This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

Moses is on the
mountain with God.

He’s received the Ten Commandments, and
now God is going to expand and explain them.

Quickly we find out that God hates injustice
and oppression but loves fairness and honesty.

That’s why wrongs
must be made right.

But God requires the punishment
always be proportionate to the crime.

If someone steals an animal
from your farm, you cannot, then,

take revenge on that
person’s family members.

It must be fair.

Eye for an eye.
Tooth for a tooth.

We also see that
God is compassionate.

He sets up laws that are wildly
progressive for this time in history.

These laws are on behalf of those lowest in
society: slaves, woman, foreigners, and the poor.

God wants a society where people are
treated fairly, where justice is upheld, and
where the marginalized are provided for.

God wants a world that looks like him.

And his method of creating it is
to create a people that look like him.

Jesus himself picks up on
these laws in his teaching.

But, like the social laws in Exodus, his teaching
about the law was not only about our obedience.

The way Jesus spoke about the law shows us
who he is and what he was on the earth to do.

For we have done evil to God.

We deserved eye for
eye punishment for that.

But Jesus turned the other
cheek, and took the eye-for-eye,

tooth-for-tooth punishments
we deserved on the cross.

Jesus is the only one who never
broke a single one of God’s laws

but died as if he did on
the behalf of those who had.

Even more, the kind of just and fair society
the law tried to make through its commands,

is actually fulfilled in the
people who are saved by Jesus.

By perfectly fulfilling
the social laws toward us,

Jesus trains us into people who can
fulfill them toward others.

Since he loved us when we were
poor, marginalized, foreigners,

we can love anyone from anyone, no
matter their standing, position, or background.

Jesus puts his own Spirit within us
that actually forms us into his own image.

God is creating a society, in his church, that provides
for the vulnerable and defends the defenseless.

But the ultimate and perfect society
God wants to create is still in the future.

When Jesus returns, he will finally create
the perfect society that reflects his character.

There will be no tears, no pain, and
people will live at peace with one another.

I pray the Holy Spirit gives you eyes to see the
God of compassion and justice behind these laws.

And Jesus as the one who extends this
compassion to us by receiving our justice.