Becoming A Disciple Of Jesus

We continue our discovery of the True Jesus in the Gospel according to Luke.  In chapter 4 we saw how Jesus was initially rejected by those from his hometown and yet sought out by those who were in the region of the Sea of Galilee.  It is clear that Luke is not giving a strict chronology, although his Gospel does follow the pattern of the birth of Jesus, the ministry of Jesus, and the death of Jesus.  Within this ministry section we find Luke giving detail but also skipping around chronologically.  In chapter 5 Luke gives us insight into the calling of some of the disciples to not just be those who believed him, but to also follow him wherever he went.

Hearing the Word of God

In verses 1-3 we see that Jesus had gone down to the Lake of Gennesaret.  This is just another name for the Sea of Galilee, which is also called Lake Tiberias.  They are most likely near Bethsaida where Peter lived, however the exact location is not stated.  What is stated is that Jesus was there to share the Word of God.  Jesus was popular and soon an unorganized crowd had developed around him as he shared God’s Word.  This is an important part of understanding what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  It starts with a desire to hear the Word of God and then coming to Jesus to receive it.  He is the ultimate Light of the World that stands above all the prophets of the Old Testament.  To be a disciple is to be one who sees Jesus as the one who has the Word of God.

As it gets crowded on the beach we are told that some fishermen are nearby.  We know that there has been interaction between Jesus, Andrew, and Peter in the past due to John’s gospel.  So Jesus most likely chose this spot and this time on purpose.  He just happens to be preaching when Peter and his partners are cleaning and mending their nets after a long night of fishing.  Notice that Jesus asks Peter for help.  Perhaps if we were there we would think that it was unspiritual or rude of these fishermen to clean their nets while Jesus is teaching.  But Jesus sees an opportunity here.  He asks Peter to lend him his boat so that he can preach from it.  That would solve the practical problem of the difficulty of the crowd to hear and see Jesus.  This is typical of God.  Though he can do all things, He wants us to join Him in what He is doing.

At this point I would ask you what the goal of preaching is.  Why is Jesus preaching to these people?  Simply put they need Truth.  The goal of preaching is for the salvation of its hearers.  Yes, not all believe and are saved.  But without the Truth no one could be saved from not just problems in their life, but primarily the bondage of sin.  The Apostle Paul demonstrates this in Romans 10:13-15.  He starts with the Truth: All who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.  He then asks this question.  How can we get people to call on the Lord?  Answer: they first have to believe that the Lord can help them.  How can they believe?  They have to hear the Truth about Who Jesus is, there own predicament, and what he has done about it.  How can they hear?  Someone has to preach the Truth to them.  Who will preach?  God must give His Truth to someone and send them.  Thus God sends us to preach so that others can hear the Truth, believe in their heart, call upon the Lord and be saved.  Every disciple is the result of that process.

Listening To His Directions

In verses 4-7, Jesus has finished preaching.  However, he now has some personal business for Peter and Andrew.  This part of the story ends with them catching more fish than they could imagine, enough nearly to sink two boats.  Is Jesus just paying them back for helping him?  We could think of this passage as Jesus showing that you can’t out give God.  But I don’t think that is what is going on here.  In fact, there is no indication that Peter and Andrew materially benefit from this catch.  It seems more that Jesus is giving them a personal lesson of just what he can do.

Now it all starts with some simple directions from Jesus.  Go out into the deep and cast out your nets.  Jesus doesn’t ask something difficult, nor is it something illogical.  However, it isn’t the sense or logic that they would have employed.  This is a big obstacle to being a disciple of Jesus.  He will ask us to do things that we wouldn’t.  We have all kinds of reasons why we shouldn’t do it.  We have all kind of feelings that are opposed to doing it (whatever it is).  Other obstacles that can keep us from being true disciples of Jesus are lust, pride, fear, and many others.  Disciples don’t just hear the Word of God from Jesus.  They also listen and obey.  Peter is tired.  He has fished out that whole area.  Why is this carpenter from the hills down here telling me to go back to work when I’m done for the day?  Yet, he responds with surrender.  “I don’t want to, but nevertheless because you ask it I will do it.”  He could have missed out that day.  But he had heard and seen too much of Jesus to not listen to this man.

