No Payments Until Next Year

I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.   Matthew 5:18

The law tells us what God requires of us and announces the consequences of sin. That’s why the Bible talks about the curse of the law. But throughout the Old Testament, God repeatedly postponed this condemnation.

When Adam disobeyed in the Garden, he was excluded from Paradise, but his life continued. Abraham lied about his wife, but he remained a friend of God. David committed adultery, yet he remained on Israel’s throne. Isaiah confessed he was a man of unclean lips, yet he was used as a prophet. None of them came under the full condemnation of God. Why? The reason cannot be that their sins didn’t matter.

The whole point of the law is that sin does matter. But throughout the Old Testament, God held back the condemnation of the law. He put off the Day of Judgment. He didn’t cancel it; he postponed it. He put dealing with the consequences of human sin on his to-do list.

Advertisers often say, “No payments until next year!” It sounds wonderful, and it’s virtually free . . . until the letter arrives in January telling you to pay up! The payment was not canceled; it was only postponed. At some point, the bill has to be paid.

Throughout the Old Testament, the sacrifices reminded God’s people that there would come a time when something had to be done. But the consequences of sin remained, like an accumulating debt that one day would have to be paid. Then Jesus arrived and said, “I have come to fulfill the law.” That meant not only that he would fulfill everything the law required in his life, but also that he would bear the condemnation of the law in his death. That’s why Jesus had to go to the cross.

God’s time for dealing with the consequences of sin had come. The judgment and condemnation described in God’s law were poured out on Christ, and when he’d absorbed it fully, he cried out, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). At that moment, dealing with sin was crossed off God’s to-do list, because for all his people, it was done.

For further reading, see Hebrews 10