A foundation on the rock

Deuteronomy 4:1-14 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

“Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ² You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. ³ Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who followed Baal-peor, the Lord your God has destroyed them from among you. ⁴ But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.

⁵ “See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. ⁶ So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him? ⁸ Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?

⁹ “Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons. ¹⁰ Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’ ¹¹ You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud and thick gloom. ¹² Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form—only a voice. ¹³ So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it.

Today as we remember the day Jesus sacrificed His own life on the cross to pay the price for the sins of all mankind, we recognize that through His sacrifice we have been granted eternal life, but Jesus also said:”I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Because of the cross and the sacrifice of Christ we no longer have to die for our sins and because of the resurrection, we also have new and abundant life, here and now. We no longer live under the requirements of the law. On the cross Jesus said: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)  And "It is finished!" (John 19:30) Those words of Christ spoken across time changed everything. There is nothing more we need to or can do to earn our salvation. We are forgiven through the cross. It is finished.

Yet Jesus Himself said: “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17) It’s important that we realize what the finished work of the cross did, but also what it did not do. The cross did not do away with the law. Rather, it fulfilled the requirement of the law, the sacrifice required to pay the price for sin. Romans 6:23 says: the wages of sin is death… It rightly says that it is not it was. Jesus sacrifice on the cross did not change the consequence of sin. Sin causes death, spiritual death here and now and los of eternal life which then means eternal death. Romans 6:23 continues: but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.   

Today’s text in Luke 6: 46-49 says:   “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. ⁴⁹ But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock… There is another time that Jesus refers to building upon a rock. In Matthew 16, when Peter answers Jesus question about who He is, the exchange goes like this: Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”  

It is upon the revelation that Jesus is the Christ that Jesus will build the church and give it authority. It is upon the revelation that He is the Christ, coming to Him, hearing His words and acting on them, that we lay the foundation of our life, both the eternal life and the abundant life Christ has provided to us through the cross. The cross has not done away with sin. We need only to look around the world and look within ourselves to see that sin still exists in the world. Jesus did not free the world of sin. Neither by conquering sin and death did He free us to sin. In Christ, through the cross we are free to live above the consequences of sin. Jesus says: “Everyone who comes to me…”

Where do we come to Christ?  We come to Christ, to see Him for who He is and what He has done at the place of His sacrifice, at the cross. If you have never come to Christ, if you have believed that it is too late for you, the sins of your life have disqualified you from the redemption of the cross, I encourage you to come with me, to see Christ and hear His words.

As we gaze upon Christ on the cross we see that there were two other men paying the price for their actions on crosses next to Jesus. Here’s the story in Luke 23:39-43:   Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.”

⁴⁰ But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? ⁴¹ And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴² Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”

 That dying thief, in the very last moments of his own life, received the revelation that Jesus was/is the Christ, the Messiah, Savior. He said “Lord Jesus”, restrained as he was physically, he came to Christ. He heard the words, the same words which you too can hear today, spoken across time, the eternal words of Christ saying:  “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”  And "It is finished!"  The work of the cross is finished. There is nothing more to do but to come to Christ, to hear His words and to act on them. Believe, receive, build upon the foundation of Christ. Live the abundant life He gives, a life free not to sin, but free from sin.

Lord Jesus Christ thank You for the finished work of the cross. Holy Spirit fill me and empower me to walk in the fullness of the revelation of what Christ has done for me, to live an abundant life free from the bondage of sin, eternally reconciled to the Father, to live a life built upon the solid rock of the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, my Lord and Savior.   Amen.