Now Jesus isn’t just about miracles.  In fact they are actually secondary to why he came to earth.  Miracles are to reinforce the message.  So let me insert an end-times warning at this point.  The Scriptures tell us that the antichrist and false prophet will do lying signs and wonders.  People will be astonished at the power they have.  However, the problem will be that their message is not the message of the True Jesus.  We don’t receive Jesus just because he did miracles.  But we do so because only he has the words of life, the Words of God.  Miracles can help us to surrender our flesh when we know he is right.  But never let it push you to surrender the Truth when the Bible shows someone is wrong.

Understanding The Truth About Jesus And Me

Now verses 8-11 teach us something about being a disciple.  Somewhere in the middle of that great miraculous catch of fish, somewhere in the midst of pulling in nets, signaling the other boat, wrestling all the fish into the boat and struggling to get to shore…somewhere in the middle of all that Peter understands something.  Peter saw himself for what he truly was in contrast with Jesus.  The shame and guilt of his own sin becomes so obvious and hideous to Peter that he begs the Lord to leave him.  Even as the light dawns on Peter, the flesh and the devil are working overtime to keep him in the dark.  Pushing Jesus away because he is so righteous and we are not, is a mistake.  All disciples enter by the narrow gate of understanding this problem.  He is good and I am not.

With great tenderness, as only he can do, Jesus tells Peter to not be afraid.  Don’t let your fears rob you of being my disciple, Peter.  Leave your fears behind and come follow me.  Yes, I am holy, but I am also love.  I don’t love your sins, but I am committed to transforming you if you will enter into relationship with me.  You must understand that your fears will cause you to separate from the very thing you need.  A true disciple of Jesus has to learn to wrestle with fears and lay them at the feet of Jesus.

In fact let me close with this picture.  The Bible tells us that marriage is a picture of Jesus and his disciples, his Church, his bride.  If marriage is a picture of that relationship then we should look at that original marriage of Adam and Eve.  The Bible says that this is why a man will leave his family and cleave to his wife.  All successful marriages learn the lessons of how to leave others behind and cleave to one another.  Forsaking all and following him, Peter became, not just a hearer of Jesus, but a true disciple.

O friend, make sure today that you aren’t chasing Jesus to get something out of Him.  These guys actually walked away from what Jesus supplied that day in order to have a closer relationship with Jesus.  Be a true disciple of the true Jesus today.

Becoming a Disciple audio

The True Jesus: His Mission

Last week, in the temptations of Jesus, we saw the defensive side of what it takes to be led by the Spirit, or walk with God.  The believer must resist and stand strong against temptations.  Today we will look at the offensive side, which focuses on what we need to do with all our heart, mind, and strength.  Let’s go to Luke chapter 4 verse 14.

He Was Led To Teach

Most of the time that Jesus taught was in northern Israel around the Sea of Galilee.  This was due to the fact that it was far enough away from the religious leaders in Jerusalem to furnish a relative amount of freedom.

One thing that sticks out in verse 14 is that Jesus came forth from the time of temptation in the “power of the Spirit.”  This is clearly an additional comment that brings up the connection between temptation and spiritual power.  To resist temptation is to embrace the power of listening to the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit does not become any more powerful, but our yielding to Him allows the power of His guidance to flow through us.  God wants us to be filled with the Spirit and to resist temptation so that we may be empowered by the Spirit.  Whether we do miracles as Jesus did is immaterial.  God gives His gifts in varying amounts and disperses them throughout the body.  So that, no one person has all His gifts.  However, we can all be a powerful witness of Jesus.

Jesus did teach and, though Luke doesn’t mention it at first, verse 23 shows that he was doing miracles as well.  Luke focuses more on the fact that Jesus was initially received by everyone except those in His hometown of Nazareth.  I will come back to this issue later, but recognize that even when God is operating for good, we can be envious of what He has done for others.

Now before we get into the nitty gritty of the rejection in this passage, we should recognize that Nazareth’s rejection of Jesus is only a small picture of the Jesus being rejected by Israel as a nation.  Thus, at the beginning of His ministry we see his hometown rejecting Him and thus all the other cities in the area being blessed by Him.  Similarly as Jesus is rejected by Israel as a nation, the gospel of Jesus goes out to the nations of the world and they are blessed instead.  This pattern follows Jesus to this day.  Do not be enamored when crowds and multitudes crowd to hear about and follow Jesus.  For in time as they are challenged by the Truth of Jesus many will fall away.  If the Truth of Jesus is taught it will eventually be resisted by the majority.

