Happy 2009

I’ll admit it, I think New Years’ Day is a complete non-holiday. In fact, the best thing about it is this….

Which ain’t so bad, really (I like U2)!

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Merry Christmas!

May you be blessed beyond your imagination.

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Legalism?

Sermon on the Mount, Part 3

Mention “The Law” among Christians and many of them will begin pontificating about how they are no longer “under” the Law, about how Jesus freed them from the obligations of the law, and how they are saved by the grace of God alone and no amount of obedience to the law could ever “save” them. And they would be mostly right, even though they have absolutely any idea what they’re talking about. I know that sounds a little confusing, so let me explain.

Much of the average Christian’s understanding of what it means to be a Christian revolves around an imperfect comprehension of the concept of salvation. In fact, I usually refer to this imperfect understanding as “fire insurance,” and it goes something like this:

1. I am a member of the human race, which has “fallen” as a result of the original sin, and;
2. As a member of this fallen race, I am a sinner, but;
3. God sent Jesus to die for my sins, so if;
4. I “believe in” Jesus;
5. Everything will be okay.

I guess this is a great version of the Gospel for small children… I’m just amazed at how many adults actually believe that this is all there is to it. There is even an actual verse from the Bible—some regard it as the foundational verse of all the Gospels—that more or less confirms this understanding:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16, English Standard Version

So then, what’s wrong with this understanding? Well, the rest of all Scripture, that’s all. Not that the rest of the Bible refutes this statement—by Jesus himself, no less—but rather it puts the statement into context. For instance, here is another example of Jesus explaining eternal life:

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Luke 10:25-37, ESV

The parable of the Good Samaritan is an interesting example since good Jews—such as the lawyer who tested Jesus, as well as the priest and the Levite in the story—consider Samaritans to be pagans and traitors to their faith. In today’s world of political correctness it might be hard to find a modern-day analogy to what Jesus just told the lawyer: perhaps telling the story to a Muslim terrorist and replacing “Samaritan” with “Jew, ” or telling it to a white supremacist and using “black man” as the positive example. Yes, in the first century Jews regarded Samaritans with that much contempt.

Jesus says, “It’s not what you are on the outside that makes you worthy of God’s kingdom, but rather what you are on the inside.”

Believing in Jesus

So, what does it all mean? I did say that the “fire insurance” understanding of the Gospel was mostly true, albeit simplistic. Let’s take a closer look at that pesky John 3:16.

First off, make absolutely no mistake about this: God loves the world. Not the ball of dirt we live on, and not just the Christians who live on it, but each and every human being on the face of the earth—dead, alive, and not yet born. This is the “why” of God’s offer of salvation.

Parsing the rest of the verse takes some understanding of the audience (yes, that again), and the context in which it was made. In fact, here’s the immediate context:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John 3:1-21, ESV

Okay, there’s a lot of stuff in there, and a lot of may not make a huge amount of sense at first. And some of you who are not Christian—or who are yet have never bothered to find out—this is the passage from where the term “born again” comes. And it probably makes no more sense now than it did before you read it.

First of all, who’s the audience? Nicodemus, a “ruler of the Jews.” Nicodemus was most likely a member of the Sanhedrin, a sort of religious “Supreme Court.” These highly-respected rabbis would rule on matters of the Torah, or Jewish law (incidentally these are the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). And because Nicodemus was a member of such a group, notice that he seeks Jesus out under the cover of night. He’s speaking with Jesus not as a member of the Sanhedrin, but as an individual who is experiencing some softening of his heart—he truly wants to know what Jesus has to say rather than dismissing him as a threat the way his colleagues have done. Also notice that Nicodemus recognizes that God is at work in the things Jesus does; his peers will chalk these up to Jesus being possessed by a demon! The point is, Nicodemus is very well versed in the Torah. He is also not completely unreceptive to what Jesus has to offer.

So, what is Jesus telling him? “Believe in me (“in the name of the only Son of God”)and you’ll have eternal life.” Oh yes, there’s maybe a little dig at Nicodemus for seeking him out under the cover of darkness, too.

