Monthly Archives: May 2022

RIGHTEOUSNESS AND GOOD WORKS

Christian Life, ,

RIGHTEOUSNESS AND GOOD WORKS

Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy. Matthew 5:7

What the Bible teaches is always in balance. Without the righteousness of Jesus which covers and replaces our unrighteousness, we have no standing before God. As our substitute, Jesus died for us as though He were unrighteous, and gave us His righteousness as a gift of mercy. This is the only way to find acceptance with God.

God made Him, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5: 21)

However, there is another side to it. James put it this way:

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2: 14-17)

We may revel in the righteousness which God has given to us as a free gift of His grace and which makes us acceptable to Him but, without responding in gratitude by doing the right thing for others, it means nothing.

The heart of the kingdom then, as far as daily living is concerned, is showing mercy to someone in need whenever and wherever we can because God has shown mercy to us. This is the way God rules in His world.

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not covet,’ and whatever other commandment there may be is summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no harm to his neighbour. Therefore, love is the fulfilment of the law. (Rom. 13: 8-10)

God’s kingdom comes whenever and wherever we show mercy to others. It is possible for us to be merciful now because our selfish, greedy selves have been put to death by the death of Jesus. We have been raised with Him to a new life of gratitude and obedience to Him for His mercy and unselfish love for others, shown by our compassion towards them. If not, our faith is empty, useless, and invalid – bottom line.

Jesus had something to say to people who claimed to know Him by their so-called “spiritual gifts” but, like the Pharisees, used them for the wrong reasons,

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matt. 7: 21-23)

The kingdom of God is much more than a doctrine to be understood. It is a life to be lived and a reality to be experienced. Of what value is it if we can navigate our way through the intricacies of the kingdom with clarity and accuracy in our understanding but still live as though we are citizens of this world?

Like our rabbi who blazed the trail, the kingdom of God only comes to life among us when we practise its values amid this world’s darkness.  Jesus showed us what God’s kingdom will look like when it is finally ushered in in its fullness. There will be no sickness or sorrow, no demons or dying. All sin will be put away forever and God’s family will live in union with Him and with one another in perfect harmony.

Until then, we experience the kingdom only in part. Ours is the task of being heralds of the kingdom and bearers of the good news, demonstrating what the kingdom is like by reflecting the disposition of our Master and by replicating His love and compassion towards all people, and showing that the kingdom is real and is coming in its fullness when Jesus returns.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM

Christian Life, ,

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field…. Matthew 13:24

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field… Matthew 13:31

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field… Matthew 13:44

47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish… Matthew 13:47

Like a diamond, the kingdom of God is many-faceted. The kingdom must have been as difficult for Jesus’s disciples to understand as it is for us. Jesus told stories, many of them beginning with the words, “The kingdom of God is like . . .”, to shed light on the kingdom (but only for those who desired understanding) – what it is like and what it is about.  Each story illustrates only one small part of the whole. He needed to re-programme their thinking from their fixation with Rome and a restored Davidic kingdom to a higher and unseen realm where God is at work to restore everything that was broken by the Fall.

Matthew set out a block of these stories in chapter thirteen of his gospel, beginning with the story about a farmer who sowed seed in his field (Matt. 13: 1-23). This is one of the few stories in this group of parables to which Jesus attached an explanation. The meaning of the story is quite clear; one kind of seed, four types of soil, four different responses to the word of God (Luke identified the seed as the word of God – Luke 8: 11). This was how He told it, but what was the point of the parable?

This is the surprising part. Jesus explained that one of the reasons that He taught in parables was to confirm the condition of people’s hearts. When people have no desire to know the truth, what they are told only serves to harden them in their unbelief. Their minds are closed to the meaning and value of God’s kingdom because they do not want to know.

His disciples were privileged to be given understanding because they had a heart to follow and become like their rabbi. As for the rest, the more stories He told, the less they understood because that was the nature of their hearts.

To His disciples Jesus made one thing clear; they were to seek to understand and follow God’s way above everything else. His rule had to take priority over all else because His way as interpreted and lived out in front of them by their rabbi, was the only way that would lead them to the Father. Even His disciples did not understand that He was the way to the Father until He spelled it out for them.

Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ (John 14: 5, 6)

Whatever Jesus had to say about the kingdom of God was, in the end, exemplified in Him. He was the interpretation of God’s rule and the mirror image of the Ruler – the Father. Experiencing the kingdom would not be difficult if they simply stuck to their role as His talmidim because He insisted that the purpose of His coming was, among other things, to show them how to live in the spirit of Torah.

This is how He summarised what He expected of them as His talmidim, both in their own lives and in the way they showed others what God’s kingdom is like.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matt. 6: 33)

How often we quote this verse without having much idea of what He meant! Once again, we must put it in context, both in the immediate context and in the context of the entire Sermon on the Mount. His sermon was about how to live under the rule of God. He described the lives of the people who relinquish their right to make their own rules in favour of returning to the path – the way which takes them to the Father.

