"Through the law comes the knowledge of sin"
Romans 3:20

I'm going to start a little series. Not really sure how long it will go, but there will definitely be a few iterations. It falls under the conviction that Scripture is the most important thing that we have as Christians here on Earth. Every other means that we have for sanctification (see more on that topic HERE) is determined, discovered, and developed by Scripture. We worship God, but we worship according to what we see in Scripture; we see who it is that we're worshiping, we see that he is worthy of worship, we see that he demands it, and, perhaps most importantly, it is seeing Christ in Scripture that evokes the emotional response of worship to begin with. We pray to God, but we learn how to pray by reading through prayers found in the Bible. We serve others, but we learn that this is "pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God" (James 1:27) in Scripture. Everything we do in our Christian life should be rooted in deep, Christ saturated, Biblical understandings. Singing a pretty song with hands raised does nothing if we don't see who it is we are worshiping, which is most readily visible in Scripture. Praying over food does us no good if we don't realize that we were told to do so in Paul's letter to Timothy. I think you get the point. So, this was just an intro paragraph to the series. Now for the actual content of this blog...

One of the most fundamental reasons of reading Scripture is laid out for us in Romans 3:20. Paul tells us that the law is where our knowledge of sin comes from. The law, in one sense, is not the entirety of Scripture, but just the portion that laid out the Mosaic law. Yet, in another sense, it is in fact all of Scripture. Jesus said to "not think that [he came] to abolish the Law or the Prophets; [he did] not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." So, the Law is fulfilled in Christ, which the whole New Testament is clearly about. The Old Testament is about him too. Sadly, we often times delineate the two parts of Scripture and focus on the New Testament. If we are Christ followers, and if Christ is the Word of God (that will be the crux of the next part of the series), then everything in Scripture is about him ultimately. All that to say, when Paul says that the Law shows us our sin, it's not just meaning the Old Testament portion that was called the law.

Therefore, every portion of Scripture shows us our sin. Every single word in the Bible is a means of displaying our depravity to us. And thank God it does! Sin isn't popular. People don't like being told they're sinners or that they've sinned. But, without this realization, there is no hope for us. "The wages of sin is death." People don't like death either. Good! You shouldn't! That's kinda the point here! I hope you hate death and embrace the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE. Otherwise all you can look forward to is death.

Scripture serves the very basic purpose of pointing out our sin. But this purpose is absolutely necessary if anyone is to be saved. Without it, we won't know our sins. Without knowing our spiritual condition of death, we will have no idea as to just how desperate we are for a Savior and a life Giver. Scripture is the Gospel. And the first step in the Gospel journey, the good news, is a realization of what the bad news is. The bad news is that we have abandoned a perfect, holy, mighty, sovereign loving, and just God. We have gone astray, going our own ways. We have continually seen him in creation and denied his existence. We have signed up for religion even, but have left out Christ, the very one who died to make a way for us back to God. And, without being born again by the Spirit of God, we are utterly hopeless and left to the demise of an eternity in hell, where there is no rest and the fires are never quenched.

But here's the cool thing. That bad news isn't really bad if it becomes news to you. It's only bad if you don't know that. Once it becomes news to you, and you hear it, you read it, you grasp it, it becomes the first step in good, great, triumphant, and beautiful news! So, please let this be good news to your hearts and souls! Let it be the first step towards Christ. Let it be a means of falling more deeply in awe of your Savior if you are already a believer. We have all sinned, we have all fallen short of the glory of God. And, through Scripture, we have access to this great news.

Come back for the rest of the series. Grace and peace. Amen.