He Reveals His True Mission

When Jesus comes to Nazareth, the stories of what he has been doing have preceded Him.  Thus when he arrives he is given a seat of honor and asked to read the Scriptures at the Synagogue.  Jesus turns to a specific passage, Isaiah 61, and reads several verses.  Then He sits down and says, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  I’m sure that went over like a ton of bricks, but let’s analyze this. 

Isaiah 61 is a prophecy that seems to be saying that God has anointed Isaiah to give Israel good news.  The good news is that God is going to help them rebuild the ruins of Israel.  Also, there is a promise that God will demonstrate His righteousness among the nations and Israel will be exalted.  As in any prophecy, the question is who, when, where….etc.  Jesus is saying that this passage was about what He was doing that very day.  He is saying that He is that anointed one who will help Israel rebuild the ruins and exalt the righteousness of God among the Gentiles.

Now notice what the anointing or power of the Holy Spirit is for in this passage.  Israel had become so spiritually damaged by sin that they were impoverished, brokenhearted, captive, blind, and oppressed.  Jesus had come to deliver them from these things.  We must recognize in this beautiful passage the ugliness of what sin does to a people.  In fact the teaching in our own country that people are basically good is an extremely evil one.  It tells us that we should basically follow our “good” inner inklings, which in the end lead us to a place of spiritual poverty. 

Jesus had come to give good news to the poor.  Now those who are materially poor are definitely in a position to be open to the gospel.  The rich don’t need God and aren’t interested.  But a poor person knows full well that they have great need.  Yet, being materially poor is no guarantee that a person will truly hear and take to heart the “Good News” that Jesus is giving us.  The gospel can only be received by those who are poor in spirit.  They have tried clamoring after the things of the world and found them to be elusive.  Some are opened by this to Jesus, but some refuse to be softened and broken in these times and only become harder.  Sometimes our problem is not that we are materially poor, but that we are not “poor” enough.  When we drop our pride, bitterness, anger, and the hunger for wealth, our spirit is able to receive the good news of the gospel.  If you are lacking in wealth and material possessions today, then go all the way and become poor in spirit.  God has great news for you in the person of Jesus.

Jesus came to heal broken hearts.  Now we use the picture of a broken heart to refer to being wounded by those we love.  Our hearts are not just wounded, however.  They also become dysfunctional.  We refuse to embrace some things that are good and desire other things that are bad.  Instead of a heart that is singularly fixed on God, ours becomes shattered into a thousand competing lusts and we are left without peace.  The greatest healing of all is to have our dysfunctional hearts touched by the Truth of Jesus.

Jesus also came to free the captives.  Though Israel was technically in their own land, they were under the tyranny of Rome.  However, Jesus didn’t come to free them from Rome.  Thus He did not see Rome as their captor or oppressor.  Their true captor and oppressor was the devil.  Through their sins he had bound them in bondage and kept their hearts captive to lusts.  They were unable to break free from the hold of sins on their heart and the penalty of their sins.

Jesus came to give sight to the blind.  They have not only become blind to their sin, but also to the Truth of God’s Word.  They were unable to receive the insights and comfort that God had given them through the prophets who had come before.  They couldn’t even see that they had become poor, captive and blind.  This is similar to the words of Jesus to the Church of Laodicea in Revelation 3, “You say, ‘I am rich, and have need of nothing.’  You do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”  How we need to stop finding hope in everything but God’s Word.  If you are saying, “But I’ve tried God’s Word and it doesn’t help,” beware.  This is only proof that you have become blind to what it is truly saying.

If you compare what Jesus read in Luke to the Isaiah 61 passage you will see that he stops in mid-sentence.  Jesus had come to proclaim the year of God’s favor, but not the day of vengeance of our God.  That would come later.  In fact the “Day of the Lord” for this whole world looms on the horizon.  Recognize that when Jesus comes back he will finish this sentence.  But for them it was to be a time of God’s grace.  Jesus had come to offer sinners a way to freedom.

