The Gospel in Twenty Questions (11 page)
Read The Gospel in Twenty Questions Online
Authors: Paul Ellis
Tags: #Christianity, #God, #Grace, #Love
Like every grace-preacher,
Jesus esteemed the law and the purpose for which it was given. The law was
given to silence every mouth and hold the whole world accountable (Romans
3:19). The purpose of the law is to make us conscious of sin and reveal our
need for a Savior.
Since Sinai,
the Jews had had fourteen centuries to learn what the law would teach them—that
we are incapable of dealing with sin. However, the law-teachers and Pharisees
had diluted the Law of Moses with their traditions and interpretations. By
honoring their traditions ahead of the law, they emptied the law of its power
to condemn. As a result, the menace of sin was not fully recognized, and the
self-righteous weren’t silenced.
If the law
had been allowed to do its proper work, the Jews would have been primed and
ready for a Savior. But since the law-teachers had been negligent, Jesus had to
do their job before he could do his own. Before he could save the world from
sin, he had to preach the law that makes sin utterly sinful.
The law is
not a standard to live up to. It’s a mirror that reveals our shortcomings. In
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus polishes the mirror. He takes the knocked-down
law and raises it higher than it has ever been before. “You have heard it said …
but I say unto you …”
Why did the
Lord of grace preach the law? Because some people will never appreciate the
good news until they’ve heard the bad news, which is this:
Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom
of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)
The Pharisees and law-teachers
were good men, but Jesus said they were not good enough. They prayed, fasted,
and traveled over land and sea winning converts, but Jesus said they fell short
of God’s righteous standard. They would never enter the kingdom.
Jesus’ words
are sobering. You may ask, “If they can’t make it, who can?” The brutal answer
is no one. All fall short.
You may say, “I’m
a decent person. I’ve never killed or committed adultery. Surely God will let
me in.” And Jesus replies, “Your best is not good enough. God demands
perfection and nothing less.”
This is bad
news for imperfect people like you and me. None of us lives up to God’s
standard 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Look into the mirror of the law that
Jesus preached and you will be left with no uncertainty: “I’m a lawbreaker.
I’ll never get in.”
Now you’re
ready to hear the good news:
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. (Matthew
5:17)
Jesus preached the
law so that you might appreciate grace. He outlined the high and lofty
requirements of the kingdom so that you would abandon your futile quest to
qualify. He proclaimed God’s perfect standards so that you would trust him who
fulfilled the law on your behalf.
The bad news of the law
declares, “You are not perfect,” and the good news of grace responds, “But you
have a high priest who is.”
Therefore he is able to save completely those who come
to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high
priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from
sinners, exalted above the heavens. (Hebrews 7:25–26)
The law will leave you
wondering, “Have I done enough? Am I good enough? Am I saved?” But grace gives
you the confidence to declare, “Jesus has done it all. Jesus is good enough.
Jesus saves me to the uttermost.”
This is why
we should not read the so-called commands of Jesus as
laws that must be kept
.
Jesus preached law so that you would run to grace. You cannot trust his grace
and
your law-keeping. It’s one or the other, not both.
Christ is the culmination of the law so
that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4)
The gospel of grace declares
that the righteousness you and I need comes to us as a free gift (Romans 1:17,
5:17). You are not counted righteous because you keep the commands of Jesus.
You are judged righteous through faith in Christ alone.
“We should do everything Jesus said” is a
reckless claim made only by hypocrites.
I guarantee those who say we should do everything Jesus
said aren’t doing everything he said. They’re only doing some of the things he
said. How do I know? Because they have retained all of their limbs and
eyeballs. They’re picking and choosing from the words of Jesus. Those sayings
which are too hard they dismiss as figurative. “Jesus didn’t really mean that.”
They’re like the Pharisees who kept the easy laws and rewrote the hard ones.
Doing everything Jesus said is like
ticking every possible response in a multiple-choice test. (You won’t pass.)
It’s driving with both feet on both pedals. (You won’t go far.) It’s marrying
two people at once. (You won’t be happy.)
“Paul, are you saying we should not
live by the law Jesus preached?” Well, if you do, you are declaring your unbelief
in the grace Jesus revealed. You are saying, “Jesus is not the end of the law
for me. I don’t trust his finished work.” This is unwise. It is trampling
underfoot the blood of the covenant and insulting the spirit of grace.
“We must do everything Jesus said”
is a statement of unbelief. It’s saying, “I trust what I do, not what he did.”
“Grace-teachers claim the words
of Jesus are not relevant for us and can be rejected as old covenant teaching.”
This is a common accusation made against those who preach the gospel of grace.
Apparently, we don’t take the words of Jesus seriously. In fact, the opposite
is true. Those who value grace are the
only
ones taking Jesus seriously.
When Jesus is
preaching law, we say that’s serious law and not something to be dismissed as
hyperbole. If Jesus said it, he surely meant it. And when Jesus is revealing
grace, we bow in breathless gratitude. We would not dare to sully his grace
with qualifiers and caveats.
not everything he said is good for you
. The question
of relevance is determined by context. For instance, Jesus had much to say to
the Pharisees, whom he called sons of hell (Matthew 23:15). You are not a son
of hell, so why would you heed words meant for them? Jesus also spoke to the
devil. You are not the devil, so why would you heed words meant for him?
