"The text for today's message is in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12:18:" Now, you have not come to the palpable and burning fire, and to the darkness, to the darkness, to the storm, to the clangor of the trumpet, and at the sound of such words, how many who heard it begged not to be spoken to them anymore, since they no longer bear what was commanded: Even an animal, if it touches the mountain, will be stoned.
Indeed, in such a way the spectacle was horrible, that Moses said: I feel terrified and trembling! But you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels,
The text I have just read speaks of Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. He mentions Jerusalem, where the Mount of Calvary is located, where Jesus died. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says that we do not reach Mount Sinai, but Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant.
I want to talk about those two mountains: Sinai and Calvary. They, apparently, are two contradictory mountains. At Sinai, God kills; on Calvary, God dies in the person of his Son. At Sinai, God cries; on Calvary, God pleads. At Sinai, God threatens; on Calvary, God waits.
I know many people who are afflicted by some things they do not understand in the Word of God.
On a certain occasion, I heard the story from a preacher of an atheist university student, who showed the apparent inconsistencies he found in the Bible: a cruel God in the Old Testament and another kind God in the New Testament. Then he asked: How can you believe in such an incoherent God?
That boy had serious conflicts to understand the Bible, but I have the impression that many of the so-called Christians also have serious questions when they read the Bible. There are many Christians who do not like the Old Testament, and do not read it because it is full of bloody stories. They know that it is part of the Word of God, but they do not delight in reading it. There are others that go further: they annul the Old Testament. They accept these books as historical, but believe that it has nothing to do with spiritual truths. For them, Christianity is summarized in the New Testament. If that were true, the young atheist would be right. God would be incoherent.
The God of the Old Testament, however, is not different, it is the same of the New Testament. He is not bad and radical in the Old, and good, loving, merciful in the New, no! The Bible says that God is eternal, in him there is no change or shadow of variation. God is not a man to change. He was always love; He was not intransigence and now it's love. He was always love and it was always justice.
Why, then, two mountains? Why on the Sinai does God shout, speak in the midst of fire, of thunder, of smoke? If even an animal approached the mountain, it would be stoned. And why on Calvary does Jesus beg, cry, die? They slapped His face and He said nothing, just cried out: "... Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing ..." (Luke 23:34). What happened to God? Where was the God of Sinai? Is another God the God of Calvary?
We need to understand this because behind this apparent incoherence, there is one of the most beautiful messages we can know.
In the first place, we need to know for whom God spoke on Sinai. That town of Sinai was a town that came from four centuries of slavery. For four generations that people had only understood the language of the whip, the cry and the threat. Nobody ever spoke with love to that town. The Egyptian patrons shouted, mocked, punished and beat. They had learned to understand the only language that spoke to them: the cry, the threat, the fear, the panic, the punishment.
When God took those people out of slavery and wanted to take them to the land of freedom, he saw with sadness that during the years of slavery in Egypt, that people had forgotten the principles that preserve life.
My friend, the laws were not established to torment anyone. They were established to preserve life. When you go to the zoo and pass near the lion's cage, you find a plaque that says: "Do not come near." This law is not to disturb anyone. The laws are intended to preserve life. If you want, you can pretend that you have not seen the plate. But when the lion devours his hand, do not blame the zoo administrator.
God established laws in this world to preserve life. During the years of slavery in Egypt, the people of Israel completely forgot those laws. The Israelites were sinking, ruining themselves, walking towards death and self-destruction. But now, free, God had the job of re-educating that people. How to teach principles of life to a people who had learned to understand only the language of shouting, punishment, threat and fear? How to speak with love to a people that did not understand the language of love? How to appeal with mercy to a people who for four centuries had only understood the language of threat?
At one point in history, as an emergency measure, God had to speak in the only language that people understood: the liguaje of the cry, fire and smoke. It was the only way to communicate with them. God had the delicate responsibility of rethinking to that people the preserving principles of life and in his infinite love, he had to put aside his language of love and use the only language they understood. But behind that cry, that whip, that threat, there was the wonderful love of God trying to reeducate a slave people. It happens that God's plan was not to speak forever in the midst of the cries, the whip, the fear, no!
This was an emergency language. God wanted to pull the people out of the traumatic experience of Sinai and slowly take it to the experience of Calvary, where the people would not have to obey out of duty, but out of love; where the people did not have to obey out of fear, but out of inner conviction; where the laws did not need to be written on boards in the middle of the fire, but in the intimate boards of the heart. where the people did not have to obey out of fear, but out of inner conviction; where the laws did not need to be written on boards in the middle of the fire, but in the intimate boards of the heart. where the people did not have to obey out of fear, but out of inner conviction; where the laws did not need to be written on boards in the middle of the fire, but in the intimate boards of the heart.