Rejected By His Own

Now in verses 23 through 30 we have the details of the rejection of Jesus.  Now it is the lot of Jesus to be quickly received only to be later rejected.  In one church service Jesus goes from the honored seat sharing the Holy Scriptures the whole lot of them trying to kill him.  We must guard against this tendency of our flesh in our own hearts.

Jesus was rejected because he laid bare what was in their hearts.  Jesus is not content to just be welcomed into your life.  His job and mission is to show you the true condition of your heart and soul.  Now, none of us are perfect and we get pretty testy when we think another impure person is trying to point out our sins, much less the hidden things deep in our hearts.  But in Jesus we have one who has never sinned and knows those hidden things.  This extreme vulnerability is a very scary place to be found.  However, at the cross God proved His heart towards you.  You can trust Him.  If he exposes your heart, it is not in order to hurt you or take advantage of you.  But, rather, it is so that he can heal you.

There is no one for Jesus to pat on the back in this picture.  All of them, all of us, need saving from sin.  Now the hearts of the people of Nazareth thought that they deserved some miracles.  Do here what you are doing in other places.  Jesus gives them the examples of Elijah and Elisha.  Both of these prophets did powerful miracles.  However, in two cases they did so not for Israelites, but for gentiles.  Why?  Jesus begins to poke and prod.  It was because of unbelief in Israel.  Thus Jesus did not do many miracles in Nazareth over the course of His 3 ½ year ministry because of the unbelief in the heart of the people there.  “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”  They said to themselves.  This hardness walled them off from the miracles of Jesus, but it couldn’t wall them off from His grace.  Jesus comes and speaks the truth in love to His hometown.  If they could only hear and see and believe. 

This crowd did not need miracles.  They needed faith in Jesus.  They become so made that they want to kill him that day.  They crowd around him and lead him out to a cliff to throw him off of it.  Now, in light of the temptations, Jesus could have jumped off to prove that he is the messiah.  But instead Luke says that he turned and walked right through the middle of them.  They are paralyzed by the Spirit of God and impotent before the Son of God.  This was their miracle.  The miracle of watching God do what He will over the top of all the power and pomp of mankind.

May God give us all the ability to humble ourselves before Him and receive the grace of His Son Jesus.

MIssion of Jesus Audio

Understanding the Gospel II

Last week we talked about the importance of understanding the Gospel leading up to salvation.  Today we will talk about the importance of understanding the Gospel after salvation.  The Law teaches us that we will never approach God through it.  It begs the question “Is there another way?”  The answer is yes there is only one way and His name is Jesus.  What does the life of a Christian look like?  Or, what should it look like?  Two common mistakes happen in the lives of believers.  We either see Jesus as a new and improved “Law” that we need to keep, or, we see Jesus as the reason why we don’t need to do anything.

In Colossians 3:1-11, Paul lays out the proper understanding for believers to have.  When we truly understand the horrible predicament we were in and the awesome love that Christ showed for us at the cross, our lives will be impacted in very practical ways.  Let’s look at the first 4 verses of Colossians 3.

Seek The Higher Things

You might read chapter two to get a better feel for Paul’s point here.  It is clear that some of the Colossians were caught up in a legalistic asceticism, which basically focused on what you couldn’t eat, touch, or handle.  To them Christianity was still the Law, but under new management.  Paul’s argument at first sounds like he is saying there are no more rules.  But the truth is that they are looking at all the wrong things.  They are focused upon things of this world that are consumed and then gone.  He tells them to turn their focus and aim at a higher thing.  This is very different then saying, “Do anything you want because it doesn’t matter anymore.”  Paul is turning their attention up towards Christ.

When he uses the “If” conditional, he is not implying that some of them were not saved.  Rather he is emphasizing the logic of where our focus should be.  This logic was not only taught to them but also illustrated in their water baptism.  Colossians 2:12 says, “You were buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith by the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”  Water baptism symbolizes my death to sin and this world and my new life with Christ.  If Christ is my new life, why is my focus on everything but Him?

The present location of Christ should help to draw our heart and affections toward God.  We long to be with Him, but he is not here.  However, we can fellowship with Him by the Spirit.  The focus should be up towards Christ is now.  Think about it this way.  Jesus did not come to Earth because he wanted to enjoy the “Local Color.”  He came to Earth because of the heart of His Father.  God desired eternal fellowship with men.  Thus the earthly endeavors of Jesus were from a heavenly reason.

