Matthew 5:20 “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

No doubt the people in front of Jesus were surprised when he spoke these words. If someone calls you a Pharisee today, it is an insult. We tend to associate the Pharisees with hypocrisy, religious meanness, loveless legalism. But most people in Jesus’ day did not look at the Pharisees that way.

The Pharisees had a reputation for working harder than anyone at living a godly life. They took morality seriously. They were good citizens. They had family values. No moralists we might know ever worked harder at living a pure and holy life than these men. For Jesus to say to the people: “No. Their level of righteousness still is not good enough. You need to be better than them”– that was hard to accept.

The problem wasn’t so much with the way the Pharisees and teachers of the law lived their lives on the outside (although that also had some problems). The issue had more to do with what was going on inside. True righteousness is always a matter of the heart. The biblical term “righteousness” refers to more than human actions or standards. It always refers us to God’s judgment and standards. It refers to behavior or people that God could look at and say, “Innocent. Not guilty. Perfect.” For this, the Lord is always more concerned with the heart than he is with the hands. Attitudes matter as much as actions. And Jesus’ ministry revealed that the Pharisees had a bad attitude. Their good outward actions were not a reflection of their hearts.

Is that a problem with our own lives sometimes? We can make our lives look good on the outside. We make ourselves look happy and holy, especially when we are with other Christians. But our hearts are a problem. I am sure that you would be no more anxious to show me what your heart looks like than I would be to let you see mine. Jeremiah once described the human heart this way, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” God sees this all the time, that our good actions are not always the reflection of good hearts. That’s a problem, because genuine righteousness is a matter of the heart.

If we are honest with ourselves, we are going to have to look outside ourselves for our righteousness. That is exactly what our Savior wants us to do. Trying harder isn’t going to save us. His words are driving us to look to him for help.

And the help we find is not Jesus showing us some nifty secrets for getting this all under control. His words offer nothing in the way of self-help. Instead, he says, “I will give you a real righteousness, because I will give you the credit for my perfect control of my anger, my mouth, and my hands. When you stand before the judgement seat of God, I will give you a perfect record of love and self-control, because it won’t be yours he sees, but mine. I will wipe away your angry thoughts, your loveless words, even violence and murder, with my blood shed at the cross. I forgave the anger of Joseph’s brothers, the insults of the thief crucified next to me, and the murders committed by Moses, David, and Paul. I will forgive your thoughts and actions, too.”

That is how our righteousness can surpass that of the Pharisees, or that of the moralists we know today. That is how Jesus’ righteousness will cleanse our guilty hearts.

Micah 6:6-8 “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

When people are sorry for their sins and trust him for forgiveness, they are ready to do whatever God asks. No request would be too big.

The suggested offerings here build to a crescendo in ever-increasing value. The whole burnt offering is the one type of offering in Israel which was given up entirely to God. The priest and the bringer of the sacrifice received no part of it as they did with the other sacrifices. Calves were livestock enjoyed by the wealthy of Micah’s time. It was the most expensive animal you could offer. Thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oil would stagger the wealth of the richest kings.

Then the penitent person even suggests his own child, and his firstborn at that. Obviously, you can’t put a price on anyone’s life. But what could be more dear than the life of your own child? Even so, when a person has come to realize the horrible fate from which God has saved him, the precious price God paid to do so, and the immeasurable love that moved him to do so, there is nothing he would not do if the Lord asked him. Abraham was ready to make the last sacrifice Micah lists.

But those who understand God’s grace ought to know better than to think they might pay for their own sins. Only one life could be offered for our transgressions. Only one life could pay for the sin of our souls. That sacrifice is one only the Lord himself could provide. His Son, not ours made the payment. What God desires is a response of gratitude, not another sacrifice for sin.

 “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Far more dear to God than our things, our wealth, or our treasures are ourselves. He wants our hearts and lives. In leading us to repentance and faith, he has already taken them. He then leads us to act justly and to love mercy. In other words, he moves us to love our neighbor. He fills us with the desire to do what is right and show kindness to others wherever we find the opportunity. The life he desires is not a complicated thing.

At the same time, he leads us to walk humbly with him. We learn to follow where he leads rather than try to drag him where we want to go. He teaches us that we need him as our leader, and to love him for that leadership. Like the life he requires, the kind of heart he desires is easy to understand.

Our Christian life is a response, not the cause of God’s grace. As believers in the sacrifice he made for us, let’s embrace the just, merciful, and humble life to which we have been called.

