John, the writer of the most spiritual gospel, testified to Christ thus: "For the Law (Mosaic Law, Taurath) was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known." In the Mosaic religion, the holiness and other-worldliness of God was over-emphasized against His grace. The preachers of the faith during Christ's time painted a fearful picture of God so that man feared God more than spontaneously loved him. Man's dignity and potential was underestimated. But in spite of man's sinfulness the entire Bible speaks of man very highly. Man is created in God's image and likeness, and as such he is given the dominion and the responsibility of stewardship of God's creation. He is a little lower than God Himself, declares the psalmist (Psalm 8).

To the Jews the Mosaic Law represented God's presence in their midst. It was their highest and holiest possession. The purpose of the Law was to teach, instruct and exhort man to live love God whole-heartedly and also other people as oneself. But something went wrong. The Law came to be manipulated by the so-called leaders to suite their vested interests. It was misused politically, spiritually and economically. The very thing, which was to represent God's loving kindness, was turned to be a barrier between man and his neighbour and man and God.

Jesus came to give the true and life-oriented interpretation to religion and specially the Old Testament laws. The New Testament declares that he came to fulfill the Law; he is the end of the law. Matthew records Jesus saying, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."

He appealed to the righteousness as opposed to the external righteousness of the legalistic approach to Judaism and called for the authentic spiritual interpretation of the same. Talking about the relationship of Christ with the Old Testament Henry Halley in his Bible Handbook observes, "[T]he Old Testament is the account of a nation. The New Testament is the account of a Man. The nation was founded and nurtured of God to bring the Man into the world." The Law could not save people from the judgment for sin. It pointed man to where salvation was to be found, that is, to Christ. God sent His only begotten son, who vicariously suffered at the hand of the sinful people and gave his sinless life so that sinful people could receive salvation in God's grace through faith in what he has done on the Cross of Calvary. Christ incarnated God's love and grace supremely and reconciled man to God.

The so-called spiritual leaders tended to underestimate the dignity of human life while they were extra-careful about the meticulous observance of the Law, which they codified into 613 rules: 248 commands and 365 prohibitions, and as many as 1,521 amendments were made to them adding minute details. The Law and the religion of the ordinary people became a burden than being something to quench their spiritual thirst after God. Karl Barth made it clear saying, " The weakness of the Jewish religious establishment was the weakness of organized religion everywhere. Instead of religion serving the people, it so often turned out that people were serving religion." (his Commentary to Epistle to the Romans). In Jesus' time, according to Pharisees like Rabbi Hillel, it was possible for a man to divorce his wife for a very simple reason such as burning his food by simply uttering the phrase 'I divorce you' three times. John's Gospel records Jesus saving one woman caught in adultery. The religious leaders and other people were ready to stone her to death. But we don't see the male person around. He fled away. But the Pharisees and Sadducees giving the Fatwa to kill the woman were silent about her consort! Throughout his public ministry of Jesus he was ridiculed for his interpretation of religion and the Mosaic Law. He was even humiliated for healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, empowering the weak and helpless merely because he did all these great miraculous works that testified to God's glory and mercy for the poor, the weak the marginalized and the stigmatized people on the Sabbath days, the day of rest (Saturday). According to the Moses' law people were supposed to observe the Sabbath by desisting from work, were to rest and glorify God. By doing the good works of mercy and freeing people from their disabilities and deformities Jesus protested against the narrow and partial interpretation of the Law. He said that God did not forbid doing good works on Sabbath days. He said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." In effect, he was telling that religion was for man, and not man for religion.

Jesus gave priority to ethical and moral values of life above external rites and the teaching about heaven, which does not add value to human life here and now. He took human life in this world seriously. So he invested on people, built them up so that they could be agents of God for transformation of this world into a place where God's love, peace and justice would reign for all mankind, where heaven and earth would kiss each other. An ancient Chinese proverb says, "Where the vision is for one year, cultivate flowers; where the vision is for a decade, cultivate a tree, where the vision is eternity, cultivate people." God created man in His "image" and "likeness" implying that He gave man part of His communicable and moral attributes of love, holiness, justice and the ability to commune with Him. So in essence, we human being are all God's image bearers though as a consequence of sin that divine image has got tarnished or marred in us, but not entirely obliterated. As Pascal said, "Within each of us there is a God-shaped vacuum that only God can fill." Religion and godly values cannot be legislated, but ought to be spontaneous.

The mission of Christ's coming to the world was to restore God's image in full in the human person. Nietzsche could say, "Man is the reason for the world." Leonard Verduin aptly said, "The plain implication is that from the earliest beginnings the divine interest was to reach it's climax in man. All that goes before is anticipatory, propaedeutic to the dominion-haver known as man. Man is pictured as the crown and capstone of the entire creative enterprise of the Almighty; man is the goal towards which the whole undertaking moved. Verily the Bible does not speak meanly of man." The Law and the Prophets prepared the way for Christ and to culminate in him.

The Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes, representing the legalistic religion of Judaism, were keen in the external observances of the law to the letters, but ignored the spirit behind it. God's commandments were for the good of man, and were not meant to become only doctrines and creeds only to suit the interests of the few who interpret them only and hinder human peace and progress. Today we experience so much religious fanaticism and bigotry in various parts of the world including our own country that human lives don't seem to have value in the minds of those who perpetrate the nefarious activities in the name of religion or any theocratic vision. The lives of millions of peace-loving ordinary people often appears to be hostages in the hands of the few who want their vested interests carried out. But are really any religious dogma above the sanctity and dignity of human lives? Let this question be a point for our special thought at this time of the year. For God loves all people irrespective of religion, caste, nationality, sex or social strata in all times and at all places because His seat is the human heart.