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“They want us to do what?!”

It made no sense at all.

This great idea and plan they had was ridiculous. We knew our director wasn’t the one who came up with it.

It was someone higher.

Someone above them.

Someone who knew nothing about what we really did or what was actually needed.

Someone from corporate.

But somehow, they believed this great program and idea they were pushing would make a name for themselves. In the end, they’d be praised for the initiative and for leading the effort.

They were trying to become well-known for something they knew nothing about.

**1 Timothy 1:7**

*“desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.”*

False teaching had crept into the church at Ephesus. Paul had left Timothy there to teach and encourage believers in the truth and to refute these false teachers.

The problem was that these false teachers wanted to be recognized as authorities on God’s law. But they didn’t understand the law at all.

They were misusing God’s law, turning it into a means of establishing their own righteousness rather than understanding its true purpose.

Sound familiar?

Paul refuted their claims and called them out. The law was never intended to be a way for sinners to earn salvation. It reveals sin and exposes our need for a Savior.

1 Timothy 1:8–11

*“But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.”*

The law doesn’t save.

It reveals who we are in light of God’s holiness and shows us our desperate need for Him.

It brings us to our knees and beckons our hearts to cry out to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:20

*“Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.”*

Aren’t we thankful?

God’s grace.

It’s immeasurable. It’s never-ending. And it’s available to all who come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ.

How?

Because of God’s love.

As the beautiful old hymn *The Love of God*, by Frederick M. Lehman, reminds us, even the vastness of the ocean and the skies could never fully contain a description of God’s love.

And that love is what makes His grace so amazing.

We can’t earn it. We don’t deserve it. And no amount of rule-following will ever be enough to save us.

But Jesus has already done what we could never do for ourselves.

It’s not about checking off a list of rules to earn God’s approval.

It’s an invitation to surrender to the Lord who already knows your heart and loves you enough to save you.

🩷 Will you do that today?

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