Luke 10:41-42“’Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’”

Only one thing is needed. What is that one thing? Great missionary adventures? Heroic displays of self-sacrifice? No, it is Jesus’ own simple message of love. No one had to tell Mary that Jesus’ words were the one thing she needed. “Mary…sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said” (Luke 10:39). Her attentive hearing helped make Jesus’ seat a pulpit, her humble place at his feet a pew, and the whole room a chapel in which God himself drew close to her heart with his grace. This devoted, complete attention to Jesus’ Words is the true mark of discipleship throughout the ages.

Do Jesus’ words strike us as the one thing we need? Are they more than just a casual interest? Do they taste and satisfy better than food? Do they refresh and restore us better than sleep? Is coming to God’s house to hear his gracious word truly the highlight of our week, or do we drag ourselves there? Do we go because mom and dad still make me? Does the gospel excite us as we consider all the possibilities and freedom that wait for us in another week lived under God’s forgiving grace?

Or does it bore us as just another rehash of the same old “Jesus loves us” stuff. Does it melt our hearts and strengthen our courage? Or does it seem like it just doesn’t speak to me?

God makes no commands about how we study his word in the New Testament, though it is clearly his will that we gather with other believers to do so. People sometimes miss church and Bible study for valid reasons. But let’s remember that Jesus’ word is the one thing needed. You can’t say that of your job or house or activities or anything else. Our priorities as Christians start right here: with the words of our Savior, with this service that Jesus graciously offers to us. And if we won’t listen, then God will take the Gospel away from us and give it to others who will.

But one thing is needed, and Mary had chosen what is better, because the Gospel is where life begins. The message of the Gospel is the one thing that gets us to heaven. It is the only thing that can keep us close to our Savior. In his Gospel he promises us he has made us pure and holy in his blood poured out on the cross. He promises that he has made us his own brothers and sisters, and children of our heavenly Father. He welcomes us into his arms, where he makes us safe and secure and provides everything we need. He sets us free to live for him and live forever. Listen to these promises, know that they are true, and you will find that you have everything you need.

Consider how it worked for Mary. On this day, Mary listened. But there was another day on which she served. Remember the week before Jesus died? Jesus visited Bethany again that week. Mary took an expensive perfume worth more than a year’s wages and poured it all over Jesus to anoint him for his death and burial. Others complained about the waste, but out of all Jesus’ followers, only Mary really understood. She was the only one who understood why Jesus had come that week: to die, die to take away her sins and the sins of the world. Maybe if the others had listened, they would have understood, too. But only Mary got it.

Maybe if we listen, if we place ourselves at Jesus’ feet and listen to his word, we will get it, too. Then we will understand that this whole Christian faith is not so much about what we do. It’s about what he did and still does. His word is the one thing we need, and the only reason we serve.

The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. (Isaiah 50:4)

Evangelical commentator Charles Colson once contacted a radio station that had dropped his program hoping to get it reinstated.  His program, BreakPoint, was intended to help listeners develop a better Christian worldview.

“I called the station manager, arguing that believers need to think Christianly about major world issues. The young woman on the other end of the phone admonished me: ‘But we don’t want to do anything that will upset our listeners.’ Younger women, she said, want ‘something to help them cope with life.'”

This view was confirmed by a Christian homemaker interviewed for a TV special on evangelicalism. She is so busy, she explained, taking care of the kids, family activities, Bible study, cooking, etc., that she doesn’t even read the newspaper or care what is happening in the world around her. Church for her is getting her spirits lifted.

Colson framed the issue this way: “Should we give people what they want or what they need?”

So long as there is a difference between “what the people want” and “what the people need,” Christian integrity demands that we give them what they need.

But that suggests another question: What is our great spiritual need?

There is no doubt that we Christians need to develop a more Christian, Biblical worldview. The less we have, the more we live lives inconsistent with our faith. But the ability to properly evaluate current events, political rhetoric and movements, and pressing moral questions does not address our deepest human need.

You see, at the heart of a Christian worldview is Christ. A Christian worldview sees more than problems in the world around me. It sees the problem of sin within me. It sees Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the solution. It looks to a perfect heaven beyond this incorrigible world as the ultimate goal. In other words, it looks to the gospel to fill our deepest needs.

Nor is Christianity primarily about getting our spirits lifted. I can often find a needed psychological or emotional lift in a good movie, some pop music, an evening out, or good conversation with friends just as well as in church or on the radio. My real spiritual need is to be in touch with the life-giving Spirit, who directs our attention again to Jesus and his saving work.

