New Thoughts (01/01/10)
How do you measure? That is the question that one must ask when confronting this simple declaration. It is a two-fold question. In the first case, it is the question of how you measure others. What causes you to see one man as important, or righteous or worthy? By what criteria do you assign worth to your fellow human being?
Clearly, there are cases on which all would agree, “this one is evil,” and we would be right in doing so. Likewise, there are cases which all would agree, “that is a good man,” and we would quite probably be correct there as well. I dare say, though, that the clear-cut case of evil is far more accurately identified by us than its opposite. You see, our standards of goodness are not spectacularly well defined. We are quite certain when somebody’s behaviors have fallen below our standards. But, when they clear our standards, it is questionable whether they have truly achieved goodness, or only satisfied our own minimalist criteria.
This is the thing Jesus was forever combating as He ministered amongst His people. The Pharisees had achieved prominence as the visible practitioners of righteousness. So far as most people were concerned, they were the very definition of righteousness, paragons of virtue. Yet, over and over again Jesus made it painfully obvious that their righteousness was only skin-deep. It was display. It was a thin veneer glued over some very wormy wood in the soul. Look at those cases for which they complained of what Jesus was doing. He was doing good to the people of God, and these men who deemed themselves the judges of righteousness would condemn Him for doing so. For their own part, they were too concerned with looking good to actually do good.
This is be akin to a fireman refusing to enter the burning building for fear he might get some soot on his uniform. He looks the part of a fireman, and makes a fine display of it for parades and the like. But, he only plays the role. He does not do the deeds of a fireman. The man on the street who, hearing a cry of distress from that same building, rushes in and pulls the helpless child to safety is more a fireman than that one in the uniform.
Put it in terms of recent events: The Dutch film-maker on that flight to Detroit was more accurately an airline security officer than any who work for TSA. They have the uniforms, and they put on the show of screening those who would try to murder innocents in the air. But, it’s only a show. That all but anonymous passenger who took the measure of events and changed their course: He was doing the real work of security that those others only played at.
All this is to say that our measure of who is a solid believer is likely as not going to prove incorrect. We look at pastors and naturally presume that they are spiritual giants. Indeed, we have a horrid tendency of putting them on a pedestal, as the saying goes, and then being so terribly surprised when we find ourselves confronted with their fallen humanity, so much like our own. It puts us right there with Peter’s comment a few verses back: “If they can’t do it, what chance have I?” (Mt 19:25). The answer to us is the same as to them. “Nobody. It’s impossible. Men cannot do it on their own. That’s why I came. For, with God (and only with God) all things are possible” (Mt 19:26).
You see? Blessing, righteousness, goodness: In all of these things, we judge by what our eyes see, what our ears here. We see the man of wealth and assume: blessed. We see the poor and we automatically conclude: not blessed. We see the sick and jump straight to: sinner! We see the constant in prayer and assume that what they do when they can be seen is what they do when they can’t. That’s where the Pharisees were at: so long as anybody was there to witness it, they would be ever so good. But, get them in private? Not so much. Truth be told, this is hardly something unique to the Pharisees. It is the fallen flesh in every man, given half a chance. The moment we allow ourselves to slip into measuring righteousness by the senses, our flesh will begin to put on a show for us, so we can pat ourselves on the back and say, “See? I’m doing it! I’m doing it!” And, if we are truly to be found in God, the Spirit will immediately rise up and recall us to the reality that, “all my righteousness is as filthy rags. Spoiled by my pride, and more show than reality.”
This, then, is the second question. How do I measure myself? If I count myself righteous, on what basis? If I do not, what am I doing about it? What can I do about it? One would hope that the Christian could answer these questions with relative ease. If all I am concerned with is giving out the correct response, then I suppose we all can do it. I measure myself by Christ – nothing in me, all in Him. I am counted righteous solely for what He has done. As for my own efforts: filthy rags, even as Scripture says. In my own power, I am a worm, and hopelessly lost with no chance whatsoever of ever pleasing God, and all I can do about it is to throw myself on the mercy of His court.
Like I say, if we are only worried about saying the right thing, we can handle that much. But, what’s the reality that we perceive? What do I really think? Do I behave in such a fashion as to indicate that I truly understand that I am nothing, can do nothing? That Christ is all? Have I truly cast myself upon His mercy? Is He my only hope? And, do I act like it? Do I act as if I find hope even in Him? Because, if I do, there must be some evidence, yes? When I see that evidence, do I try and take credit for it? When I loudly declare that, “it’s all Him,” do I mean it, or is this pride putting on the mask of a false humility?
Looked at this way, the questions get much harder and the answers far less predictable, far less consistent. But, the reality is that the heart condition is ever and always what measures the man, not the outward performance. I know from my own experience and example that it is relatively simple to keep up a good show of things for the hour or two of weekly church services, and be a totally miserable human being the rest of the week. I can stand up and be all meek, mild and servantly for the congregation, but get me home, on the road, at work? Sorry, but I’m king, and y’all had best start acting like it! Flesh! Sin! Let’s call it what it is. The heart condition is wretched. Worse still, the heart (as we have been warned) is particularly adept at convincing us the case is otherwise.
