August 26, 2012
The Christian who wants to live by the Law opens the Bible but is reading
a closed book. The Christian who lives by a standard that human beings have
drawn up looks at other Christians and sees people who fall short, in
comparison with himself. The Christian who supersedes the commandments of God
with man-made commandments does not understand the purpose of God’s
commandments and is therefore unable to keep what God has commanded. The
Christian who opens the Bible and does not see Christ as at the center and as
what the entire Scripture points to sees the words on the page but it is a
closed book.
That’s not to say that’s all there is to the Bible. There’s a lot of
good stuff you can get out of it and not even be a Christian. The Bible
contains wisdom rivaling the world’s great thinkers and philosophers. The Bible
gives us good old common sense. The Bible teaches us many lessons and morals
that are extremely helpful in day to day life. The Bible shows us how to live
in a way in which we are guided by positive values and lasting virtues. You
could simply read the Bible for the great literature that it is. There’s a lot
of good here and more power to those who read the Bible and get all this good
stuff out of it.
Sadly though, it remains a closed book to them. They see the words but
they are lost in their sin. They read and even understand the words written on
the pages of the Bible but they are darkened in their understanding of what the
Bible truly is communicating. It is a closed book to them and they may as well
be reading their shopping list for the week. There’s value in the shopping list
as well, but it is not a message which imparts to you salvation. You could see
your shopping list for what it is or if you’re the literary adventurous type
you could probably draw some symbolic value out of that shopping list in order
to see it as more than just a list of food. But it will not open to you the way
of eternal life.
And neither will the Bible. Only Jesus opens up the Bible in showing
you what the Bible is for. It’s for salvation and salvation is only in and
through Christ. The Bible itself shows this and the Bible itself opens itself
up to us in and through Christ.
One thing in that Bible is commandments. Each of us is born into sin
and the sinful flesh opens the Bible and sees the commandments of God as
something we must do in order to gain God’s favor. Our sinful nature opens the
Word of God and it is a closed book. We see those commandments and we begin
determining what we ought to do. Of course, our sinful flesh just as easily dispenses
with those commandments of God, not wanting the stranglehold God places on us.
Who is God to tell me what I should do and not do? Ironically, it’s the sinful
flesh that does God one better. Why do we need God’s commandments when we can
come up with our own? So many of the things we do as Christians are things that
other people and we ourselves have enjoined on us. We feel restricted by God’s
commanding of us but then we turn around and restrict ourselves even further
with an abundance of man-made rules and regulations.
There’s nothing wrong with rules, regulations, commandments,
restrictions, etc. that we or anyone else have come up with. We Christians are
not free to disregard the law of the land or the rules of others when we visit
them in their home. What Jesus pounced on in the Gospel reading was the same
thing God seized on in the Old Testament reading: our tendency as Christians to
honor God with our actions, putting on a good show, but in our hearts placing
our trust in ourselves rather than in God. Salvation is at stake here. Our
sinful flesh looks to itself for salvation, God points us to His Son.
We miss the point of the commandments of God because in our sinful
flesh we see them the way we see man-made commandments, as rules we need to
follow. Jesus shows us that the point of the commandments of God is not placing
a burden on us in order to gain His favor but is rather the natural outflow of
His love for us. God gave us His commandments, specifically the Ten
Commandments, in order for us to love others in the way He has loved us. And
how is that? He gave Himself to us. He placed Himself before us. That is love
and that is the essence of the Ten Commandments. The problem we run into with
the Ten Commandments is that in our sin we are condemned by those very
commandments of God. That’s why we can’t be saved by them.
But that’s also why Jesus does what He does. He opens the Bible to us.
He shows us that the commandments of God are more than just a list of rules. He
shows us that we get nowhere with God when we attempt to gain His favor by
following a bunch of rules. What He does is open the book to us. The Bible as
it stands is a closed book to us because we see it in our sinful eyes. He opens
it up. He shows us that what is in there is all about Him. It’s not just that
it’s information about Him. It’s that it delivers Him to us. It’s that it
points to Him and is centered in Him and is fulfilled in Him.
Consider what Jesus is showing the Pharisees here. They are the ones
who are constantly doing things to please God. They put everything and everyone
else in the background so that they can do things that will be pleasing in the
sight of God. The very first commandment says to put nothing before God, right?
So this they do. They must do things to please God at the expense of doing things
that will help others. What their eyes are blinded to see is that they are
putting something before God. It is themselves. They are seeking to be counted
as worthy by what they do rather than what God has done for them and then
keeping the commandments as the natural outgrowth of that.
But aren’t the Ten Commandments what God has given us to do? Yes, in
fact. But that’s the point. For those Christians who seek God’s favor by what
they do they place that over the Ten Commandments. The Bible remains a closed
book to them. The example Jesus gives to the Pharisees shows this. They put
their works over loving their own parents. They put their own traditions over
the commandment of God. The purpose of the traditions is to gain advantage for
themselves, by doing good and wonderful things so that God may look at them and
say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Here are ten kingdoms just for
you!” But this is not the purpose of the Ten Commandments. The purpose of God’s
commandments is love.
How does the Fourth Commandment, the example Jesus uses, read? Does it
say, “Obey your father and your mother”? Does it say, “Be kind to your parents
unless it impinges on your ability to obey God”? Does it say, “Give your
parents their due”? It doesn’t say any of those things even though those are
all wonderful man-made things that we should gladly do. The problem the
Pharisees, and so often we, had was not that they were doing these things or
not doing them. The problem was they, and so often we, were not seeing the commandment
for what it was. How it reads is this: “Honor your father and your mother.”
There may be times you must disobey your parents. If they command you to go
against God you must disobey them. But you never stop honoring them. You may
not see eye to eye with them in every way but you never stop loving them.
Obeying can be done without love. True honor cannot be done without love.
Showing honor or respect out of a sense of duty misses the point of the
commandment. Anyone can do that. What Jesus is talking about here is God’s love
for us in loving us as His people, because of His grace, and giving us those in
authority over us to care for us. To show them honor is to respond to God’s
love for us in honor and humility and love. God didn’t give us His commandments
in order that we may do what we need to do. He saved us and then gave us His
commandments so that we may live in this free-flowing way of living: loving
others not out of a sense of duty or in order to please God but simply because
we love as God has loved us.
This is how Jesus opens up the Bible to us. He shows us Himself. No
sense of duty or desire to obey His Father drove Him to the cross. Pure love
did. Jesus went to the cross purely for love. For you, for me, for those
Pharisees who condemned Him, for everyone. This is how the Scriptures are
opened up to us, by Jesus showing us that it is all centered in Him and what He
has accomplished on the cross.
What does this mean for you? In your life, for eternity, how you live,
what you do? What does it mean for us as a congregation in Allied Gardens? For
you it means that you are forgiven. You don’t need to wonder what God thinks of
you. You are forgiven, you are in His favor. He doesn’t love you because you
obey His commandments. He doesn’t love you more because you try really hard. He
loves you, pure and simple. Jesus assured you of that in going to Calvary. What
it means for us as a congregation is mission, evangelism, stewardship, and
serving. We serve one another, we love the people in our community, we make
known the Gospel to our community and even to the ends of the earth. We serve
God with what He has given us, our time, talents, and treasure.
This is who we are as individual Christians and as Christians gathered
together as a congregation. Christ is at the center. Jesus is who we point
people to. If Jesus opens the book then we open it up for others. Rather than
be a closed book to them we can show them how it all is centered in Him. We can
show them how it all points toward His love for them in their life, both in
this life and forever.
Jesus opens the book. He is the one, after all, who has the words of
eternal life. Amen.
SDG
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