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The people all responded together, “We will do everything the LORD has said.” So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD.

“Sign here, here, and here, and write your initials here, and here, and here.” If you have ever signed a contract, you have heard those words. Whether putting a downpayment on a house, buying a car, or adopting a life insurance policy, you are asked to sign your name and agree to all the fine print. So much fine print! With such documents there are pages and pages of legal expectations and ramifications. It is all overwhelming at the moment and the best we can do in a few minutes is to briefly skim the headings to get a vague idea of what it is we are agreeing to. Names are signed in the hope that this will not come back to bite us.

Agreeing to keep God’s law is similar. On the surface, God’s law might look simple. I mean, there are only ten commandments, right? But the more we dig into the fine print; we realize that there is much more than meets the eye. Even a quick perusal of God’s law to us in the Bible shows that we are held accountable for even our thoughts, in addition to our words and actions. Things like doubt and worry leave us just as culpable as theft or murder. It soon becomes evident that there is no way we can perfectly hold up our end of the bargain.

Thankfully, we have someone who did it for us. Jesus knew all the demands of God’s law, and he signed his name on the dotted line of our contract. And then he was born into this world to take our place and to do the work of holding up our end of the bargain. He even did it perfectly! He never once sinned. He also gave his life in our place to pay the price that was demanded of us for the times we had broken the contract. Because of Jesus’ work in our place, God held up his end of the deal and has forgiven our sins and given us the free gift of heaven!

Dear Jesus, thank you for signing your name and holding up my end of the deal. Thank you for saving me. Amen.

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.