Psalm 25:8-10 (NIV): Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.
God has never left those who sincerely want to know Him and His ways on our own. As He is, He would be completely unknowable by any human being. Because He is pure Spirit, He cannot be sensed by any physical senses (even though the physical things He has made can be sensed, and provide clear and evident proof of His reality to all who are willing to see). He cannot be weighed in a balance or measured with calipers. He is beyond any ability of man to discover or know. Yet, because of His love for mankind, because He created us for fellowship with Him, He has continually revealed Himself to people, and has caused the record of that revelation, the Bible, to be created, preserved, and passed down through the millennia.
This revelation of God, of His character, of how He has orchestrated events, even causing the rise and fall of nations, even includes a revelation of what is required of those who want to live in His presence. He is a holy God, all light, with not a trace of darkness to be found anywhere in Him. So those who want to live in God’s presence, to walk with Him, to hear His voice, and to see His hand working through them, must be holy as well. For this reason, since the days of Adam and Eve, God has made His will and His commands known to those who want to live in His presence. He even gave us the system of sacrifices, so that those who violate one of His commandments could be restored to fellowship with Him.
With the coming of Jesus, God gave to the children of men the gift of a single sacrifice to pay for all sin. Jesus completely fulfilled the bloody sacrificial law, dying once for all (Romans 6:10). And with His resurrection, ascension, and glorification came the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God in the life of every believer, to purify our hearts, and to guide and direct every step of our lives. God did all of this because the people who want to live in His presence, now and for all eternity, must STILL be holy (Hebrews 12:14), because God still is and always will be 100% holy. The benefit that we have since Christ is the presence of the Holy Spirit, reworking our hearts back into the shape of God’s own heart (Acts 15:8-9); writing the words of His commandments into those newly formed hearts, so that obedience to what He commands comes naturally from within, not from a system imposed from the outside (cf. Ezekiel 36:25-27); and a heightened conscience as God’s Spirit speaks clearly to guide and direct every single step in the life of the believer (cf. Isaiah 30:21).
Father, thank You for all of these amazing gifts. Thank You for Your love that reaches out to us all day long. Thank You for the gift of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, so that if we will simply receive Him, our sins are paid for and we can have a fresh start. Thank You for the Holy Spirit, which brings Your presence and the presence of Jesus right into our hearts continually. Thank You for Your Spirit’s supernatural power on our behalf: purifying our hearts from their tendency to sin, and moving us to obedience from within. And thank You for Your every-day guidance, helping us to know the right, and then giving us the power to do it. For all of these amazing gifts, Lord, I thank You! Amen!