died for the ungodly man.

Man could only strive so desperately prior to Christ providing a way.

Man’s experience in attempting to find a relationship with God prior to the redemption Christ provided must have been inconceivably difficult. It must have been like having to make up for hurting a close friend or relative so badly and spending the rest of your life offering gifts and sheepish smiles. One would go heavy distances to be a source of happiness to that person, because you truly wanted forgiveness. But the pain of the one you love but hurt will never go away for either of you. The more you present yourself to that beloved person, the more you serve as a reminder of the pain.

It is just hopeless! You are expected to perform even though it gets you nowhere. If you do not perform for reconciliation that will get you nowhere, you are penalized for not trying. Hopeless! But, then, the afflicted does something that is completely humbling. The afflicted elevates His pain to an insurmountable anguish and offers His Son as a sacrifice in order to reconcile the hurt that caused damage to the relationship. But this time around we observe only one law. We humble ourselves and say ‘thank you’.

Unlike the passion one had to observe the Law, we still perform, only, the motive changes. We demonstrate our appreciation by doing what is asked; and this is so odd.
We find favor with our fellow man. Love one another. Do kindness and pass through this world knowing we will have achieved fulfillment of the command, “love one another” by the memory we will leave behind.

Forget that we’ve long offended God. He has!
Accept that the standard was met. God took off his robe and stepped onto the Earth as a man to fulfill the standard that was intended for us.