November 4 – Honor the Gospel

Hope for Today: A Daily Devotion from Reasons for Hope*Jesus

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“The law is not made for a righteous person.” 1 Timothy 1:9

A righteous man is one who enjoys an interest in the obedience and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and whose heart is purified by the Holy Spirit. The law is said not to be “made for a righteous man,” inasmuch as he is not the object of its condemnation. And also because he needs not, in the same sense, or at least to the same degree as other men, those enforcements which imply alienation and uncontrolled depravity.

A righteous man obeys from love and would continue to obey, were you to suppose it possible for him to be removed from the sight and hearing of the law and never to be assailed by those threatenings which roll their thunders over the sinner’s head. He obeys — yet not he — but Christ who is in him, making him like unto His own glorious image. But if the law is not made for a righteous man, the gospel is.

The gospel is the charter of his privileges, the subject of his meditation, and the rule of his life. It furnishes him with motives, presents him with models, and stimulates him with promises. The more he understands and enjoys the gospel, the more he admires the law, rejoices that it is established by the gospel — but has no power to anathematize him. What the law requires of him, the gospel presents to him, and is consequently prized by him. We honor the gospel, in obeying the law.

Devotion by Karl Heinrich von Bogatzky (1690—1774)