One of the biggest privileges we have with bible study in our time is studying in light of the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

The Old Testament would’ve read very scary, legalistic and daunting to us without the New Testament. But suddenly as we read everything in light of Jesus’ death and resurrection, all we really feel is mercy, grace and love, with some bouts of laughter, and still some occasional “huh’s”, because tbh some stories in the Old Testament are really something lol.

This new lens we read through does not just awaken us to endless mercy, grace and love, it also opens our eyes to much greater responsibility because I often think to myself “if they did this by their natural human mind, how much more now that Gods Spirit has made me home?” And I’m not even referring to the large notable miracles like parting of the sea, or raising the dead or stopping the rain, more so to the little acts of kindness in their everyday living, like the judge who gave the Shunamite woman back her land, or the 4 men who let down a man through the roof to see Jesus, or even Rachel who simply offered to feed the donkeys of a stranger.

I think it’s amazing that anything we read that men did before Jesus died and His spirit indwelt us, we can do a 100 fold of it by Gods spirit now indwelling us.

So every act of love or kindness that we’re preview to before Jesus died, was really out of the ‘humanity of the human heart’, but it’s now telling of what we’re capable of now that The Spirit of love has made us home.

This tells us something so powerful. Man without the Spirit of God actually has the ability to do some good, which flows from the emotional part of man which to an extent helps us feel the feelings of others (and there’s no surprise here because we’ve been made in Gods image, even though sin came to taint the purity of that image). But the goodness of the natural man remain as filthy rags to God because it is neither spurred by the desire to see men saved from sin, neither is the end goal to see men turn to God.

The goodness of the natural man is just to appeal to our emotional sense, which yearns to cater to one’s need, whether just for satisfaction, for pride or to have a cause to boast about.

But the goodness of a man in whom Gods spirit dwells is motivated, fuelled and delivered with the goal to glorify God, which has within it, the opportunity to open their eyes to their fallen state and lead them to salvation.

This is why ‘goodness’ as we know it can never be enough. Yes, it satisfies humanity on an emotional and moral level, but appeasing ourselves emotionally or morally is not the antidote to sin, and as long as sin thrives in the hearts of men, we will see and hear the evil of this world.

So part of bible study in our time is also the joy and fulfilment of what our actions now have a potential to do. Salvation came for man’s spirit, but the Spirit now influences the totality of man: our will, desires, intentions, motivations, thoughts, words and actions.

The saving grace of the cross purifies us and also sanctifies everything that comes from the purified us!

Everyday we see more reason to be grateful for the cross as we contemplate all we’ve come into by that one sacrifice.

May we never make light of this amazing grace.