A large part of what we relinquish is our worldly attitude towards money and things, which was at one time characterised by selfishness and greed. Instead of being preoccupied with making a living or getting rich, we should be focussed on living under God’s rule. Life is not about how to make ends meet because He has pledged to take care of our needs. We have an obligation to demonstrate God’s compassion towards those who are in need, and to do something about it as our response towards God for His compassion and mercy to us.

A ”righteous” person is one who stays on the path and follows the landmarks that take him towards God’s name – His character mirrored and exemplified in Jesus, the replica of the Father. Every opportunity we have to show mercy and compassion, in the spirit of Torah, is another landmark on our path towards the Father.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Christian Life, ,

JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:14-15

Jesus spoke repeatedly of the arrival of God’s kingdom, both present and future as “good news”. What did He mean by “good news”? What was the good news He announced by His coming? When the Romans arrived on the scene in the already-occupied-by-Greece land of Israel, for the Jews it was bad news. The presence of the Roman authorities was not only an affront to their sovereignty as a nation and their freedom as a people, but it also brought with it many forms of suffering.

They could never forget that they were an occupied nation. The Romans were everywhere, waiting to clamp down on them and quell any signs of rebellion. The people were subjected to severe taxation which left many of them impoverished and resentful of their overlords and those of their own people who worked for them. What’s more, their religious hierarchy were in cahoots with Rome, benefitting handsomely from applying whatever pressure was necessary to keep the peace.

Jesus’s announcement of good news might have sent His disciples’ pulses racing but for one thing – He made no attempt to deal with the Romans. In fact He practised and taught the opposite; He healed people indiscriminately, in response to their faith and not according to their race; He taught His disciples to love their enemies, and to submit to their overlords. That did not sit well with the religious zealots who were more than eager to get rid of the Romans by whatever means it took.

So, if the good news was not about ridding Israel of Roman occupation and re-establishing the glory of the Davidic kingdom, what was it about? To understand His message, we must go back to the Old Testament. Isaiah prophesied of a day that was to come when Jerusalem would be restored after the devastation of captivity. He offered good news to the people of Zion.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say in Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. (Isa. 52:7-8)

“Your God reigns!” That was the good news but what did it mean and when would this happen? God would finally dealt with their core problem – sin – and deliver them once for all from the ravages of sin through His Suffering Servant. Isaiah graphically described, in fifteen verses (Isa 52:13- 53: 12) the nature of this deliverance – the sacrifice of the innocent for the guilty so that the guilty may be forgiven and be reconciled to God.

Inherent in Jesus’s message of good news was the restoration of God’s authority over His people when their sin was atoned for and removed once for all. This was not about Rome. This was about an occupation far more sinister and far-reaching than Rome’s. Their hearts were occupied by a usurper whose power over them had to be destroyed by exposing his deception and breaking his hold over them so that they could return to the God who had called them into a covenant with Him.

Jesus announced that the time had come for this to be accomplished. God was at hand to establish His reign in their hearts once again. Through them, He would extend it into every corner of society and every part of the globe until Jesus returns to dispose of the devil and establish His eternal kingdom on earth.

Adam and Eve sold out to the deceiver who aspired to usurp God’s place as Lord! Over the millennia, the devil has done everything in his power to own and keep this title by enslaving the human race through the sin, sorrow and suffering that came with their disobedience. The good news Jesus brought was truly “good news”. God said, “Enough is enough! Satan has had his day and now the time for deliverance has come.”

God’s reign is intended to restore righteousness and justice in the earth where evil reigns and destroys. When Jesus is acknowledged as Lord by every person who has ever lived and every angelic being, good or evil, Satan and all evil will finally be disposed of to the place where he belongs. All creation will know that Jesus is Lord and not the devil or any of the false gods he has hidden behind from the beginning of time.

The new era of the kingdom of God was ushered in when Jesus came, which He demonstrated by His words and works. The kingdom of God is among us now, but not yet in its fullness. It will only come fully when Jesus returns to reign over His redeemed people and a renewed and restored earth.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

A SOLID FOUNDATION FOR LIFE

Christian Life, ,

A SOLID FOUNDATION FOR LIFE

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock . . . But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand . . . (Matt. 7: 24; 26)

What was the point of Jesus’s teaching?

It was to provide a solid foundation for their thoughts and actions as the rabbi’s talmidim. The Hebrew mind did not accept information that did not issue in a response. Theology without making a difference was pointless. The western mind wants to answer all questions, solve all riddles and problems, and explain everything in logical sequence. The Hebrew person looked for a God he could lean on.

Jesus told a simple story to illustrate the difference between the wise person – the one who accepted the truth of what He taught and put it into practice, and the foolish person who knew that what He taught made sense and worked but didn’t do it anyway.

The bottom line of His illustrations was the foundation. Without a solid foundation, even a so-called “good” person who lives a “good” life will fall apart when the storm rages. The foundation upon which one builds one’s life provides the strength and stability or not when life turns sour. There are people who claim that, though they don’t go to church, i.e., they do not claim to be disciples of Jesus, they “live by the Sermon on the Mount.” Is that possible?