Nobody wants to look at themselves and see a moral shipwreck. Nobody wants to go into each day with the perspective that he is worthless and beyond all hope of redemption. Nobody, certainly no man, wants to start each day with an honest look in the mirror that can only come to the conclusion, “I’m a failure and destined to remain so.” Yet, this is probably a pretty honest assessment, at least of the man on his own. It is only when Christ Jesus is added to the image and to the core of the man that the picture is changed. It is only when Christ Jesus stands between us and that mirror, so that we see ourselves through His eyes and through Himself, that we can reach any other conclusion. It is only, in the end, as He works upon the heart, as He wills and works in us such that we are enabled and empowered to work and will with Him, that there is any change.
The reality remains that if there is any good in me, it is all Him. I have nothing to boast of. I, quite frankly, have little outward show to give even as a confidence booster to pretend it’s otherwise. I find in myself absolutely no reason to hold out hope of heaven. And yet, I am exceedingly confident of that very hope. Why? Because He has convinced me, He has made very plain to me that the result is not in my doing, but in His. The result is not even in my compliance, it’s in His will. He has said it, and it is. Period. There really is nothing of me in the equation.
That said, I am returned to the exhortation of John, to bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance. For, repentance is about all this man of flesh can manage; and even that, imperfectly. Our repentance is hardly ever a true, ‘turning around and going the other way.’ It’s more a momentary regret, a temporary deviation, unless God so works upon us as to make that deviation permanent as it ought to be. We are not to take the work of Christ in such a fashion as to suppose that we may as well just stop doing at all. No! We just saw that in the preceding study (Lk 13:24). Strive! Give it all you’ve got! Stretch out for the goal and seek for the win! But, understand that the gate is held open by the Lord of the kingdom, and it is His hand drawing you onward. For your part, it is the effort to make evident by one’s response the gratitude felt for His doing on your behalf.
So long as we continue in this life, it will always be the case that we see those we deem important, and those we deem not so important. There will be those we think have achieved mightily for the kingdom and those we think have done next to nothing. But, we must remain mindful that our eyes are incapable of a just measure in this regard. We do well to consider that maybe it is those very ones we think are doing nothing (even if it is ourselves we think of in that way) who are truly moving the kingdom agenda along. Maybe it’s the ones we never see at the fore who are really keeping the work of God moving because they labor to such a great degree behind the scenes. Maybe those least in the spotlight are most in the Light.
There is another side to this matter that ought to be touched on before I leave this verse behind. For those who are inclined to that behind the scenes effort, the flesh can work upon us in such a way that we grow resentful. However we may be quelling the fleshly response and beating it into submission as it were, the flesh still rises up and cries out that it’s all so unfair. Look! I’m doing everything right, and see how I am repaid here! The Church is forever faced with the reality that bad things do happen to good people, and good things do come to bad people. We cannot deny the evidence of the senses. But, the great good news that is delivered in this simple verse is that these reversals of fortune are temporal – momentary.
That’s the other, perhaps greater message that Jesus delivers here. They may be first in this life. They may be showered with honors and riches and all the good things that can come to them on the earth. But, God is Just! It shall not always be so. As with that rich man who so despised poor Lazarus, all his reward will have been found to be in this life and only in this life. Come the next, justice will be served. Likewise, those who have seemingly reaped a miserable return on their efforts in this life? Their treasure is stored up and waiting for them in heaven! God is Just!
I tell you, we do Him a great disservice in focusing solely on the truth that God is Love. He is. But, He is likewise and simultaneously Just. Indeed, I should argue that He could not truly be Love except He is truly Just. Love cannot be unjust. We associate justice with wrath, because where justice is served, it is generally by the punishment of that one in the wrong. And, as we measure it, wrath is wholly incompatible with love. How can love and wrath coexist? The answer lies in one word: God! In God, Wrath, Love, Mercy, Justice – all these things are of His essence. They are Who He Is, and they are so simultaneously and in perfect concord. Love must have Justice, but Justice, to be Justice, must also encompass the Wrath of punishment. Yet, God’s Just Wrath, being one with His Love, is ever tempered with Mercy. Were it not so, there would be no Christ. Were it not so, there would be no man.
The perfection of harmony that is found in God, where these attributes are found in unity, in balance, and in action, is the greatest cause for joy we could ever hope to find. God is Just! His Love is Just! His Wrath is Just! His Mercy is Just! His Love is Merciful! His Wrath is Loving! Can you even begin to fathom that? This is the God who has your back, and even more importantly, He has your future.
Of late, my wife has been very firmly connecting with 1John 1:9, and rightfully so! It is a marvelous verse, for it is assurance to the earnest believer. It is also demonstrative of that same balanced essence of God that allows Love to be Just, Wrath to be Loving, and Justice to be Merciful. That verse tell us that as we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us of our unrighteousness. But, there is another key aspect held in that verse. He is also and simultaneously righteous in doing so. He is Just! He has so fashioned His solution to our impossible dilemma of sin that as His Love moves Him to Mercy towards us sinners, He is still able in all Just Righteousness to be Forgiving.
At the very same time, as He metes out His Wrath upon the impenitent, He is also perfectly Just and Righteous to do so. Neither is His Love damaged by that manifest Wrath of Judgment, nor is Mercy reduced. It may remain beyond our capacity to fully grasp this reality, but to the degree that we can hold on to this most marvelous Truth, it must surely move us to great joy, great exaltation!
Whatever this life may bring, God is Just, and Justice shall be served! Whatever this present lot, my heritage remains sweet, for my heritage lies with Him, secured in heaven. Whom shall I fear? No one! The Lord is my Rock, and my Salvation! He is my Sword and Shield, my Strong Tower against every enemy. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him, for in Him alone is Life, and that Life that is in Him, He has set in me as a flame to burn forever.
