Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ

John 1:17 says," For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
For those of us who have accepted Jesus the Christ as our Lord and Savior."  We are no longer under the law of Moses, but we now are led by The Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:18 says, " But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."

The fruit of the Spirit supercede the commandments God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai, first because even the children of Israel couldn't keep the commandments. They had to go to the tabernacle once a year to get the priest to kill a bull or a goat as an atonement for their sin. This atonement "covered" their sin for one year. When Christ died once at Calvary as a penalty for our sin, he cleansed us from sin once and for all. 2 Corinthians5: 21 says, For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The fruit (not the plural fruits, but fruit) of the Spirit, according to Galatians 5: 22-23 is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Here is what the Bible says concerning the the replacement of the law of Moses with the new covenant of Grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The passage in Hebrews describes how God Himself
found fault with the old covenant and planned to replace it. The passage in 2 Corinthians goes as far as to call The Ten Commandments a "ministry of death written and engraved on stones."

A New Covenant (from Hebrews 8)

⁷ For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. ⁸ Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ⁹ not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. ¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ¹¹ None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. ¹² For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds^[b] I will remember no more.”<sup>[c]

13</sup> In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Hebrews 12:24 refers to Jesus as the Mediator of the new covenant.

Glory of the New Covenant (from 2 Corinthians 3)

⁷ But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, ⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? ⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. ¹⁰ For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. ¹¹ For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

¹² Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— ¹³ unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. ¹⁴ But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. ¹⁵ But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. ¹⁶ Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Finding Relevance in the books of Kings and Chronicles: God will give you back what you thought was lost

While reading the accounts of God's relationship with man throughout the long line of Kings of Judah and Israel, the state of the on-again, off again relationship we have with God as individuals is brought to mind. Although God is always faithful to us, we tend to have times when we are slack in prayer time, in our reading of His Word, and even slack in attending worship service. Sometimes we just don't "feel" like we have His Spirit reigning within us.

After reading the books of I and II Kings and the books of I and II Chronicles, it's easy to ask ourselves, "What does this have to do with Salvation?" There were faithful kings who honored God and sought the Book of the Law and kept the Temple running. Then there were other kings who let the Temple deteriorate into such a state of disrepair that the Book of the Law was actually "lost" for generations. There were kings that built altars to foreign idols right inside the Temple's walls and other kings who went as far to completely close the Temple and have altars and "high places" built throughout the land, to encourage the people to worship false gods and idols.

One of the "good" kings of Judah was Jehoshaphat described in II Chronicles chapter 17 through chapter 20. His many accomplishments were:

- He sent out "teaching priests" throughout the cities to teach the Law of the Lord

- He insisted on consulting a prophet of the Lord before joining King Ahab of Israel in pursuit of   Ramoth Gilead.

- When under attack by three different nations at once, his first response was to seek the Lord and declare a fast. Before heading into battle, He placed the singers ahead of the army to praise the Lord on the way to battle. Amazingly, the three different armies turned and massacred each other.

Another "good" king of Judah was Hezekiah, who reigned approximately eight generations after King Jehoshaphat. King Hezekiah's story is told in II Chronicals chapter 29 through chapter 32, (also in II Kings chapter 18 through Chapter 20.)  In his first year as king, he re-opened the Temple, (which had been closed by his father King Ahaz.) His further acts of faithfulness include:

- After restoring the Temple, he stationed the Levites to worship God with their music and with burnt offerings.

- He sent for all the people to come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, which had been abandoned. After the 7 day Passover, the people were so enthusiastic they celebrated another 7 days. After returning home to their own areas, the people tore down all the altars to foreign gods and idols in their land.

- King Hezekiah commanded the people to contribute support for the priests and Levites so that they could devote themselves entirely to the Law of the Lord. They even contributed support for all the Levites living throughout the common lands in every single city.

Just as challenges enter our lives, King Hezekiah's life had unexpected and unwelcome events. First the king of Assyria came and built sieges against the city and King Hezekiah suffered a serious illness.
God showed himself strong in both those situations!

In II Chronicles 32:21 and in II Kings 19:35 the king of Assyria "returned shamefaced to his own land."  In regards to King Hezekiah's illness, as soon as the king finished praying, God spoke to the prophet Isaiah telling him to go back and tell the king, "I have heard your prayer...I have seen your tears...I will heal you." (II Kings 20:5)

Three generations after King Hezekiah, there was King Josiah. Josiah is described in II Kings chapters 22 and 23, also in II Chronicles chapters 34 and 35. King Josiah

- purged the land of all the altars to foreign gods (which were rebuilt after the reign of Hezekiah.)

- initiated repairs of the Temple, which had fallen into deterioration. During this repair, the Book of the Law was found again.

- King Josiah (like king Hezekiah) kept a Passover. II Chronicles 35:18 says, "There has been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the Prophet.

In spite of all these acts of faithfulness, Josiah presumed to involve himself in a war between two other kings and was killed in battle.

There were four more Kings of Judah after the death of Josiah but the kingdom was soon captured by the Babylonians and was kept in bondage for 70 years. The glorious Temple was burned to the ground. Babylon was later swallowed up by the kingdom of Persia. Amazingly, the king of Persia
decided to send the previously enslaved people back to Jerusalem to build a house for God!!

God does give us back what we thought was lost!