Christmas time is just around the corner! I love Christmas. Everywhere I go I hear music about Jesus Christ. It's unavoidable! Let's revel in it, and do our best to perpetuate it. Let's take pleasure in the voices and decorations put out even by unbelievers, hostile to the very thing they celebrate when they sing "Joy to the world" What do they sing right after that? Why should the world be joyful? Because "The Lord has come! Let earth receive her King!" I hear people of all stripes singing "O Holy Night" and following it up with an explanation of the proper response: "Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!" Why? "O night when Christ was born!" Hallelujah! Sing it with me America. Consider the king that you now welcome into authority over this world! Praise God all creatures here below! I just wanna shout every time I hear one of those songs on a nonChristian radio station or in a store somewhere.

"God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay."

Why?

"Remember Christ our savior was born on Christmas day, to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray. Oh tidings of comfort and joy!"

Let's think about that, though. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king. The Bible describes the Lord as being our owner, having bought covenant Israel out of slavery to Egypt we are now slaves of Christ (Ephesians 6:6,Colossians 3:24,1 Peter 2:16, Romans 6:15-23). Why should we be joyful about the establishment of a monarchy, when this is the same Jesus who spoke face to face with Moses inside the tent of meeting (Exodus 33:11, and it could only have been Jesus because Jesus says that nobody has ever seen the Father except the Son, John 1:18, 6:46). It's the same Jesus who John tells us was seen by Isaiah when Isaiah famously said “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6, John 12:40-41).

This Jesus who we are joyful about is the same Lord who gave the law of the OT and called it His standard of righteousness. It's the same Jesus to whom the Father said, "Ask me and I will give you all nations as your inheritance", and who then later told us, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them and baptising them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.". Why are we joyful about that?

It's because Jesus absorbs the penalty for our sins, fulfilling the law and purchasing us from slavery to sin and death, so that we are now slaves of Christ. And Jesus, being in authority, will now begin to exercise His perfect kingship, which we know and trust will be better than any earthly government, because God will grow his righteous government and peace, as it says in Isaiah 9:6-7

"For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon[d] his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called[e]
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this."

We know that the law of the government about which Isaiah speaks is the very same law that Jesus is talking about when he says, "And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40)

That Law and Prophets (which is the OT), we know is also described in the following passage, pulled right out of the OT, prior to any change in the priesthood by Jesus Christ:

"The law of the Lord is perfect,
    refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
    making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
    giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
    giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure,
    enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
    and all of them are righteous." (Psalm 19:7-11)

I hear the chorus, "But Jesus died so that we aren't held to that standard". Right! We are not saved by adherence to the law of Moses. Thank you. But are we slaves of Christ or not? Are we slaves of righteousness or not? OK, well what is righteousness, and how do we know what it is? What does our master command us to do? Make disciples of all nations, teaching them what? Baptize them symbolizing their cleansing and repentance from what?  Teaching them God's righteous ways, which we know by reading the excellent outline he gave us in the entire scripture! Teaching them repentance from sin! And how do they know how to repent of their sin if we do not teach them the law? How can they know what it is to covet, if they never read the law saying "thou shalt not covet"?

When I write here, "guys, let's soak this in and make it real in our lives", I'm talking to myself as well. I need to change so much! I'm so far from the way that I want to be! Where are the people who will do this with me? Am I the only one who is both interested in establishing Biblical law and also not sold out on the idea that American law is somehow reparable via the "due process" of making new legislation, which itself is not Biblical because all legislation that we need is already in print?

How can we add to scripture and make it better? What laws can man produce that improve upon God's standards of righteousness and justice?

I wish someone would come and get brave with me by either telling me that I'm wrong and showing me why, or by joining me me in being passionate about this. I'm so useless on my own to produce this kind of change. What good is a law upheld by just one person and enforced by himself on himself? Where is Zion, so I can go take root there and drink the sweet living water of God's love and righteousness without fear of unjust laws?

"Empires of dirt and grace"