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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Dangerous Words |
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Luke
10:25-37 Thirteenth
Sunday after Trinity August
29, 2010 Some
of the most dangerous and tragic words in the English language are found
in Luke 10:29; "But He, willing to justify himself, said unto
Jesus..." The words are
dangerous because it is impossible for any person to justify himself
before God. They are tragic,
because this man tried and failed. Before
we go any further we should pause to identify just what the Bible means by
this word, "justify." We
could look at Greek and Hebrew words and theological terms, but the Bible
itself gives a perfect definition just a few verses earlier.
It is found in the question of the man in verse 25, "Master,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" So the definition of justification is to inherit eternal life.
It means to become worthy of eternal fellowship with God on earth,
now, and in Heaven forever. So
the question the man is asking is; what must I do to make myself right
with God so I can go to Heaven? Why
does he ask this question? Because, in spite of his arrogance and pride in
his own righteousness, deep inside of himself he knows he has a problem.
Jesus knows too. Jesus asks him a question.
Note that Jesus doesn't ask the man's opinion or feelings, He ask
what the Bible says. "What
is written in the law? how readest thou?"
We need to stop measuring truth by our feelings and God by our
opinions. There is only one
standard that measures and reveals these things, the Bible.
But that's another sermon. It
is important to see that the man knew the answer.
He summarized the law perfectly, almost exactly as Christ summarized
it. He may even have heard
Christ say these words. "Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as
thyself" (10:27). His
problem was that he had not
loved God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind, nor had he loved
his neighbor as himself, and he knew it.
In spite of all his self-righteousness, he knew it, otherwise he
would not have tried to justify himself to Jesus.
He is trying to excuse himself.
He is admitting that he has not kept the standard, but trying to
say he is justified anyway. His
problem is shared by every other human being that has ever lived.
Our problem is not that we don't know what to do.
Everyone knows there are certain things we should do and certain
things we should not do. There
may be some disagreement about the details, but everyone agrees there is
some kind of immutable and obligatory standard by which we ought to
conduct ourselves. Some may claim they don't believe that, but if you take their
car or move into their house without permission, they will appeal to a
universal standard of fairness and justice and rightness which they
consider self evident and to which you must submit.
When they does this they are proving the truth of the Bible, for in
Romans 1:18-32 we are told that the knowledge of God, and, therefore, His
will and His Law, are clearly seen in nature, but, people reject that
knowledge and embrace lies of our own imaginations instead.
Romans 2:15 tells us that the law of God is written on our hearts,
meaning, the core of our being. So,
just like the man in Luke 10, we know the standard.
Our problem is that we also know we have not kept it. So,
just like this man, we start making excuses.
We attempt to justify ourselves.
Here's how we do it. First,
we tell ourselves, "I'm good enough."
"God," we say, "doesn't require perfection, and He's
a God of love, and I'm really a pretty good person. so, I'm O.K.
I'll get into Heaven." The
bad news is; you're not as good as you think you are. I'll talk more about that later.
Second, we say, "God will accept me if I just do my
best." The problem here
is that we know we have not always done our best.
In fact, there have been times when we have intentionally done our
worst. So there is no hope in
that excuse. Third, we tell
ourselves we can make up for our sins by doing certain things.
These things could be being a nice guy, giving money, even going to
church, taking Communion, Baptism, and Confirmation, or any number of
other religious actions and ceremonies. According to this excuse, no
matter how much your actions and attitudes have hurt and cost others, no
matter how many lives you have scarred, no matter how many people have
wept and mourned because of you, you can make it right if you just do a
few good things and perform a few religious ceremonies.
I say unto you, with all the love and compassion I have in me, it
won't work. Here's
why. Each of these excuses
fails to account for the offensiveness of your sin to God.
I don't know why people have such trouble understanding that our
sin offends God, for we are certainly offended easily enough. I'm sure you
know people who are so easily offended you hardly know what to say or what
to do around them. And if you
think you have a difficult time not offending people you should try being
a minister for a day. And
people seem to take more and more things as personal affronts.
They take your bumper sticker or your political views or your
religious views as a personal offense.
They get angry at you because of them.
They get offended. How,
then, can they not see that God is offend by their sin?
How can any person not see that our sins are personal attacks on
God? Sin is the rejection of God's ways, God's love, and God
Himself. Our sins are hate
crimes against God. Read
Romans 1:18-32 again and see how offensive our sins are to God.
Now, do you think a few dollars in the offering plate can make up
for that? Do you think a few
religious ceremonies can atone for that?
Do you still think you're good enough for God as you are? There is nothing you can do to atone for your sins.
There is no way to make them right before God.
There is no way for you to
justify yourself in the eyes of God.
The whole parable of the Good Samaritan was to show that no one has
lived up to demands of God's Law, not even the Samaritan.
No one loves God or neighbor fully.
Therefore, no one can justify himself before God. You
can't do it! But God can.
That's what Jesus is all about.
This man receives sinners. He
came to seek and to save that which was lost.
There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ.
He was crucified for our offences and raised for our justification. The
only way to be justified before God is for God to do it for you and give
it to you as a free gift. And
that is exactly how it is done.
We are "justified freely by His grace (Rom. 3:24).
"The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord" (Rom. 6:23). "God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (Jn.
3:16). Please do not be fooled by those who say that if you are kind
to others, as the Samaritan was kind in the story, you are right with God
and bound for Heaven. Those
who say that misunderstand the parable completely.
Do go and do as the Samaritan did, but do not expect that to atone
for your past sins or to get you into Heaven.
Do not do as this theologian, for he was an expert in Biblical law,
not a lawyer as we think of attorneys today, do not do as he did, which
was to continue to believe he was good enough for God, to trust in
himself, his goodness, and his excuses.
Do trust in Christ Jesus alone.
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