Andrew Farley on Growing in Grace

Over on our Growing in Grace podcast we posted the first of three podcasts with special guest Andrew Farley.  Check it out here.

Prostitutes, Heaven, Faith and Works

Jesus said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.  For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him. (Matt 21:31-32)

The "them" that Jesus was speaking to were the "chief priests and the elders of the people" in the temple in Jerusalem.  They were the holy people.  The set-apart of the set-apart.  And while it's true that some of them were corrupt, these priests and elders may very well have been as squeaky clean as they come.  And Jesus is telling them that women who sell their bodies enter the kingdom of God before them!

Why is that?  Is it that God loves it when women prostitute themselves?  Is He happier when people commit harlotry than He is when His own chosen (holy, set-apart) priests and elders do their holy, set-apart jobs?  Of course not.  So what's the deal?

The deal is that entering the kingdom of God isn't about the things that a person does.  It's not about a person's good and righteous deeds, or lack thereof.  Rather, it's about a person's belief (or lack thereof).

Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.  But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. (Rom 4:4-5)

But isn't faith without works dead?  James is the one who said that, and he gave two examples of what he meant.  The first example was Abraham offering his son Isaac on the altar.  Here's the second example:

Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? (James 2:25)

What were Rahab's "works"?  Was it that she turned around and changed her behavior and gave up harlotry and started following God's law?  Now, of course it would be a great thing for Rahab to turn around and change her behavior and quit harlotry.  But that's not her "works" by which she was "justified."  (The word "justified" in this case doesn't mean "made righteous," but rather "shown to be righteous.")  Rahab's "works" were that she hid spies and lied to those who came to her house to find them!

Her "works" were the result of what she believed.  What did she believe and why did she believe it?  She told the spies that her people had heard of, and feared, the great works of the Lord, and that He was giving their land to Israel.  She told them, "the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath." (Joshua 2:11).  She believed God.  That's why she did what she did.  It's not that she was made righteous by what she did, but rather what she did showed that she believed, and that's why she was credited with being righteous.

That's why harlots can enter into the kingdom of God before God's chief priests and elders.  It's not about what any of these people do or don't do.  It's about what they believe

God's Law and the Crowd-Thinning Words of Jesus (Part 2)

Wow, do I love the gospel!  The good news!  When Jesus was born, a scene appeared in the countryside in which "a multitude of the heavenly host" was praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

Who had "goodwill toward men"?  God did!  And what "peace" was this? God's peace! (Rom 5:1, 10:15, Eph 6:15).  In Christ, God would be reconciling people to Himself, not counting their sins against them (2 Cor 5:19), and anybody ("whosoever") could receive all of this as a free gift, by God's grace, through faith (John 3:16, Rom 3:22).  What's revealed in the gospel is God's very own righteousness given as a free gift to sinners - not through anyone's law-keeping or good works (Rom 1:17, 3:21, Eph 2:8-9, Titus 3:4-7).  That's the gospel! That's the good news!

As I mentioned in Part 1 (please read it before reading Part 2), God's good, holy and just law is not the good news, although it did have a lofty God-ordained purpose.  The law's purpose was to minister death, bondage, guilt and condemnation.  Anytime death, bondage, guilt and condemnation is produced, that's not good news!

So why is it that Jesus, whose coming was highlighted with a trumpeted declaration of "good news," is often found speaking to people with words that don't sound like good news at all?  If Jesus said He didn't come to condemn people but to save them (John 3:17), then why did His words often bring condemnation upon people?  If the good news is that sinners gain a righteousness that is a free gift by grace through faith, and not at all according to their own good works or law-keeping, then why did Jesus raise the bar and call for even greater works than the law called for as a means of people gaining entrance into the kingdom of heaven? We'll get to that.

But first I'll ask a few more questions that will hopefully spark our thinking about why Jesus said the things He said.  Was it was actually the gospel that Jesus was preaching in these crowd-thinning sermons that caused many people to turn away and leave.  When He said "cut off your hand" and "pluck out your eye" if they cause you to sin, and when He warned of hell fire in the Sermon on the Mount, was this in line with the angel's prior declaration of good tidings and great joy?  In saying, "Your righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, or you won't enter the kingdom of heaven," was Jesus delivering the message of the gospel?