Now some have said, Christians are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.  This may be true of some, however the opposite can be stated.  Many people are so earthly minded that they are no heavenly good.  Think of the Pharisees.  On the surface they were all about God’s business.  But, in truth, they really weren’t.  Their political machinations were very much about themselves and things on this earth, not God and his heavenly purposes.  Believer should impact this world from the directive of heaven.  Anything short of this will fail to bring lasting impact.  Now let’s look at verses 5-8.

Cut Off The Lower Things

After telling them to seek the higher things of Christ and the heart of the Father in heaven, Paul then tells them to put to death or cut off the “lower things.”  When you read his list of these “lower things,” it is clear that he is not just talking about anything that has to do with the natural world here on earth.  Rather, he is talking about motivations of this life that are not of God (the higher), but are of our flesh (the lower).  Let me give an example.  A family is not in and of itself a higher or lower thing.  It just is.  However, the motivations behind my interactions with that family are of a higher or lower quality.  Even the giving of money to a charity can be done for base, lowly (read that fleshly) reasons.

These lowly motivations are not just “on the earth.”  It literally could be read that they are “centered upon” the earth.  They are lowly because these motivations are solely focused upon earthly reasons and ends without regard for The Maker of all things.

Another reason why they should cut off these lower things is because they are the very reason that God’s wrath is going to be poured out upon all the earth.  We must not fool ourselves.  The judgment of God is coming upon the earth, and precisely because of our sin.

Abortions, homosexuality, adultery, war, destruction of the earth, pride, atheism, false pretence, theft, anger...(the list is practically infinite), not only are sins against each other but they fly in the face of God.  Why would I continue to embrace what God has pledged to destroy?  Each true believer must seriously ask themselves this question and remember Lot’s wife.  Lot’s wife did not perish because no one loved her.  She perished because even when she knew it was being destroyed, she loved the things of this world.

Now in some ways, what Paul is saying sounds like regulations again.  Seek this, kill that.  But let’s recognize that the difference is in the word Relationship.  Regulations do not care about God and His heart.  It is not about a relationship other than slave to master.  However, God has called us into the relationship of a child with a father, or a wife with her husband.  In each case we will focus on certain actions and get rid of others, but, for very different reasons: the reasons of love.  Love embraces things and gives up others for the sake of relationship.  Christ is not coming to simply destroy those who eat pork or worship on the wrong day.  He is coming to destroy those who have rejected relationship with Him and have turned towards hurting others.  In the end, sin always hurts our self and others.

Without such a relationship with Jesus, we are powerless to follow Christ.  That is why Paul said in Colossians 2:23 [following man-made regulations] have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.  Many people who are strong at controlling the outward appearance of their flesh will find that God is not pleased.  (Do you remember the instructions Jesus gave about lust in our mind and heart and how it is the same as adultery in the flesh before God?)  When you understand the impact of that statement you will realize quickly how powerless you are without Jesus.

Put Off The Old Man Put On The New Man

In Colossians 3:9-10 Paul changes the metaphor of higher and lower and uses “old man,” “new man,” and getting dressed.  Here the new man seeks the higher things of Christ, whereas, the old man lived for the lower things.  Thus if you are going to follow Christ you need to strip off that old man and its lower motivations and put on the new man which is motivated by Christ himself.  If I truly turn from my old life towards a new life in Christ it will make an impact in my life.  This “clothing” is not merely new and better rules, but rather, a new focus, attitude, and source of power.

Paul says that the new man is renewed by knowledge.  Specifically, this is the knowledge that we have been given by Christ.  It is the Word of God and our knowledge of the true Gospel and God’s real judgments.  This will enable us to be renewed into the image of Jesus who is our pattern.  This is where our focus should be; the desire to be like Jesus, not because we will then be saved, but because he has saved us, out of love.

Final Thoughts

Our flesh does not want truth in this area.  Even when we turn to Christ our “Old Man” remains hostile to the things of God.  Just try to pray every morning before you go about your day and you will see how true this is.  Our flesh will either be unbalanced towards legalistic regulations of pride or it will be unbalanced towards “sloppy agape.” 

