My devotional today was focused on Luke 10:28 "Do this and you will live." The context of this is Jesus's answer to "an expert in the law" who decided to test Jesus and asked Him, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" After the expert's answer, Jesus went on to tell the story of the Good Samaritan in answer to the man's question of "And who is my neighbor?"
The question for the day in my devotional was: "Why does God require of us that which is impossible to do?"
Here are my thoughts on this question.
God is Holy and perfect. In the beginning, this world was perfect exactly as God made it. In the perfect world, man could do the "impossible." Then the fall into sin happened. God's requirement of perfection did not change. What changed was that man could no longer achieve the "impossible" perfection that God demands. But, God is Grace. He made a way to perfection for sinful man through the perfect life and innocent death of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus did the "impossible' for us. He lived a perfect life here on earth and then died on the cross to pay for all of our sins. The "impossible" has been done for us. Through Jesus we are the "impossible" to God.
This reminds me of another time, in Matthew 19:16-30, when Jesus was asked "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" Jesus outlined the Ten Commandments and the man said he had kept all of them. He was then told by Jesus to sell all of his possessions and give to the poor. The man went away sad. He was not perfect and could not be perfect. What Jesus asked was more than the man could handle. When Jesus told his disciples that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." The disciples asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus's answer was a good response to this question. He said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Jesus makes the "impossible" possible for us because He is God and God can do the impossible.