The Old Testament of the Bible is full of the Israelites worshiping other gods or disobeying God’s orders and needing to apologize to God for him to save them. That usually meant destroying the altars to other gods near them and/or offering a burnt sacrifice to God. God wanted his chosen people to know that sin had to be paid for in blood. A just God would kill everyone the moment they sinned. Romans chapter 6 verse 23 says it best:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:23
Every sin deserves death, but God is merciful.
Since Adam and Eve first sinned, God spoke of the plan to have Jesus die for every sin ever committed. The law the Israelites were to live by in order to be God’s chosen people was intended to be a daily reminder that sin deserved death. Romans 3 verse 20 explains it this way:
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
Romans 3:20
A problem rose from having a list of things to do in order to be God’s chosen people. Many of the people started to think that they were earning heaven by their works, not by God’s grace. Sin deserves death. It is as simple as that. Human nature says that if we apologize enough and give enough money or time to pay for the pain caused, we can be forgiven. But sin is not human logic. How can we repay God for crimes we can’t stop doing? We may get forgiven for cheating on our spouse or finish paying the price for killing someone, but how many times do we wonder how someone looks undressed or hate the person that cut us off in traffic?
God sees everything
Society may think we’re fine people. Maybe we’d even be described as “good” people, but God doesn’t see that. He feels all the reflexive thoughts we’ve had before we corrected ourselves, all the times we’ve looked at a car or a house and coveted it, even for half a second. Most of us have a secret addiction that society says is fine. Television is full of shows that are designed to make you want someone else’s house, or wardrobe, or fancy car. It’s edited to highlight gorgeous bodies and make you lust for a main character or a side character.
Lust, focusing on money instead of God, overindulging in alcohol or feel good drugs, bragging about our latest buy to friends, dreaming about living rich and famous, living life the easy way where you never need to work, getting revenge if something bad happens to you. These are all things that are encouraged in modern culture and marketing. The Catholics created the seven deadly sins: lust, greed, gluttony, pride, envy, sloth, and wrath. How are we supposed to pay for all the little sinful thoughts we have that hurt God? Paul, in Romans explains why the Old Testament believers weren’t always saved:
Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone.”
Romans 9:32
The stumbling stone is a reference to a Bible verse commonly interpreted as Jesus. The law was never going to save God’s chosen people, the law pointed to Jesus who would fulfill the law perfectly and earn salvation, which God mercifully gives us sinners.
Jesus is the final offering to God
Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Romans 10:4
Number 21 verses 4 through 9 talk about one of the times that the Israelites grumbled against God in the desert before they got their promised land. They grumbled and God sent snakes into the camp to bite and kill them. They regretted grumbling and asked for God’s mercy. He had Moses create a bronze snake on a long pole and put it in camp. Anyone who looked at the bronze snake when they were bit, didn’t die. They didn’t worship the bronze snake as a god, they knew that looking at the snake was a sign of their trust in God. They trusted God to save them, so they looked at the snake. Future generations would miss that the rules they followed were meant to be outward actions of their faith and trust in God, not a way to earn heaven from God.
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Romans 4:25
Only the perfect Jesus “earned” a perfect life in heaven. He lived a perfect life, knowing that we can’t be perfect. His perfection covers our sins from God’s sight, giving us mercy and grace to save us from our sins. We can’t earn forgiveness by our actions, but Jesus gifts it to us through faith.
But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Romans 7:6
That is why modern believers don’t kill animals to show our apology for hurting God with our sins. Jesus was the blood sacrifice Christians need for forgiveness. Now the rules of the old law were fulfilled, so we live to show God’s love and mercy in our life. We no longer live striving to earn heaven, we live in thankfulness for the gift given us.
As you can see, Romans talks a lot about why Christians don’t live by the Old Testament laws and how to live now that Jesus has fulfilled them. It’s pretty heavy reading, Paul was writing to smart people, but it is very though. If you want to understand this concept better, I recommend you read the book of Romans. The book of Hebrews also covers this subject and is an easier read.
