Some of my best recipes have come without a plan. I look into the refrigerator and let my taste buds guide me as I mix the odds and ends of the leftovers before they go to waste. And almost without fail, my husband comments on how I should make this recipe again. Laughing, I tell him he’s out of luck because I have no idea what I did! How about you? Are you someone who follows a recipe card to the ‘T’? Or do you use it as a general guide and instead add a dash of this or a spoonful of that? The law to the Hebrew nation was a recipe meant to be followed precisely for these written words provided the wisdom for life. The impossibility of this perfect life was found in no one… until Jesus. He was the first human to be able to fulfill the law by the way he lived because as divine he was perfect by His very nature. His righteousness surpassed those of the Pharisees because He was the one that Law pointed to all along.
Jesus was the law (the Word) made flesh who made His dwelling among us (John 1:14). By doing so, He brought the Kingdom of God into the world as a new possible way to live free of the effects of sin and shame. Jesus embodied the law perfectly and then bore the punishment for the sins of all those cursed upon the cross. The generosity of His love for those who did not earn it or who weren’t of a particular status in society was radical. He came to serve as do the people who follow Him and die to their recipes for life and be guided by (surrendered to) the perfect law.
This recipe is replicated and can only be done through the power of the Holy Spirit and will only reach perfection in eternity. The recipe is being refined each day as we apply the Word to our lives. James 1:24 & 25 reads, “For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
May you be blessed in your doing and taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).
Jessica Klootwyk
Discipleship Director