Okay, great. But what does that mean? First let’s look at the implications of believing in Jesus. It seems clear that what Jesus is telling Nicodemus (and us!) that we must believe that Jesus is who he says he is: the Son of God. The reason for this is that his teaching immediately carries authority. Much of what Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount—no, I haven’t forgotten—is similar to what other rabbis of his day are doing: interpreting the Torah. And when Jesus says “I am the Son of God”—even God himself—he says, “Hey, I’ll tell you what it really means—I created it, after all!”

Does believing in Jesus by these standards of belief seem easy to you? Well, I’ll get back to that later.

Now you might be asking, “What’s in it for me?” Yes, it’s sad, but it’s the way we are. So we now arrive at the “eternal life” part—”salvation,” if you prefer. Both terms mean different thing on their own, so we need to tie them in to understand why Jesus uses them almost interchangeably.

First the concept of eternal life. In the beginning, folks didn’t die. Surprised? Well, it wasn’t until Adam and Eve tasted the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden that the human race became mortal. God warned them:

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Genesis 2:16-17, ESV

Well, a funny thing happened—or rather, didn’t happen: although they were made mortal, Adam and Eve didn’t die immediately after eating from the tree. Actually, something worse occurred: they were separated from God. According to Jewish thinking, separation from God is a kind of death. In fact, technically speaking, everyone’s soul will live forever. Jesus is telling Nicodemus how his eternal existence can be spent in the presence of God—reunited after all this time!

So, you might be asking, what if I don’t spend eternity with God? Will that be so bad? Well, actually, yes. Because if you don’t spend eternity in the presence of God, you’ll spend it in the presence of another. And this is where the term “salvation” comes in.

And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 19:20-20:15

This is the apostle John’s vision of what will happen in the future. Lake of fire or no, separation from God for all of eternity would be a living Hell—far worse than death. At least you can understand where the term “fire insurance” comes from. And wanting to avoid that kind of fire is not at all a bad thing.

But remember I asked if belief in Jesus was easy if it meant believing that he is the Son of God? Okay, if we believe who Jesus is—I mean really believe it—what should our response be? Take a second to think about it. What does the parable of the Good Samaritan say to you, if you really believe that the one who tells the parable is the Son of God? What is your response to the Sermon on the Mount? How about a simple statement like “Love one another?”

An Apology

Okay, I have to admit, I didn’t intent to evangelize in this post, and I surely seem to have gone off on a bit of a rabbit-trail. So be it. The main point I wanted to point out is that the Gospel of Jesus is at the same time very simple and not so simple; quite easy and quite demanding. There’s a balance between faith and “works”—the things we do—that needs to exist in our life. I believe it’s the difference with merely(!) being saved and living as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Works cannot buy us eternal life, yet faith alone is dead.

Back to the Sermon—Finally!

Here’s what Jesus himself has to say about the law:

“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. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5:17-20, ESV

So, did Jesus really come to save us from the law? Let’s see:

First of all, the statement Jesus makes about fulfilling the law is commonly interpreted as meaning finishing it—bringing it to an end. And that would certainly seem to be a reasonable interpretation—if it weren’t for the rest of the passage. The fact is, all but the last sentence of this passage speaks for itself. And the real message of the entire Sermon is tied to this sentence.

Jesus uses a lot of different and surprising communication methods to get his points across. We will look at his use of hyperbole in the next couple of posts, but the method he uses in this sentence is sarcasm. Yes, Jesus was sometimes sarcastic, a fact that gives me a great deal of relief.

In the next couple of passages, which I will tackle in the next post because this one has gone a little long thanks to my little rabbit-trail, Jesus is going to begin giving his interpretations (the author, remember?) of different points of the law. But in this sentence he is prefacing his interpretations with a statement: “Don’t follow the examples of the Pharisees, because their hearts are not in the right place. Get your heart right first, then the law becomes easy.” It’s the difference between have to and want to; Jesus says we should want to keep the commandments out of our love for God and one another. Go figure….

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