Psalm 119:165 (NIV): Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.
God did not give His law to bind and imprison people, or to make them sad and miserable. He gave them all of His laws and precepts to help them to be free from temptation and sin, so that they can be free to live in His presence, to experience all of His great blessings, and to know the true peace rest that only those living freely in Him can experience. That is a key reason why Jesus did not eliminate the law when He came. He did not even eliminate the sacrificial law as some teach; the wages of sin is still death, and that wage must be paid. But Jesus did fulfill that part of the law, with His death paying the price for the sins of all mankind; a price that no one was able to pay on their own.
But the rest of the law still stands. God’s people must be a truly holy people, living in accordance with all of God’s decrees and His principles, because He is a holy God, and evil cannot live in His presence on earth or in heaven. One benefit that the people living after the time of Jesus have that those before Him never knew is God’s presence in their hearts through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s empowerment means that those who love God, who long to obey His law because they hunger and thirst for His presence and His blessing, are empowered to obey it in every detail. Those who don’t obey God’s commands and laws, or who claim that they are powerless to obey them, either do not know Him, and therefore do not have His Spirit in them, or they desire something else more than they desire Him – riches, pleasure, power, or freedom. But those who love God’s law because they truly and completely love Him, will receive great peace and the power to live for Him, so that there is nothing that can make them stumble.
Father, thank You for Your presence and Your power in my own life. I testify to the truth of all You have promised. Help me today to live Your life so powerfully that all can see Your peace, Your joy, and Your freedom in me, so that their hunger for You grows. Amen