No, for several reasons:

  1. Their philosophy is built on the erroneous idea that, by living “good” lives, they can erase God’s wrath against sin. They ignore the fact that sin does not make them bad; it makes them dead. However good they think their lives may be, they are dead to God and separated from Him and have no hope of being acceptable to Him outside of Jesus.
  • Jesus was speaking to His disciples – those who had made a commitment to follow Him. It is only within this context that living the life He portrayed is possible. This kind of life begins with His sacrifice for their sin and the forgiveness and reconciliation to the Father that He made possible. It issues in a commitment to follow Him and walk in His way. They need the Holy Spirit who enables them to build their lives on the truth of His Word.
  • To accept the words of Jesus here without accepting the rest of what He taught as authoritative and binding, does not work. What He taught throughout the gospels is as binding as what He taught in the Sermon on the Mount. Everything else flows from His simple instruction: ‘Follow me.’ One cannot pick and choose what one will obey and what one will ignore. To follow Jesus means to embrace His yoke in total and to live and teach it without alteration or one would immediately be disqualified from being a disciple.
  • It is not possible to do what Jesus taught without doing it in the spirit of Torah which is contrary to the natural man. By birth, we are selfish, self-centred, and inward-looking. It takes the miracle of God’s grace through the power of the Holy Spirit to change a person with the “evil eye” to one who has “the eye of light”.
  • Jesus was not looking for followers who would merely mimic His words and actions. He was indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit without whom He would have been just as every other human. His followers are those who are “in Christ” and Christ is “in them” by His Spirit who is and provides the very life of Jesus without whom it is impossible to be His disciple.

If the foundation of one’s life is not based on a relationship with Jesus which issues in a transformed life indwelt by the Holy Spirit, no amount of “doing good” will gain acceptance with God or sustain one in the storms of life.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

BE REAL WITH GOD

Christian Life, ,

BE REAL WITH GOD

Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him as stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him? (Matt. 7: 7-11)

This could well be a part of Jesus’s teaching on prayer but for one thing – the context. If we ignore the following parable, we might think that He advocating persistence in prayer, which is a reality about prayer in other contexts, but not in this one.

So what is He talking about?

His story seems to indicate that God values a transparent two-way communication in our dealings with Him. When a child asks straight out for what he wants, a father will not be devious and give him what he has not requested. If earthly, fallible human fathers treat their children well, how much more will a perfect heavenly Father give the best to His children?

The issue is: If God is open and honest with us, how open and honest are we with Him? We fool ourselves if we think that we can fool Him by our words while at the same time try to conceal what’s in our hearts. Be real with God. Jesus taught Bartimaeus, the blind man, this lesson when He asked him,

What do you want me to do for you? (Mark 10: 51)

Jesus was not stupid. He knew what Bartimaeus’ problem was, but He wanted him to verbalise it. Why? Because it was important for the blind man to admit his need. Jesus drew him out to ask for what he wanted. He wanted him to play open cards with Him so that He could respond to him according to his heart need.

This lesson is not only applicable to our interaction with the Father. It is equally important that we be transparent with people as well. This does not give us a licence, however, to be brutal in our honesty. There is a way to be open with people that invites trust, not offence. Jesus put it this way:

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matt. 7: 12)

Let’s take this a little further. What about the way Jesus spoke to and about the Pharisees? Was He not being brutal in His transparency? Was He contradicting His own principles? Did He expose the wicked hearts of the Pharisees in the spirit of Torah?

In order to uncover His purpose, we must check His motive. What was His intention when He spoke to them as harshly as He did? There may be several reasons but let’s look at a few.

  1. They were the spiritual leaders of the people. They were the educated ones who were responsible for interpreting, modelling and teaching the Torah. Had Jesus remained silent, He would have given them permission to continue being hypocrites, teaching one thing but contradicting what they taught by their behaviour. By publicly exposing their hearts, He warned them about what they were doing and, at the same time, the people who admired them for the wrong reasons. They did not follow the teaching of Torah which they expected their followers to do.
  • The Pharisees thought they were the watchdogs and critics of the people. They did what Jesus warned His disciples not to do. They judged others by their own standards and heaped guilt and condemnation on those who failed. That was not to be their role. They were to lead by example, not alienate by condemnation. Jesus alerted the people and warned the Pharisees that they were themselves under condemnation for what they were doing. This was their opportunity to repent.
  • Jesus offended their minds to expose their hearts. Their reactions to Him revealed what was in their hearts. They were not interested in walking in the way of Yahweh. They enjoyed the praise they received from people while living their wicked lives in secret. Jesus told them the truth so that they would have an opportunity to repent, and so that they would have no excuse for what they did when they came into judgment.

John the Baptist was equally brutal in the way he spoke to the religious leaders. He called them “a brood of vipers” – not a very flattering title or a way to “win friends and influence people”! Luke concluded his report with these words:

And with many other words, John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them. (Luke 3: 18)

Good news, John? In this case, the context makes it clear that John’s harsh words were part of the good news he was telling them. If his hearers knew what was in their own hearts, perhaps they would realise that what John taught about Messiah was true – that He had come to take away the sin of the world and to give them the Holy Spirit who would separate out the wheat from the chaff in their lives.

The most loving way to treat people is, in the end, exposing them to the truth because they will be held accountable for their lives and behaviour by the truth.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.