Tomorrow I head up into central Otago with an agenda[1]. I am getting married. As part of this, the will had to be revised. And the times are fallen. The courts in NZ can and will break the clear wishes of the deceased in the name of fairness. A fair amount of the discussion was working around this, while keeping the document understandable.

But the principle of offspring remains. There is a clause in the will about this that is standard.

The Law did have one thing within it: an ability to worship God after paying a symbolic cost for your sins. For sin we all do. No one is spared.

And none are justified by the Law.

Galatians 3:15-22

¹⁵Brothers and sisters, I give an example from daily life: once a person’s will has been ratified, no one adds to it or annuls it. ¹⁶Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, “And to offsprings,” as of many; but it says, “And to your offspring,” that is, to one person, who is Christ. ¹⁷My point is this: the law, which came four hundred thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. ¹⁸For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.

¹⁹Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained through angels by a mediator. ²⁰Now a mediator involves more than one party; but God is one.

²¹Is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law. ²²But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Some exegesis here: Paul is giving an illustration. He is making a point. In a will, clauses matter and words matter. We paid a lawyer to pay attention to these things because there are 200 legal state shock troops sitting in Tauranga with an agenda of breaking trusts and wills to enlarge the coffers of the state.

The words of God are as a contract, and they matter. So when he says that one should not steal, or be immoral, we should pay attention. We should not preach degradation[2], but righteousness, beauty, truth and honour.

But since we cannot meet our side of the contract: we cannot love the LORD with all our heard and our neighbour as ourselves (for that is the Law: all else is commentary and regulation) we cannot meet the terms which mean that by this Law we will live.

And thus Christ was necessary.

There is a lot of noise out there at present. Many are fighting back at the reforms that are being made; if Obama could promote destruction by executive order, Trump can restore by executive order.

But know this: in Christ alone are we saved. There is no act of greatness that will pay for your wrongdoing. It is only in the death of the one righteous man after Adam, God incarnate on this earth, that we can approach God.

Choose this, and ignore the death scream of a failing narrative.

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1. No, you will not know where and there will be no photos here. I have family. OPSEC.
2. We all have our vices. These we fight against. We do not say that they should be accepted.