The truth has more tension in it then either of these two extremes.  Following Christ is filled with tensions that we are tempted to relieve in all the wrong ways.  Don’t run from the tension.  Rather relieve the tension by turning to God in prayer for strength and surrendering to His grace for peace.

Understnding Gospel II Audio

Understanding the Gospel

Do you truly understand the Gospel?  Perhaps you do.  But, today I want to spend some time going through the Gospel and what about it is good news.  Let’s start by using a hypothetical situation.  One day you get a letter from the court stating that someone has paid $1 million towards your traffic fines.  However, let’s say that you don’t have any outstanding traffic tickets.  How would you respond to this news?  Obviously you would see if there was any way you could get the money, but then you find out that the money can only go towards traffic fines.  The “good news” isn’t as great as it would first seem.  However, what if the letter said something different?  Now you are told that you were recently clocked going 60 mph in a school zone.  But this wasn’t just any school zone.  It was a school for blind, deaf kids.  On top of this there was construction happening on this road and you drove past 3 different signs clearly marking the school zone and construction.  You are told to turn yourself in to the authorities and the least you will be punished is a $500,000 fine, which is doubled to $1 million due to the construction.  But, someone has stepped in and paid the fine for you.  All you have to do is present yourself before a judge and repent for your careless actions.  Now, how do you think the “good news” would be received?

Often when we share the Gospel with people, we can forget that the way in which we present it can affect how they respond.  We can pitch the Gospel as this, “God has died on a cross for you because he loves you so much!”  This good news isn’t such good news to a person who never asked God to die for them.  Why would He go and do a thing like that?  That seems a bit extreme.  However, if we take the time to help them see the guilt of their own sin then it might seem more like good news.

Even worse than then simply sharing Christ’s death on our behalf, without an understanding of our guilt, is when we turn the Gospel into a lottery winning.  “Congratulations, you’ve won the Gospel lottery!  If you put your faith in Jesus today you are going to have the best life ever!”

In the letter to the Romans, Paul takes time to first demonstrate the guilt of the Gentile nations (chapter 1) and then the guilt of the Jewish people (chapter 2).  When he gets to chapter 3, he then ties it together to show that we all need what Jesus has done.  Specifically, let’s look at Romans 3:19-23. 

Everyone In The World Is Guilty Before God

Few people truly understand their guilt before God.  Sure it is easy to feel bad over things we have done.  But there is a part within all of us that says, “But it wasn’t so bad that it deserves hell.”  We say that because we do not see the true depths to what is in our hearts and what we have done.  We can be like the person who will admit they were speeding, but are incensed that the officer pulled them over and that there are laws against speeding.  These are the kind of hearts that God is trying to reach.  He is not happy to just throw the book at us.  He really is trying to change us both in our thinking and our life.  Thus the Law of Moses was needed to help mankind see the true problem of a corrupted, sinful nature. Paul wraps up his arguments of Romans 1-2 in chapter 3 verse 9, “for we have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin.”

This is demonstrated in The Great Flood.  The Bible says in Genesis 6:5 that “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  Yet, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  Notice that Noah found “grace.”  This means that not even Noah could stand on his own righteousness.  God saves him, not because he has to, but because Noah put his faith in God.  Thus God gave him grace, a gift.  But imagine the depths to which mankind had fallen that every thought of every one was continually evil all the time.  Here we see that the guilt of mankind had become so great that God would bring judgment upon everyone all at once.  Yet in the midst of it we see His desire to give grace.

This is also demonstrated through the nation of Israel.  Though God had given Israel laws that he had drawn up for them, they constantly failed to follow them and eventually had corrupted the Truth that he had given them to be a means of power and pleasing of self.  Israel is seen as a people who not only failed to follow God as they should, but also put Him to death when He came to them in the flesh.  They refused to let go of their self-righteousness and the justifications that went along with it.  Their problem was not having good enough laws.  Today people like to try and paint the laws of Israel as not good, and even some of them as evil.  However, the testimony of Scripture is that they are of divine origin.  The problem of Israel was not their laws, but their hearts.  It would help the United States of America to view this example because we have the same problem as Israel.  Our laws are not divine, so we can fool ourselves into believing that if we just passed enough laws and perfected them then we could have Utopia.  However, we are only fooling ourselves.  The more perfect our laws become the more our evil hearts will stick out like a sore thumb and the more evil men will “perfect” their wickedness in order to continue.  We must recognize the evil in our own hearts and our need for mercy.  We are guilty before God.  More importantly, I personally am guilty before God.  He would be righteous to judge me and take away the life that I have taken for granted.

