Monday, October 15, 2012

Jesus: The Law Preacher

Jesus was the greatest law preacher of all time! Most of His ministry was dedicated to frustrating people's attempts at getting into heaven/following Him.  He raised the bar so high, in many situations, hoping and waiting for people to give up entirely on their own ability to 'achieve' salvation.  Much of His earthly ministry was not one of grace but of law, so that people would recognize that their own personal attempts at perfection were futile.  He preached law so as to prepare people for a savior, himself.  He taught law until His death and resurrection, when He reconciled the world to Himself; He then gave the message of reconciliation to His disciples; especially to the apostle Paul.  Lets dive into the teachings of Jesus, the greatest of law preachers.  In doing so may the Spirit empower us to leave behind the law and step into His marvelous grace!

As we look at these passages it is interesting to note that Jesus tailor made His messages to match His audience.  Whoever He was speaking with, he nullified the very things they relied upon, thereby frustrating their own performance and effort.  "A ruler questioned Him, saying, 'Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'  And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone  You know the commandments (Luke 18:18-20)."  Jesus goes on to tell Him to obey the commandments, the man surprisingly says he has obeyed them.  Jesus catered his message to him by saying, 'One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come follow me (Luke 18:22)."  The man became sad and did not follow Jesus.  The disciples are shocked by this encounter and ask Jesus, 'Then who can be saved (verse 26). For if you recall, the disciples gave up everything to follow Him. Jesus answered simply, 'The things that are impossible with people are possible with God (verse 27)."  Do you see it?! Do you see that Jesus was trying to make the rich young ruler and the disciples admit that it was impossible to attain to salvation.  Not only that it was also impossible to truly follow Him!

"If anyone wishes to follow me he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but however loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it (Luke 9:23-24)." So does this mean I have a cross to bear?  That is what many pastors teach.  But if I have my own cross who's cross did Jesus die on?  Did he sin? No, so he bore my sin? Yes!  So He died on my cross?  That is exactly right.  This is just another instance of Jesus trying to frustrate people's attempts to follow Him and attain to eternal life.  You want to follow me? Well you will have to go out and die every day, good luck!

In the book of Matthew, chapter 18, we get the 'Sermon on the Mount'.  It is here that Jesus instructs people to pluck out their eyes and chop off their hands if they cause them to sin, for it is better to dismember yourselves then to miss out on eternal life.  What is He doing? We know that nobody takes this literally.  He is saying that if you want to perfect yourself you will have to go to such drastic measures as cutting off your body parts; after that you might have a better chance of making it. . . not.  Ha! Just imagine the way that the Jewish people took these teachings?

We see Pharisees in Matthew 22 trying to trap Jesus.  They know that obeying the law is necessary for gaining eternal life.  In Matthew 5 Jesus elevates the law and makes it harder to follow.  Instead of committing murder he says if you have anger in your heart you have already committed murder; likewise if you lust then you have committed adultery.  The same thing is happening here in chapter 22.  The Pharisees ask Jesus what the greatest commandments of the law are.  Jesus answers them, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the great and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the prophets (Matthew 22:36-40)."  Does Jesus expect people to say, Oh that's easy! I'll just do that and then get to heaven! No!!! He just made the law a heart issue, He made it even harder to obey the law!  Who can love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength? I can't!  He is still trying to exasperate those who are trying to save themselves.

The disciples, who struggle with the issue of the law throughout the gospels, ask Jesus, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God? 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent (John 6:29)."  We do not 'try and follow Jesus' anymore, we do not 'try and obey Jesus', we are not attempting to 'live the Christian life'.  Jesus was very clear that these things are impossible to attain.  We cannot get to heaven, we cannot follow Him, and we certainly cannot love God with our whole being.

 So what must we do? Believe in the one that was sent.  Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17).  Because of Jesus, the whole righteous requirement of the law has been met in us (Romans 8:4).  I do not live a righteous life because of effort, but by faith! I am righteous! Faith Jesus did a good enough job, that it is finished; faith that I have been re-created, seated in heavenly places, and that my old sinful self has been put to death with Him!  I no longer strive to please Him or to attain nearness with God, for Jesus already did that for me.  When I actually believe in Jesus then I naturally manifest good deeds and a holy lifestyle; after all faith without works is dead. Me being like Jesus doesn't come from my effort or my moral code, rather we learn from Paul that the 'Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23)!!"  No law! Therefore, if I am not living a holy lifestyle, or struggling with sin in some area, or am not experiencing the fullness of joy/peace in Jesus, it does not mean I need to try harder. It means I am lacking faith!  It means that I need a revelation of what Jesus has already accomplished on my behalf.  And there is no condemnation for that since faith itself isn't a work but a gift! Thanks be to God!

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one my boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10)."

How do we increase our faith? Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17).  Hearing what? The good news. What is the good news? That your sinful self was crucified with Jesus (Gal. 2:20) and now partake of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), that you have been given everything pertaining to a life and Godliness (2 Peter 1:3), you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:3),  Jesus is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 2:30), Jesus finished the job.  Now we enjoy restored unity with our Father, drinking the wine of the new covenant that contains every divine pleasures; with Him we preach the message of reconciliation and the forgiveness of sins. Amen!

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