AGAINST THE LAW

July 9

Bible Reading: Acts 7:17-43

Acts 7:39, “Our fathers refused to obey him…”

As the Apostle Paul noted, the law is good (Romans 7:12).  Our problem, when it comes to the law, is that no one (except Jesus) has been able to keep it. 

Amongst other things, they accused Stephen of speaking against the law (Acts 6:13).  So, they seized him and brought him before the council.  The council, led by the High Priest, had its own laws by which it functioned.  It examined evidence, separately scrutinized witnesses, and required that their testimony be agreed to in every detail.  If the verdict was a verdict of death, a night needed to elapse before carried out, so that the court might have the opportunity to change its mind and its decision.  But things didn’t proceed according to their laws.

The plan was to interrogate Stephen for so-called blasphemous statements.  But Stephen turned the tables on the inquisition such that the interrogated became interrogator.  His adversaries espoused concern for the law, but the problem is that they were all lawbreakers.  They came from a long line of lawbreakers, going all the way back to the time of Moses (Acts 7:39, 53).  The High Priest was a lawbreaker.  Every member of the council was a lawbreaker.  The witnesses were lawbreakers, too.  Stephen had been a lawbreaker by practice until Jesus—the only man before or since to perfectly uphold the law—worked to save him from his sins.  

Stephen was there to bear witness of Jesus.  The council revered Moses the lawgiver, but Moses had said, “God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers” (Acts 7:37).  Jesus was that prophet-Messiah, and He had come to deliver His people from their sins.  But they had no heart for Him, and Spirit-sent Stephen was soon to indict them for that crime.  We lawbreakers have only one hope, which is the One who came to fulfill the law to save us from our sins.  Salvation is by grace through faith in Him!

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”—Romans 3:21-22

JUST AS I AM
Just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidd’st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark blot,
to thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, though tossed about
with many a conflict, many a doubt,
fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.