And where will we find that Spirit? Jesus himself promises, “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life” (John 6:63).

Jesus knows what we need. He is speaking directly through Isaiah here when he says he “knows the word that sustains the weary.”

The Word that sustains the weary is, “Son, be of good cheer, your sins are all forgiven.”

“Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

“I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life. No one can snatch them out of my hands.

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.”

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”

“…neither life nor death, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

(The author is on vacation. This post was originally made August 5, 2016)

2 Timothy 1:9 (God) has saved us and called us to a holy life–not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time…

You may remember a grassroots campaign urging “Random Acts of Kindness.” One of the things that made that campaign so striking, so fresh and exciting, is that a random act of kindness, giving things to people who have had no chance to do anything for us, is so rare. It still is.

On the backside of our giving, our gifts so often come with strings attached. They expect or demand some kind of response. Haven’t you felt awkward receiving a gift from someone because you wondered what he wanted from you? Or maybe you have received a gift and felt guilty, because you hadn’t gotten anything for the gift’s giver, and now you felt like you should go out and get him something. We live in this world of “what’s in it for me” or “what’s it going to cost me” because our sinful, selfish nature can’t see the sense, or even the possibility, of anything being truly “free.” And that’s a serious problem, because in eternity there are only two places that we can go, and only one of them has an admission price we pay ourselves, and it isn’t heaven.

But the undeserved love of God is truly a gift. He laid down no conditions before he gave us this grace. Indeed, we gave him no reason to want to make this gift to us. We weren’t able. His gift of grace is truly free. And once we have received it, he does not demand a response, as though grace were charged to our Visa, and we were going to pay it off over time. Grace does not demand a response, but it does invite one. We can even say that it inspires a response, that it compels a response, because the free gift of grace changes all who receive it. It fills them with love that freely gives, just as we have received.

Perhaps the gift nature of God’s grace is clearer to see when Paul says, “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.” Don’t misunderstand Paul’s words. He is not saying that God’s grace was given to us at some point before creation. There were not millions or billions of years before creation, and then one day God woke up and decided, “I’m going to create me a world, and when it goes wrong, I’m going to redeem it. And when I do, I’m going to save Joe.”

No, in eternity there is no time, no progressing from one moment to the next in the same way we think of it. God always was. And as long as there has been God, his grace has been given to you. There was no “day before” grace. God’s grace–to you personally– is eternal, just like God himself is eternal. It is unchangeable as God himself. You can’t get anything less demanding of something in you, anything more “free,” than that.

Can you put a value on a gift like that? The old Motown song sings, “Money can’t buy you love.” And when it comes to God’s love, neither can good works, personal sacrifice, or anything else we can think to give. God has always loved you just because he chooses to love you. You can not turn this love off, you cannot make it stop, any more than you can change God himself.

(Picture by By LetsgomusicStyle – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27330732)

Luke 10:38-40“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.”

During Jesus’ earthly ministry, he did not have a steady income or salary to support him. He rarely stayed in one place very long. Any offerings in the synagogues where he preached went to support the synagogues. Often he taught the people out in the open air. The Bible tells us that several of the women who put their faith in him supported him from their own means. That was what Martha was doing for him here.

Martha can be commended for a couple of reasons. First, when Jesus came to stay, it was rarely just Jesus that needed accommodations. At least 12 other men came with him. Between Jesus and his disciples, Martha had a houseful to serve and look after. You can’t criticize her generosity or hard work.

Secondly, as humble as her work may appear, she was providing real service to God’s Kingdom. This obscure incident may not qualify as a watershed event in world history, but God was using her service to support his plan of salvation. You can call it mere housework, but Martha’s cooking and cleaning were playing a role in Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus has some things to criticize about Martha later. But don’t think he was criticizing her willingness to serve. Many today find it easy to let lives their lives revolve around their own enjoyment, hobbies, or activities. These keep them from inconveniencing themselves to serve Jesus as Martha did.

Some undervalue little things at church like mowing the grass, sweeping a floor, painting a wall, or attending a voter’s meeting. These are still Kingdom work. They still serve the ministry of the Gospel.

Consider Jesus’ promise that when we feed the hungry or visit the sick, he considers that service to him. It wasn’t easy or convenient for Martha to open her home, but it was evidence that her heart had been opened. For this Martha is to be commended.

Her service wasn’t perfect, however. “But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’” Martha was distracted. She was anxious. There were so many preparations that had to be made, and so little help. Her work was full of fear and doubt.

