The overarching story is that God wants to be in a relationship with us. God wants us to live in harmony with each other and the world around us, and to use our godlike creativity – to make choices – that draw us closer into this divine relationship.

To this end, God chose a person called Abraham and made a promise that his descendants would be a blessing to the world – that through Abraham’s family God would be made known and people would draw closer to God. It was Abraham and his descendants’ faith in God, that is their trust in God’s promise, that made them right with God. God became Abraham’s heavenly parent, and like a human parent’s love for a child, God’s love and favour was unconditional and freely given. Some writers describe this relationship like an adoption or marriage with God as the perfect parent or marriage partner.

So what role did the law or “rules” play?

We humans live by the choices we make, and each day, as individuals and as communities, we make decisions that draw us closer or lead us away from the divine relationship. As with any parent-child bond or marriage, we make choices that grow or damage that relationship, and this is where the law comes in. God gave hints and tips to the community of God to help draw them closer, and this included lists of things to do to get them back on track when they made mistakes.

Now it is vitally important that you understand that following the rules did not make someone “righteous” in the eyes of God. Nothing could break God’s promise of loving parenthood, however, humans got bogged down in determining what was the right or wrong thing to do in any and every situation – and it was a minefield.

As we know, there are exceptions to every circumstance and no two circumstances are identical. In the same way that human laws are continually being revised, reworked, and rewritten as we try and work out what is the right thing to do, the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law in Jesus’s day wrestled with God’s divine law, and the very hints and tips that were supposed to draw the people closer to God became a barrier.

Living under God’s promise was lost in favour of obedience to the law, and to a certain extent, this is understandable, for when we take our eyes off God we are left only with our humanity and how to deal with our failures and weaknesses, and the only conclusion is that we must do better.

This was the messed-up and mixed-up spiritual world into which Jesus entered. There were those who trusted in the promises made to Abraham and those who trusted in the law as recorded by Moses, however the arrival of Jesus became a watershed moment for the people of God, and for the world.

Jesus did two things. First, he lived a perfect life and did what Abraham’s community had failed to do, and that was to fulfil the requirements of God’s divine law. Second, he embodied the original promise that through Abraham’s descendants the world would be blessed.

Jesus, in effect, drew a line under the old promise and a new bigger and better promise was made – what Jesus called life in all its fullness – a new kingdom – oneness with God through God’s Holy Spirit living in us. This promise was no longer just for one community but for the whole world, and the same analogies of adoption and marriage hold true, but now they are made, not through faith in God’s promise to Abraham, but through faith in the promise of Jesus Christ.

We still have the original divine law – the written bit – but not all the laws that related directly to the community of Abraham apply to us today. When we make mistakes and make choices that lead us away from God, there is nothing we need to “do” to make up for it, other than trust in the promise of Christ. Following laws has never made and never will make us right with God!

So, if we are no longer under the divine law, why do we keep asking for forgiveness? Well, the answer is exactly the same as it was for Abraham and his descendants, for although we are and always will be God’s children, we still affect (not break) our relationship with God.

However, because we are under the promise of Jesus, all we need to do is admit our mistakes and turn back to God, and this is why, in many churches we have what is called a confession and absolution where we confess our failures and then are assured that our mistakes are absolved and that we are forgiven and accepted by God.

Christians are a people living under the promise of Jesus and God sees us as blameless because of our faith in Christ. It is not our friendships, our place of birth, our history or heritage, or our membership of a church that binds us together. It is the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

To be saved means to be in relationship with God, and it is our faith that literally saves us, and it can be a small, tiny mustard seed, tenuous, doubting, just-hanging-in-there faith!

That faith, however small, enables us to be filled with God’s Spirit, and it is unity in the Holy Spirit that transcends our differences of denomination, race, age, gender, sexuality, power, class, education, and ability. Our identity is in Christ alone. We are first and foremost children of God, and everything hangs off that.

Therefore, let us invite others to become God’s children too. Let us shout it from the rooftops that Jesus Christ is Lord. Let us share the good news that all – rich or poor, black or white, male, female, or non-binary, old or young – can come to a life-changing, life-transforming, and life-saving faith in Jesus Christ; that God will give the Spirit to any who ask; that God, the creator of the universe, will come and make home in their hearts; and that their lives will never be the same again. It is the free gift of life in all its fullness in the here and now and for ever.

Friends, today, may you know that you have been set free, that you are blameless before God, that you are God’s beloved child, and that nothing can or will ever separate you from that love.

Amen.

• The Reverend Gavin Tyte is pastor of St Mark’s Anglican Church. You can read or listen to all his insights athttps://fab.church/