To Live is Christ — my heart, His notepaper

If my husband wrote me a love letter and I refused to read it, I’d not be surprised if he tore it up and never wrote another one. What if he wrote me a to-do list? I’m thinking no ordinary chore list but a purpose statement for my life? This would be an expression of his loving desire for my goals, behavior and well-being. What if he sent it to me via one of our children, and I would not read it? What if that child became so annoyed with me that he tore it up? Would my husband write another one?

I’m trying to relate to the heart of God when He gave the Ten Commandments to His people through Moses. They rebelled before the tablets even reached them and the delivery person, Moses, slammed them into pieces . . . 

At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you shall put them in the ark.’ (Deuteronomy 10:1–2)

God called Moses back and wrote them out again. The words that come to mind are patience and loving perseverance. God knew that the people would not do as He had written, yet He patiently and plainly told them what was expected of them, once, twice, many times.

I know that I am included on this divine to-do list. I know also that this list was not given as a way of salvation. It is the “school master” to show me that I am a sinner and need a Savior (Galatians 3:19-25). This too is the heart of God. He could have slammed sinners into pieces. He could have lowered His standard. He could have given up. He could have forced us to be good. He didn’t.

The gospel or good news is that God pulled on humanity and became one of us. Jesus is the only person who did not break one law, the only person who was sinless. He then took the guilt of all our sin for all time on Himself and let the Father’s wrath on sin fall on him. This includes me too, my guilt, for all my sin, for all time.

My punishment was death, physical and spiritual. Jesus took that in my place and died for me. His body died and He was separated from His Father because I could not and would not heed His purpose statement for my life. Then, no matter how many times I “tore up His letter” and ignored His sacrifice, He patiently kept on wooing me away from my love of sin so He could set me free from its clutches. When He did that, He also rewrote His law, “not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:3).

Even as I sometimes still try to escape or avoid or ignore it, yet His to-do list remains and guides me through life. For this, I love the patience of God. 

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