Many of us see a mountain of work in God’s Kingdom. The work doesn’t seem to be getting done. No one seems involved. We get anxious. We get worried. Then we approach the work of the church like Chicken Little: “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Jesus’ promises that “gates of hell will not prevail against (my church).” God never appointed us to be the new Messiahs. His work gets done in his way, in his time. Concern and ambition have their place, but fear and anxiety will not help.

Martha’s example also cautions us against self-righteousness. Instead of finding simple joy in the privilege of serving Jesus, she becomes obsessed with what everyone else is doing (or failing to do). She has made herself the standard by which Mary is to be judged.

Are we guilty of the same thing from time to time? We want to be people who spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). But when we start judging others because they don’t serve the way that I am serving, then we have become more than a little like Martha here, more than a little self-righteous.

The Gospel sets us free to serve our Savior! Forgiveness makes our contribution acceptable even when it is tainted by worry or self-righteous motives. Our humble work is a response to Jesus great work of redeeming you and me. This same grace applies to everyone else as well. There are many ways to show our love. Some may be serving in ways we aren’t aware of. Let’s be thankful for the things we can do, and the Savior whose grace to us has made it possible.

Psalm 29:11b “The Lord blesses his people with peace.”

Whatever comes to us from God’s hand comes to us as a blessing. God’s blessing means that he has only good intentions for us. What he gives his people, the people he loves and saves, never comes as a curse. But you know that his blessings are often blessings in disguise.

Sometimes you and I can take the mask off of these blessings in disguise and see them as they really are. But not all God’s blessings give up their masks easily. We may not be able to see them this side of heaven. Whether we can see them or not, we continue to have the blessing David promises here, “The Lord blesses his people with peace.” Peace isn’t the same thing as a trouble free life. Peace means that God has made me whole. My situation is as it should be. The Bible way of thinking about this goes something like this:

First, the Lord has given me peace with him, peace because my sins have been forgiven and not a single one of them will be held against me. Peace with God means that he is my friend, not my enemy, that he is on my side, not against me.

Second, if there is peace between me and God, and the Lord is on my side, then he is directing my world and my life to my advantage. It is true that the Lord and I don’t always see eye to eye on what might be to my advantage. But he always has the superior view of what serves me, because all too often I don’t see past the needs of my body, and he is always looking out for the needs of my soul. So long as I realize that God is on my side, and my soul is taken care of, I have peace.

Take this peace, and apply it to your life ahead of you. In every task, every challenge, every battle that lies ahead, the Lord promise to bless you, not to hurt you; to be on your side working for you as your friend. That gives us peace in the middle of every task, challenge, or battle, too. And that peace gives us confidence to face whatever the future holds.

Christian life is a little like living the lead role in an adventure movie. If the hero wasn’t constantly in danger, dodging swords or bullets, narrowly escaping storms or floods, collapsing buildings or hungry packs of wolves, there wouldn’t be a story. From the seats in the theater it all looks entertaining and exciting. Lived in real life there is cold and sweat and pain. But somehow you know the hero wins in the end.

You are the hero in the story of your life that God is writing for you. After the cold and the sweat and the pain, you are going to win, not because of your own ingenuity and resourcefulness, but because the Lord gives strength to his people, and the Lord blesses his people with peace.

Psalm 29:11 “The Lord gives strength to his people.”

The words are simple enough. The promise isn’t difficult to understand. What is not immediately obvious to you and me may be the emphasis that would have been seen by David’s original Hebrew readers. Think of the word “Lord” in big bold letters, underlined three times, and read twice as loud as the rest of the sentence. The LORD gives strength to his people. The Lord is the one we need to turn to for all those things that make us feel weak.

            As obvious as that may seem, it is a truth that goes against our natural inclinations. All of us know that salvation is not a do-it-yourself project. “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.” Jesus paid for all our sins because we couldn’t pay for them ourselves. He suffered the hell that would have been our eternity. He turned death into the gateway to heaven. He gives us the faith that makes all of these gifts our own. The Lord gives salvation to his people, salvation they could not have achieved with a billion lifetimes of their own efforts.

            David wants us to know that this present life is not a do-it-yourself project, either. We are inclined to pin our hopes for strength to cope our own abilities. Maybe if I can complete my education, and get that college degree, I will have the edge I need to get ahead and become a success. Maybe if I get seriously involved in the political process, and start a movement; maybe if we can get the right people sent to Washington, life will be better for all of us. Maybe if I get my spending under control and start saving for the future, I will finally have the security I have been looking for. Maybe if I get my diet and exercise right, I will start feeling better. Then I can throw some of these pills away, I can attain the quality of life I have been looking for.

