Just As It Has Been From The Beginning

           Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through
righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:18-21)

Sometimes, people talk as if God sat down one day and brainstormed on the question of “What rules can we give mankind about how they should live? What hoops can we make them jump through for our entertainment and their misery?” They seem to assume that the rules are arbitrary and capricious. Perhaps this is because they are used to cobbling together pieces of worldview that don’t go together or don’t work. They don’t expect the universe to be a cohesive whole.
          Yesterday, I wrote about a time before the Law was given. During this time, man was shown that he did achieve righteousness left to himself and his own ideas. The great flood showed that prehistoric postmodernism didn’t bring about Heaven-on-Earth. I believe it brought the world to the point where if God didn’t send the judgement of the flood, no life would now exist.
          After the flood, God implemented the second stage of His plan. He gave the Law through Moses in order to show man that even with rules in writing, man couldn’t get it right. Righteousness could not be achieved through our own consciences, or by keeping the Law. All the Law did was make it clearer how sinful we are. Righteousness, rightness with God, can only be achieved by God and granted as a gift to those who are not God – just as it has been from the beginning. That was made possibly through the third stage of His plan - the sacrifice of His Son.