Have you ever considered or wondered about these things?  Has it ever occurred to you that these particular words of Jesus were not good news.  They were not the gospel.  So what did Jesus mean to accomplish with His "bad news" words?  If the gospel is good news, and God's intention was to draw sinners to Himself and save them, not according to their works and law-keeping, then why did Jesus speak such hard words to them about their works and law-keeping that ended up driving them away?

The Bible says that Jesus was "born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law..." (Gal 4:4)  Jesus first had a ministry to those who were under the law.  This ministry to the Jews - those under the law - was a law ministry.  It wasn't a "good news" ministry.  Jesus was using the law with law-people for the very purpose for which the law was intended to be used.  Romans 3:19 says that the law speaks to those who are under the law, for the purpose of 1) stopping their mouths and 2) making them guilty before God.

In His ministry to the people of Israel, Jesus not only taught the law but He put a magnifying glass on it.  He amplified it.  "You have heard that is was said... But I say to you..." (Matt 5:21-22, 27-28, 33-37, 38-39, 43-45).  "It's not just the act of adultery, it's looking at someone with lust." (Matt 5:27-28)  If those under the law thought they were righteous because of their law-keeping, Jesus was showing them just how unrighteous they really were.  His teachings brought out their guilt and it stopped their mouths!  He was preaching the bad news to them, showing them that the law was far more severe than they had previously thought.  These teachings weren't able to help them live right any more than the Law was able to.  He was actually making it even harder for people to enter into the kingdom of God through their own works.

One time Jesus told His disciples that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.  The disciples reacted with great astonishment, saying "Who then can be saved!"  Notice that Jesus' words caused them to think that it's impossible for anyone to be saved.  After all, how possible is it, really, for a camel to go through an eye of a needle?  So the statement "it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" isn't good news.  It's bad news.

However... Jesus then adds something.  He says, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."  The former declaration  - "this is impossible" - is bad news!  But when "it's possible for God" is added, it turns into good news!  Do you see it?  Light at the end of a very dark tunnel!  When a person comes to truly understand, through the bad news, that he falls short of God's glory and that it's impossible for him to save himself, it makes him feel hopeless.  But that all changes when he finds out the good news that what's impossible for him is possible with God!  The bad news points to, or leads to, the good news.

Can you see, then, that Jesus had good reasons for preaching the law to those who were under it, even when His ultimate aim was to get them out from under it?   Can you see why He preached the ministry of death and condemnation, even when He came not to condemn but to save and to give life?  We know that Jesus said He didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, and that's exactly what He did.  And all the while, we also see Him preaching it for the exact purpose for which it was given.

Part of the confusion regarding these particular words of Jesus comes from the fact that He didn't come right out and say what He was doing: preaching the bad news in order to show man his need for the good news, so they would repent of their self-righteousness and turn to God instead, by faith alone.  He let people (especially those who trusted in their own righteousness) go away sad, angry and confused, without filling them in on the grand scheme.  He left it to them to work it out in their own hearts.  But as we saw in Part 1, years later Paul did come right out and lay out the law's purpose in great detail, leaving nothing for us to guess about.  Paul helps us to understand why Jesus said the things He said.

So you can see from all this that we're not neglecting the words of Jesus.  We don't discard any of His words.  We don't run away from the words of Jesus.  To the contrary, we highly respect the words and the entire earthly ministry of Jesus, and we take His words very seriously.  To take His words seriously is to pay close attention to the context, to who He was talking to, and what His purpose was in saying the things He said.  Understanding the purpose for the harsh sayings of Jesus helps us to love and appreciate the gospel all the more!

God's Law and the Crowd-Thinning Words of Jesus (Part 1)

Why was God's law given?  Many think that the law is meant as a way to help us live right.  It's natural to assume that the law was given to provide a way for people to live godly lives.  But in the New Testament epistles (not my own words, but the words of Paul, etc.) a completely different picture is painted to reveal to us why God gave the law.  In God's grand scheme to redeem people, His law has a huge purpose.

