Do you remember the rules of spelling in grade school: “i before e, except after c” or “Drop the y and add ies”? The rules were simple, but they all had exceptions, which made spelling difficult. The plural of goose was geese, not gooses, but moose was moose, not meese. I’m tempted to hate exceptions to the rules. Then I realize my salvation is the product of an exception to the rule.
Spiritual Exceptions
God alone may make the rules of life and its exceptions. He made an exception at the Passover in Exodus 11:4-5 when he promised to kill all the firstborn in the land. However, he allowed an exception for those who painted the blood of the lamb on their doors. God promised to save their children.
Sin and Death. Spirit of Life.
God hates sin (Prov 6:16-19). Sin is a barrier to the fellowship between God and man (Isa 59:1-2). Sin makes us worthy of death (Rom 6:23). However, God made an exception to the Law of Sin and Death; he made the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)
At the Judgment, God will open the books of law (Rev 20:12). Then he will judge our works by the books (Matt 16:27). Those who have broken the law, sinned, will inherit hell (Jas 2:10). Sadly, this includes everyone except Jesus (Rom 3:23). However, God in his mercy made an exception to this law, declaring all who have the blood of Christ the Lamb painted on their hearts will receive mercy.
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.
But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Heb 9:22-28)
A Glorious Exception
What a glorious exception to the rule of sin and death. All we have to do is receive the blood of Christ and we will become an exception to the rule. At baptism, we contact the blood (Acts 22:16; Rev. 1:5; 7:14); then through righteous living, we continue to receive the blood (1 John 1:7). This exception to the rule shows the grace of God. Now, if God would do something about the exceptions in English grammar, life would be easier.
Preaching Minister