Today’s 333 Devotional: “The Better Hope”

If the promises of God are going to be realized, the keeping of the law, as found in the Tanach, the first five books in the Bible, is not the way. Basically, it says, “Mess with God, and you’re toast.”

No one can live a perfect life, and that is the type of life the law demands from beginning to end. If you break one command, you’ve broken them all.

“For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10)

Therefore, if the promises of God, especially that of salvation by grace through faith, is based upon the keeping of the commandments, no one will inherit any of them. The law, therefore, makes faith irrelevant.

The problem is that the law makes us guilty before a holy and righteous God, and because of this we are unable to enter into God’s promise of salvation. The law also keeps us tied up in knots worrying about whether or not we have done enough.

But the promises of God are not based upon the law, but upon faith, which is what the Apostle Paul lets us know.

“Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.” (Romans 4:16)

The writer of Hebrews makes this observation, “For the law made nothing perfect, and now a better hope has taken its place. And that is how we draw near to God … But now He (Jesus) has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.” (Hebrews 7:19; 8:6)

The better hope that is based upon a better promise is faith in Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made for our sins.