            All of these things are good. But not one of them is a guarantee. Even with good education, good government, good investments, and good health, life can be insanely difficult. And whom are we depending on to get us all these things? All of these things should rightfully be the subjects of our prayers. But it is easy, even natural, to think that we can get them done ourselves.

            The Lord gives strength to his people. If you read the preceding verses of Psalm 29, all the descriptions of the Lord emphasize his power over all creation. It is certainly true that the Lord has all the strength he needs to take care of all we need.

But the name itself, the LORD, emphasizes something else about him. It is the name that emphasizes his freedom and faithfulness, and so it is the name that emphasizes his grace. The God who was not obligated to love you, nor forced to love you, nor manipulated into loving you, but freely chose to love you and me, gives us strength as his gift. The faithful God, who never changes, will not, cannot, and does not take back his gift.

            Then, don’t miss the nature of the gift itself. “The Lord gives strength to his people.” This is not the same thing as “success,” at least not as many people understand that word. This is not a promise to make your life easy. David is not saying that the Lord is going to end your struggles and battles. He promises that the Lord will give you the strength to face them.

            He does this primarily by giving us himself. When Paul prayed about his thorn in the flesh, God didn’t take it away. He made Paul strong to endure it. Then Paul concludes, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me…For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul reminds the Philippians about how we get things done: “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

            So, it turns out you have been struggling, battling, laboring for a long time. You have been trying to make this family work. You have been trying to make this job work. You have been trying to make this body work. You have been trying to make this church work. You have been trying to make this life work. Don’t expect the work to end. But the Lord gives strength to his people, the strength to do the work he has given them.

John 17:13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”

If you read through chapters 13 to 17 of John’s gospel, you will see that Jesus understood the thief that threatened to rob his disciples of their joy. It wasn’t external stresses and disappointments. In the context of the last supper, the disciples were grieving because Jesus kept talking about the fact that he was going away. He was returning to his Father. He didn’t go into detail about how horrible the next day was going to be for him, at least not here, but he made it clear that his time with the disciples–visibly, at least–was just about over.

But the problem had less to do with Jesus’ absence, more to do with the disciples’ ignorance and lack of faith. They didn’t understand how necessary his sufferings and death were for their salvation. They couldn’t appreciate the advantage of having him ruling the universe from his Father’s side in heaven. They couldn’t process the many promises he made to them this same evening. All they knew was that very soon Jesus would be gone, and this replaced their joy with grief.

The disciples’ joy was stolen by the thought of losing Jesus. We lose ours by removing him ourselves. Again, the blame has less to do with our external situation, more to do with misplaced priorities and lack of faith. This theft of our joy turns out to be an inside job. No one and nothing from the outside takes Jesus or his promises away from us. We replace them ourselves. There are thousands of ways of perpetrating this heist all through the year. But the culprit remains the same: Hearts that failed to value Jesus properly, that let down their guard, and ended up giving his place to someone or something else.

Stop thief! It doesn’t have to be this way! The truth remains: Jesus gives us reason for joy! “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”

Remember that the things Jesus was saying at this very moment were words of a prayer. He was praying on behalf of his disciples. “I’ll keep you in my prayers” so easily becomes nothing more than a sentiment with you and me–the same thing as saying, “I feel sorry for you,” with no real prayer to follow. Jesus recognized the joy-thief in the disciples lives at this moment. He recognized the danger it could be for their faith. And he prayed for them. He prayed that they might have the full measure of his joy.

That’s not the last prayer he has said on behalf of his people. He prays for you every day. Actually, he never stops praying for you, even for a moment. John says in his first letter, “If anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense–Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1). Do you still sin? I know that I do, every day. But Jesus doesn’t hold those sins against us. He is constantly praying for us, reminding his Father of the sacrifice he made to take those sins away.

The things Jesus said so that the disciples might have the full measure of his joy aren’t limited to this prayer, however. During these hours at the last supper and on the way to Gethsemane he gave them words and promises specifically aimed at replacing their grief with joy. He promises to prepare a place in heaven for them; to come back to take them to be with him; that so long as they remain in Jesus’ words, Jesus and his Father will make their home inside of them; that after he goes, he will give them whatever they ask in his name; that he will send the Holy Spirit to be with them and comfort them and give them peace. He promises them that after a little while they will understand all of this, and their grief will turn to joy.

These promises are still our common property. Hold them close, and keep the joy-thief away.