Daily Lesson for March 23, 2022

 Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalms 119 verses 97 through 104:

97 Oh, how I love your law! *

all the day long it is in my mind.

98 Your commandment has made me wiser than my enemies, *

and it is always with me.

99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, *

for your decrees are my study.

100 I am wiser than the elders, *

because I observe your commandments.

101 I restrain my feet from every evil way, *

that I may keep your word.

102 I do not shrink from your judgments, *

because you yourself have taught me.

103 How sweet are your words to my taste! *

they are sweeter than honey to my mouth.

104 Through your commandments I gain understanding; *

therefore I hate every lying way.

A great and grace disservice has been done to Judaism by Christianity through its over-done contrast of Law and Gospel. 

For too long (centuries), Christianity painted Judaism out to be a religion of cold and dogmatic legalism while (at least since the Reformation) underscoring for itself grace and mercy — and the absence of import in the law.

Not so!

There is grace and mercy in Judaism.  There is also law (and must be) in Christianity. 

Yes; it is true that perhaps the law cannot save a soul. But let us remember what Dr. King said to those who said about the enforcement of laws of integration would never bring true reconciliation in to the souls of this country, “The law may not change a man’s heart; but it can keep him from killing me.”

Nobody wants to live in a lawless society where there are no rules. Only the strong would survive!

Yes, humanity was not given for the law; law was given for humanity. So let’s live the law in humanity. 

I like what Ratzinger said about Joseph the husband of Mary, “He lived the law as if it were Gospel.”

Let us respect and thank God for the grace of the  law, which protects the weak and cares for the vulnerable.  And let us remember that the greatest law of all is the law of love, without which no man-made is really law at all. 

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.