Grace is not just a New Testament idea

In Exodus 20 God gives his people the 10 commandments. We are very familiar with these, but how familiar are we with the next 3 chapters of Exodus?

Following the big 10 in chapter 20 God gives over 600 positive & negatives commands about how the people are to live as his covenant people. Because God has delivered them from slavery in Egypt, this is how they are to live as his people. There are commands about diet, uncleanness, how to deal with neighbors, and the list goes on and on.

What fascinates me about this part of the book of Exodus however, is what follows these 600 commands.

God gives his people the tabernacle.

So, we have God giving his people his laws, his commands, his covenant stipulations for what it looks like for them to be his people and then he gives them the tabernacle. Why would he do this? Is there any purpose in it?

God gives the people the tabernacle because he has given them his law. He knows they can't keep it. And so how does a holy God dwell with covenant breaking people?

The tabernacle.

God sets up a system by which they can be his imperfect people & still be his people. God knew they couldn't keep his law perfectly. And his law was not designed to earn them favor & acceptance with God. It was given BECAUSE they had God's favor & acceptance already! God sets up a way for a substitutionary sacrifice to give its life in their place so that they can live in the presence of a holy God & be unholy. God's heart is not that they be intentionally unholy, but he knows they won't be perfect.

This is grace.

And grace is not just a New Testament idea, it's a Biblical one.

The whole Bible is about God's grace. The whole Bible points to our inability to keep his commands and our need for a substitutionary sacrifice to make things right for us. The whole Bible is not about us performing to gain God's favor but about God's performance for us to secure his favor. And now, because we have it, we are to live as his covenant people.

Think about it. When you came to Jesus, did you stop all manner of sinning? Did you instantly become perfect? Did you no longer have need for grace & forgiveness? Absolutely not! We probably all sinned the day we came to Jesus! So what are we to do about that??!?!

Nothing.

It's already been done.

It is finished.

Jesus did it all. He took our place. He took on flesh & "tabernacled" among us (John 1:14).

Now we obey the commands of God not to earn his favor but because we already have it. What amazing grace is this!? And we see it in an Old Testament passage.

Grace, it's not just a New Testament idea, it has always been the heart of God.