This is something we do not like to accept.  Great thinkers and philosophers try to posit in the modern era that man is basically good.  But all of their reasoning is mere mental gymnastics, as they try to avoid the inevitable conclusion that everyone in the world is guilty before God.  We humans have a heart problem that desires things that are not good.

The Law Shuts Our Mouths

In Romans 3:19 Paul says that the purpose of the law was not to fix the world, but rather to shut our mouths.  Have you ever seen a guilty person in front of a judge who would rail on and on about how they shouldn’t be judged and this is unfair, and they haven’t done anything wrong?  All of us have the desire to self-justify, opening our mouths and decrying our judgment.  Instead of listening to the righteous judge we continue braying like some senseless donkey.  So God sends the law to shut the mouths of people who think they are so good.  The proud who think they should be acceptable to God are both irreligious and religious.  The Jews would have been in total agreement with Paul’s argument in chapter one.  But chapter two would have set many a mouth to yapping.  Whether our mouths are shut in this life or not, we will stand before God one day and at the judgment our sin will be completely evident.

The Law proves once and for all that none of us are righteous.  If God did not provide a way of forgiveness we would all die under the system of Law.  In fact the law convicts even the “best” keepers of the law as mere performers.  By ourselves our best can only be a restrained evil.  Think of it this way, you may never have been “unfaithful” to your spouse in the sense of having sex with someone else after your marriage.  However, unfaithfulness is not just an act.  No one can stand before God (who knows every thought in our heart) and say I have had no unfaithfulness to my spouse, ever, in my heart.  We would be lying.  In fact outward faithfulness is more remarkable because of what we all know is in our hearts.  We would all be unfaithful to one another if we simply followed our hearts.  Like wild horses wanting to run free in any direction, a “faithful spouse” learns to “break” those horses and train them for a more useful function.

The law makes the ignorant aware of their true condition.  In fact, the more we listen to it the more helpless we become.  We realize that we truly are in a prison that no law can deliver us from.  We might even be tempted to despise the law and promote anarchy.  But anarchy leads to death.  Gentiles were ignorant of God’s laws so it is understandable that they would break the laws of God.  But for Israel to break God’s laws was to reveal a deeper problem of which we dare not be ignorant: even when I know the Truth I don’t always want to follow it.

The Law Shows Us The Need For Another Way

After Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, God blocked their way back by placing a guard of Cherubs (not the cute little baby angels, either!) and a flashing darting sword.  The law can be pictured like this.  It stands at the gate of righteousness and cuts down anyone who tries to approach God through their own acts.  It is a clear message that says access denied (and if you try again you’ll be killed).  We have to find another way.

We can’t do enough to dress up our corrupted creation.  We have taken a perfect thing that God has given us and we have ruined it.  We need God to “recreate us” in order to be righteous.

Thus we need to recognize the problem and ask God for His grace and mercy.  Without His mercy and help we are hopeless. 

Final Thoughts

There is a certain freedom that comes from accepting the fact that we are all sinners and in need of God to make another way for us.  I don’t have to compare myself with others and worry about how I look.  I don’t have to prove I am good enough because none of us are good enough.  Yet, even those who embrace the Gospel are warned about forgetting what it means.  In James 2:13, we read, “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment.”  James was warning them that if they accept God’s mercy and then turn around and show favoritism to people that they will be judged.  Why?  Salvation is not about saying the “magic words.”  It is about embracing the Truth of God.  To show favoritism is to deny the very essence of the gospel.  God gives grace to the humble, but Law to the proud.  What are you today?  Are you a proud atheist?  Beware, God’s law will cut you down.  Are you a professed Christian who is proud?  Beware, God’s law stands as a prophet of doom everyday convicting you of such actions.  Flee to Jesus away from your sin and be saved today!

Understanding the Gospel audio