To the law and to the testimony! If people do not speak according to this word, there will

be no dawn for them. Isaiah 8:20

Life could be so easy. If I simply avoided speaking to anyone about the things in God’s moral

law, I would never, ever, ever have had to worry about conflict. I could sail through life as that

lovable guy who never has an unkind word to say, who never speaks anything that causes

anyone any offense.

Better still, I could be seen by the world around me as a model of what a Christian should be. I

would be practicing what the people of the world perceive to be love. I would be an example of

tolerance, placating the sinful desires of all people. I could easily gather followers because

human ears long to hear a message of love without cost, love without sacrifice, love without the

shedding of blood.

But this is not love. It is simply a pandering to the collective mind of the masses. If I believe this

to be love, I have blinded myself to the dawning of the light of life in the gospel.

So where am I to turn? If I cannot trust what the human heart longs to believe and what human

ears are longing to hear, what can I trust? God provides the answer in our verse above: To the

law and to the testimony!

But going into the pages of God’s law is a terrifying journey. I am confronted by the fact that

there is a righteous and demanding Judge who is weighing my every action and expression and

intention in His balance. The more I climb into its depths, the further and further I am mired in

the muck of my own depravity. If I try to offer up a token sacrifice of my own to appease the

judge, I soon realize how insignificant my own righteousness is in the torrent of my

unrighteousness. I cry out with the Apostle Paul, “Who will rescue me from this body of sin and

death?” How wretched I would be if not....

If not for the testimony. The Old and New Testaments speak as a testimony to my heart. God

cries out to me in my wretched state, “Fear not, My Savior has come. Your crimes have been

nailed to His cross. He has borne your punishment. I have declared you righteous in My sight.

And some day, when you are home with Me forever, I will make you truly righteous.”

Through the law and the testimony of God, for us, though we live in the valley of the shadow of

death, a light has dawned. They truthfully speak of our need for a Savior, and they truthfully

attest to the fact our Savior has come. So rather than placating the shortsighted minds of our

world, open them with the truths of law and gospel, sin and grace. Speak in accordance with

God’s Word, and you will bring light to their darkness. Blessings.