Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there, and behold, kinsman of whom Boaz spoke was passing by, so he said, “Turn aside, friend, sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down.
— Ruth 4:1
For there is, on the one hand, the setting aside of the preceding commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness (For the law perfected nothing), and, on the other hand, the bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
— Hebrews 7:18-19
In our experience, when the Lord comes in and confronts our natural man, we listen, but still with our laws, ideology, and self-confidence firmly in place. The Lord says, “You must do this for yourself if you wish to fulfill what is right before God,” and initially we are inclined to think we can do it. We see the profit in view. But we do not realize that law, ideology, and self-confidence do not really have our best interest at heart. Rather, we are just a means for the religious world to reach its own ends.
Those under law cannot be perfected by the law (Heb. 7:18–19). And those controlled by ideology cleave to something other than Christ. So all that religion represents rears up joyfully within us to lay hold of what seems profitable through the name of Christ. Then the Lord says, “Wait! You must also marry Ruth and raise up an heir for her dead husband for the sake of his place in this land.”
Adapted from Ruth: Growth Unto Maturity, page 84.
Tomorrow: “Religion Does Not Care About Us”