Contrary to helping people live right, here are scriptures (again, not my own words) that talk about the actual ministry and fruit of the law:

-It was enmity with us (Eph 2:15)
-It was against us and contrary to us (Col 2:14)
-It condemned people (2 Cor 3:7-9)
-It put people in bondage (Gal 4:24-25)
-It made people guilty (Rom 3:19)
-It "stopped mouths" (Rom 3:19)
-It imputed sin to man (Rom 5:13)
-It aroused sinful passions that bore fruit to death (Rom 7:5)
-Through it, sin abounded (Rom 5:20)
-Through it, sin revived and we died (Rom 7:9-11)

Have you ever realized that all of this came through God's law?  Because of all this, you won't see Paul expressing a desire to see believers (those who have new life and who live by faith) trying to keep it.  It's quite the opposite.  Paul says "the law is not of faith" (Gal 3:12) and he says that there is no life in the law (Gal 3:21), and in fact it only brings death (Rom 7:6,10).  For these reasons, he tells his fellow Jews that they must die to the law and instead be joined to Christ.

The Law was, of course, given to the Jews.  God knew that the people of Israel were failing miserably at keeping it, and it's interesting how He handled that.  He didn't then say to them, "Boy, I see you're having a really hard time keeping my laws!  But come to Jesus and I'll help you keep them."  What God actually said (through Paul) was, "Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another — to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God."  The way for them to "bear fruit to God" isn't to have God help them keep the law, but rather to the contrary, for them to die to the law and be joined to Christ instead.  The result of dying to the law and being joined to Christ is "life" and "bearing fruit to God."

We know that the law is good, just and holy (Rom 7:12), so the problem isn't that the law itself is bad.  Rather, the problem with the law is that it's so good, just and holy that no one can bear up underneath the weight of its demands!  Under the law, God only finds fault with people (Heb 8:7-8), because even if a person keeps all the law and stumbles in only one point, he is guilty of all! (James 2:10).  As the scriptures above say, the result of a person being under the law is increased sin, aroused sinful passions, enmity with God, guilt, condemnation, bondage and death.

So is this the end of the law's story?  Did God give the law so that people would be left in this sad state?  Fortunately, after all this, the law does one final important thing.  Ultimately, the law was a tutor to lead to Christ.  The law was added "because of transgressions, till the Seed (Christ) should come..." (Gal 3:19).  The tremendous, unbearable weight that people find themselves buried in under the law is meant to lead them to a place in which they realize that they truly have fallen short of the glory of God.  They realize that they can't do a thing to justify themselves in front of God, and so they turn from the very thing that caused guilt, condemnation, bondage and death (the law), in order to be joined to the only One who provides them with exactly the opposite: sin taken away, no condemnation, freedom and life!

At this point, the law's job is now done.  It has led the people to faith in Christ, and they are now cut free from the guidance of the law.  Again, as Paul worded it, they have died to the law and are now joined to Another, who provides them with something far greater than what the law ever could do.  Being joined to Christ, they can now bear good fruit unto God, which was impossible to do under the law.  "Dead to the law" really does mean "dead to the law."  When you die to something, you don't go back to it, especially when you've now been joined to something (or Someone) else far greater!

So we find that the law has no purpose in the life of a person who has died to it.  Yet Paul says, "we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully."  What's the lawful purpose of the law?  Well, go back to the beginning of this post and read up to this point again!  Its use is to produce guilt and condemnation in unbelievers (who have not yet received the righteousness of God as a gift, by grace through faith), for the purpose of leading them to Christ.  At that point, again, its job is done!

So as believers, how can we possibly live holy lives without having God's law to live by?  Again, Christ gives us something so much better!  What He gives us is His very life in us.  "For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Again, we see that dying to the law results in "living to God."  Being joined to Christ means that we no longer live but it's Christ who lives in us and through us.  No law could ever provide us with what the life of Christ gives us.  The fruit of living under the law is made clear in the scriptures above.  But now, in Christ, we see the fruit of the Spirit that is produced apart from law: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Wow!  What wonderful fruit!  Talk about "bearing fruit unto God!"  We can't produce these things by following the law, but in Christ we find that these things are the Spirit's natural fruit in us!  These things come as a result of living by the Spirit, not living by the law.

Will living by the Spirit cause us to want to commit adultery?  To murder?  To steal?  To sin in any way?  Of course not!  It is safe to live by the Spirit, but it's not safe to live by the law!  Look one more time at the scriptures above to see the fruit of living under the law.  In Christ we have it so much better!

Speaking of Christ and the law, we read some pretty harsh words coming from Jesus from time to time in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Some unbearable words at times!  A friend recently noted that Jesus would sometimes pull out a "crowd thinning sermon" and many people would leave Him.  Were these words of Jesus "the gospel"?  Didn't Jesus say "come to me and I will give you rest"?  I'll address this and more in Part 2.