Should we dismiss the
pre-cross sayings of Jesus as old covenant teachings meant for another people
in another time? This would be a mistake. It would be like throwing away
treasure. If all scripture is useful for training in righteousness (
2 Timothy 3:16
), then the words of Jesus must be especially useful
—
even his words to the Pharisees.
Jesus is the greatest preacher of all time. He told stories and
preached sermons the whole world needs to hear. The genius of Jesus is that he
often preached one message with two punchlines. If you were confident of your
own righteousness, you got law, but if you were not, you got grace.
Consider Jesus’ story of the Pharisee and
the tax collector (Luke 18:9
–
14). Both men went
to the temple to pray. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself. His
prayer was a résumé. He thanked God that he was not like other men and bragged
about his fasting and tithing. But the tax collector stood at a distance and
prayed just seven words:
“God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus ends the story with a bombshell: “The tax
collector went home justified before God.”
feel? Does it fill you with joy or resentment? Your response to the story is
your response to the gospel. If you identify with the sinful tax collector,
then this story is good news.
Really? He went home justified?
That’s the
scandal of grace right there. God justifies sinners (Romans 4:5). Search the parable
for evidence of the tax collector’s good works or merit, and you’ll find
nothing. Grace is for the undeserving. It’s for those without
résumé
s.
But if you are confident of your
self-righteousness, this story is not good news at all. “Wait a second. I fast.
I tithe. I am better than other people. Jesus, what are you saying?”
Jesus
doesn’t mince his words. “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled” (Luke
18:14). That’s a hard word for a hard heart. It’s a word that condemns the
self-righteous and silences the boastful. It’s a word of law for those who
don’t see their need for grace.
Jesus is brilliant at
giving people exactly what they need. Consider the parable of the prodigal son
(Luke 15:11
–
32). Some people love
this story, others hate it. I’ve had people tell me, “I feel bad for the older
brother. He worked so hard.” They say this because
they
are working
hard. They are good and decent and can’t understand why Jesus would throw a
party for prodigals and not for them. It troubles them that we are inside
whooping it up while they’re outside working on their résumés.
The story is real.
Every one of us is in it and everyone is invited to the party. Grace is for all.
But you’re going to have trouble receiving it if you think of your heavenly
Father as an employer. And that’s the whole point. You’re going to have to
change your mind about God or you will never enjoy his love.
Words mean different
things to different people. If you identify with the tax collector or the
prodigal, the words of Jesus are packed with radical grace. You’ll read them
with praise and thanksgiving and whoops of joy. But if you identify with the
Pharisee or the older brother, his words are extremely unsettling. They are serious
words, not fun at all. Yet if you allow them, the words of Jesus will change
you. They will strip you of your religion and reveal your need for grace.
Let me finish with one
more example that reveals the genius of Jesus:
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father
is perfect. (
Matthew
5:48
)
If you are standing on your own righteousness,
that’s pure, glorious law. Jesus is giving you a standard to live up to:
perfection. Good luck meeting his standard! If you insist on living by the
commands of Jesus, keep
this
command. And if you can’t don’t bother
looking for a loophole. You won’t find one. You cannot be mostly perfect. You
have to be perfectly perfect
—
as perfect as your
heavenly Father is perfect. The moment you slip up, you become imperfect and
you will be condemned as a failure. The sooner that happens the better, because
maybe then you will see your need for grace.
However, if you are
standing on his righteousness, then these words of Jesus are pure, sweet grace.
They will cause you to sing and shout for joy because Christ is perfect, and,
in him, so are you. As a result of his perfectly perfect sacrifice, you have
been made perfect forever (Hebrews 10:14).
Perfection is not
something to strive for, it’s something to receive, and in Christ, you have it.
Everything about Jesus is perfect
—
his righteousness,
holiness, and redemption are utterly flawless in every way. Since we have
received Christ, we have received his perfection. The exhortation to be perfect
means “be who you are in Christ.” Work out what he has put inside you. Don’t
focus on your imperfections, but see yourself clothed in his glorious
perfections. Put off the old man and put on the new. Be who he has made you to
be.
See the difference? One
verse, two messages. There’s bad news for those trusting in themselves and good
news for those trusting in Jesus.
How should we read the
words of Jesus? The wrong way is to treat them as keys to life or sacred
commands that must be obeyed
or else
. Don’t idolize the words; worship
Jesus. Read the words through the lens of the cross. Read them to hear Jesus
and to receive from the abundance of his grace.
Many
Christians are troubled by Jesus’ harsh words to the Laodiceans. They shouldn’t
be; they’re not Laodiceans. As we will see in this chapter, Jesus has harsh
words for them but wonderful words for us. Let’s start by looking at the harsh
words.
I know your deeds, that you are neither
cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are
lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
(Revelation 3:15
–
16)
What does it mean
to be lukewarm? Many think Jesus is talking about apathy or a lack of zeal.
“It’s better to be on fire for God or coldly opposed to him than halfhearted in
the middle.” The implication is if you’re not full on for God, he will reject
you as unworthy. In other words, getting into the kingdom is like trying to get
a job at Google: Only the enthusiastic need apply.
This
interpretation has become so widely known that the term lukewarm has become
synonymous with apathy and complacency. But is that what Jesus is saying here?
Is Jesus firing up the troops like a sergeant major? He is not.