Now look at the preservative principles of life that are synthesized in the ten commandments of Exodus 20, the Christian world is divided into three large groups. The first is formed by those who cling tooth and nail to Sinai. For them, the Christian life is norm, law, period, comma. For them, the Christian experience is summarized in always crawling before God. They are unworthy of looking to God. For them, God is not a Father, he is a vengeful destroyer. God does not inspire love. They feel that their duty is to love him, but he who dominates his experience is fear and fear. They live in terror, just thinking about the law, the commandments and the rules. They have nothing else in front of their eyes. The Christian life of these people is like the experience of a man who has to walk 100 meters stepping on eggs with the responsibility of not breaking any of them.
Ah, dear! How to walk stepping on eggs without breaking them? Many Christians live their Christianity like this. All they think is law: Can I do? I can not do? Is it lawful? Is not it lawful? His life is a collection of prohibitions, rules, regulations. They live the traumatic experience of Sinai.
The other group of Christians is formed by those who, with the grace of God, leave the experience of Sinai and reach Calvary, where they are passionate about Jesus and say: "Lord Jesus, I love you with my whole being, I want you not to they feel as if they are going to live on the cross for me, walking in your paths not because I am afraid of death, but because I want to see you happy, I will keep your principles, not because I am afraid of burning in hell, but because you are the Most beautiful thing in my life and I know that You have established these principles to preserve it. " This group of Christians finally arrived at Calvary. The center of your experience is not the law; It is Christ.
Calvary does not end with the responsibility that they have before the law of God, no. On the contrary, it increases its responsibility before the preservative principles of life. The only difference is that in Sinai it is obeyed by fear and in Calvary it is obeyed by love. But Calvary does not free anyone from obedience. Be very careful with that. The difference is that Sinai is only concerned with written stone tablets, but on Calvary the preservative principles of life are no longer written on stone tablets, they are written in the heart.
If you meditate a bit, you will come to the conclusion that on Calvary your responsibility increases. Do you want to understand this matter better? At Sinai, God said: "You shall not commit adultery." (Exodus 20:14) On Calvary God says: "You have heard what has been said: you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you: Anyone who looks at a woman with impure intention, in the He has already committed adultery with her. "(Matthew 5:27 and 28)
You see? The law of Calvary is greater than that of Sinai. At Sinai, God says: "You shall not kill." (Exodus 20:13) And on Calvary God says: "You have heard what has been said to the ancients: You will not kill ... I, however, tell you that anyone who (without reason) goes against his brother will be subject to judgment. "(Matthew 5:21 and 22)
There are many sincere, sincerely sincere people who love Jesus with all their hearts and think that the Law of God has no more value today. Great care. Calvary does not free you from the law, it frees you from sin. Why should I free him from the Law if she protects his life? Calvary increases my responsibility before the Law, only that there is no longer the traumatic experience of fear, whip and scream; It is the experience of love.
At Sinai, people want to obey to save themselves. But at Calvary people are saved in Christ, and obey because they are saved.
The third group of Christians is made up of wonderful and sincere people who, wanting to leave Sinai and reach Calvary, get lost in the desert. They think more or less like this: Jesus forgives me, accepts me and I do not need the Law anymore.
Beloved, the Law of God is your character. And his character is as eternal as God is eternal. He did not establish laws to torment anyone. But he also did not establish His Law so that somebody thinks that he can be saved by fulfilling it. If you believe you can save yourself by keeping commandments, you are completely wrong. This is one of the greatest biblical heresies. No one can be saved by keeping commandments. The Bible never taught it. But if you think that who is saved in Christ can set aside the commandments of God, he needs to revise his way of thinking.
The problem is not with the Law, it is with the experience of the human being. Leave the Law where you have always been. It contains the preserving principles of life. There is nothing wrong with the commandments of God. The error is with our experience. Some keep them wanting to be saved; others, wanting to be saved in Christ, take the commandments and cast them out. The error is with human beings. Please, leave the Law of God in its place.
One day, we will all have to make the big decision: choose the path. Either we live the traumatic experience of Sinai, or we fall in love with Christ and we will learn to live the principles of life for love of Him. There, obeying will not be an obligation because you love him. The Christian life is no longer an obligation and will delight in doing the will of his Father.
Throughout my life I have found sincere people, who think that keeping the commandments can be saved. Others, also sincere, thinking that, if they were saved in Christ, they no longer need to keep commandments. Ah, my friend, as I would like at this moment to ask God to do something that no human can do; Let him enter his heart, let him open his eyes, show him that he is not keeping the commandments that are going to be saved, but also show him that, if you were saved in Christ, you can not set aside the commandments of God. You do not keep commandments to be saved, it is Christ who saves you. But if they saved you,
Do you feel a strange emptiness in the heart? Are there nights when you go to bed and have the feeling that everything in your life is wrong? You need to discover Jesus as your great Savior and Friend.
Accept now. He will receive it. He is with open arms, waiting. He will heal your wounds and bring out your fears. At your side, you will never be alone again.