Religion vs The Gospel
Transcript
Hi, good morning. Like I said earlier, my name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are walking through the Sermon on the Mount, some of Jesus' best-known, most-heard teaching that he has. It's the longest section of him just straight teaching in the gospel. So we're going to be in Matthew chapter 5.
And what we're doing today is we're going to kind of take a big-picture look at a large section of this. And then over the next couple of weeks, we're going to come back and look at the specific things that he says as he's walking through. But I want us to kind of zoom over it a little bit today and look at his major point that he makes. And then the next couple of weeks, we'll spend some time looking at the individual parts and exactly how we try to apply some of that as Christians. Jesus is teaching his disciples. He's begun to train them what it's going to look like to be his followers, what it's going to look like in his kingdom that he's setting up.
And they were thinking really small. They were thinking he's setting up an earthly kingdom. Jesus is going to set up an eternal kingdom. But he's beginning to teach, here's what my people are going to look like. Here's how you're going to act. Here's how you're going to be.
And today he's going to say some stuff that I think is very helpful for us. Before we get started this morning, I have a question for us, something to think about. What does God want from you? What does he expect? So if you're...
I think it's a fair question for most people that believe that there is a God. I think it's a fair question to say, well, what does he want? What does he want me to do? How does he want me to act? If Jesus is making a group of people, they're going to be called Christians, Christians, what does he want them to be described as? If we took a poll in the United States and said, what are Christians like?
People just had to write down what they thought. What would God actually want them to write? What do you want them to say? What does he want? Well, I think that most of us, or the most often heard answer you'll hear will be, God wants us to be good people. He wants us to be good.
And then I think it's fair to ask, okay, well, what does that mean? Does that mean following the rules? God's got rules. Learn the rules. Follow the rules. Learn your rules.
You've got to learn your rules. Is that it? Is that the point there? Have you ever met a person, you don't have to look at them right now if they're here with you, that cares, cares so deeply inside their little heart and soul about the rules? Have you met this person? Maybe you know one of them that is pleasant.
I don't know if I've ever met one that was overly concerned. Like that was the purpose of their life was to know the rules and obey the rules and follow the rules and learn the rules. And you've got to know the rules. And when they enter into any situation, what are the rules? Their following of God was, I've got to behave. I've got to know the rules.
It does something to a person. And it's not pretty. Those people don't turn out to be gracious, loving, helpful people. Like it hurts their little soul. I don't know. Like they're not pleasant.
Later you find out if you know them long enough. They actually aren't that good at following the rules. They just over time got good at pretending like they were. So if you were to say that God really just wants us to follow the rules, I would argue he at least wants us to not turn out like that. To do that well. So some people are going to reject that.
They're going to say, no, it's not. It can't just be about the rules. They're going to say, no, being a good person, it's about your heart. It's about being happy. Some people tell you, God just wants you to be happy. God just wants you to love.
It's about your attitude way more than it's about your ability to follow rules. It's really more about your intentions. That sounds really nice. It feels very flimsy though. Kind of like it falls apart if you think about it for a while. That you're really going to argue with me that all God wants from people is this like happy, floaty, if you felt good inside, then you did it.
It's like no rules. Doesn't care at all. There's no guidelines. And then people will start adding in, okay, well, this guideline and this guideline. And you'll find if you get to people that really say, no, God just really wants us to be happy. They still have a set of rules that they will aggressively adhere to.
They may have spread the boundaries out, but they're going to say, no, okay, this type of happy person. Not that type of happy person. This type of person whose intentions are okay. Not sociopathic people whose intentions they thought were okay. There's still going to be some sort of fencing in. And so I think it's helpful for us to ask, what do you want?
What are we supposed to look like? How is this supposed to play out in life? Jesus is going to answer that today. Okay. And I think it'll be helpful for us to see it. I know that the disciples, they had to have this question.
As they're trying to figure out what it's going to look like to follow Jesus, they had to have this question. See, they're Jewish. Jesus was Jewish. They had the Old Testament. What we have is the Old Testament. That was their Jewish law.
And Jesus is coming along and he's saying stuff that has to do with it. He's some sort of a religious teacher, but he didn't go through the normal route to become one. And so they have to have some serious questions about what are we going for here? How much are you going to follow after the Old Testament? How much are you going to, which they would have just, I guess, just called it the Testament. How much are you going to follow after that?
And how much are you going to, like, what are we changing here? And so Jesus begins to answer that. In Matthew 5, verse 17, I'm going to pray before we start reading the text. God, we thank you for your word. Pray that it would train us and change us. God, we ask that you would help every person in this room today clearly see their own heart as it stands before you.
We ask that because you love us and you're good to us and you're gracious. In Jesus' name, amen. Matthew 5, verse 17, you'll be on page 473 if your Bible looks like mine. Do not think, this is Jesus speaking, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. Okay, so that's our Old Testament. The law is the first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and then the prophets is going to include everybody else.
We kind of have divided them differently. We'll have history books and we have the wisdom literature and the prophets. But Jesus is just saying, don't think I've come to abolish all that you've been taught, all that you've been trained, everything you've studied, every Sabbath. Don't think I've come to abolish that. Don't think I've come to get rid of it. They had to have that question in their mind.
Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. So Jesus just said the entire Old Testament law, the prophets, every time a prophet stood up and said, this is what God is like, this is what he cares about, this is how you ought to act, this is how you ought to care about injustice, this is how you ought to care about the poor, this is how you ought to handle your money. Every time a prophet did that, in our pages of the Old Testament, that's in force.
That applies. He's not coming to get rid of that. Every law in the Old Testament that says this is how to live, this is how to act, this is how to treat your neighbor, all of it is in force. It still applies. That's what he just told them. He said, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass until it's all accomplished.
Okay, so an iota or a dot, that would be the same in English as saying, those are just two really small marks in their writing, that would be the same as saying, not a dash on a T or a dot on an I. Not the cross of a T or a dot of an I will pass away from it until all is accomplished. And he says, until heaven and earth pass away. Now, I don't know how heaven's doing. I'm pretty sure earth is still here. So let me just throw this out there.
The law is in force for all of your lives because when the earth passes away, I'm pretty sure you're not going to be doing so well. Now, some of you are like, I'm getting on a spaceship. Best of luck to you. The rest of us are not going to be doing well. The law is in force. That's what Jesus just said, until it is accomplished.
Let's keep reading. Therefore, because that's true, because the law is in force, therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness, that's your morality, your goodness, your standing before God. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. He just brought the hammer down and it's completely lost on us.
He said, unless your righteousness exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees and all these Jewish men just went. And we were like, who? That doesn't mean a whole lot to me. Scribes were the people who studied and memorized the Old Testament. They were the lawyers. See, their law, their Old Testament law applied to their civil laws, their ceremonial laws, their religious laws, their moral laws, and their laws relating them to each other.
And scribes are the people that knew them in and out. If you had a question, you went to a scribe. And what they said was binding on you. They would say, this is how you have to apply that. So the scribes were constantly getting together and riding up and saying, this is how we apply this now.
Here's how we apply this now. Here's how this looks now. Here's how you do this now. Now, the Pharisees were the leading religious party of the Jewish people that were the most strict. To the point that Jesus at one point when he's talking with them, he says, you strain out a gnat. Because that was an unclean animal.
They couldn't drink it. So if a little bug got in their drink, which all of y'all were like, I would get it out too. Sure. But they didn't get it out because they didn't want to drink a bug. They got it out because that bug was unclean. They cared so much about following the rules.
They were the best rule followers. And what Jesus just said was, your righteousness, your rule followingness has to exceed those who've made it their life practice. Has to exceed those who've, this is what they've built their entire life around. See, the Jewish people looked up to the scribes. They looked up to the Pharisees. They thought they were the ones crushing it.
They were the ones that God loved. They were the ones that were doing it well. It would be like if he looked at you and said, you have to out follow God. You have to out perform, out righteous the Pope. And it's like, bro, this is his whole Job. That's all he does.
And he wakes up in the morning and thinks, don't mess up being the Pope. That's what scribes and Pharisees did. Like, he says that's what you have to do. You have to exceed them. And he begins to explain his argument before he even says that. What he said was, anybody who relaxes any part of the law will be called least.
But those who enforce all of it will be called great. You see, what the Pharisees were really good at was saying, this part of the law doesn't matter as much as this part of the law. They followed the ritualistic ceremonial law to a T. But Jesus is going to argue with them consistently that they forgot about justice. That they forgot about mercy. That they forgot about love.
He says, you're doing great over here. You've missed weightier things. And so Jesus is going to say, all of it matters. All of it. And then he's going to, over the next section while he's teaching, he's going to begin to show you, not just the rule part, but the heart as well. Not just the external actions, but what's going on inside of you as well.
So if you don't mind, because Jesus was teaching this, they were just going to hear it. I am going to just read some of the sections he's going to hit in a second where he begins to show you not just this, but this. It's going to be hard to follow along if you're trying to read as well because I'm going to skip around and I'm going to pay no notice to how well you're keeping up. I'm just going to read through some of this to help you see it. So I would just encourage you to listen because they would have heard it this way.
Jesus is going to just kind of say, not this, but this, and I'm going to walk through this fairly quickly. You see, Jesus is going to, as he's teaching this, he's going to say, it's not just the rules. It's also the heart, but it's actually, it's both. For the people who say, it's just our intentions and whether or not we're loving, he's going to say, no, rules matter. And for the person who says, yes, up top, Jesus, rules matter, he's going to say, you're kind of a jerk and your heart needs to change. It's not, it's not picket signs.
It's not peace signs. It's both. And I don't mean like a picket sign with a peace sign on it. I just mean both have to be in play. So here's what Jesus is saying as he begins to teach.
You've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who's angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says fool will be liable to a hell of fire. You've heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Again, you've heard that it was said to those of old, you should not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth, for it is a footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath on your head, for your head cannot, you cannot make your hair white or black. Let what you say simply be yes or no. Anything else comes from evil.
You've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the cheek, turn the other to them also. You've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
See, what Jesus just went through and said is your righteousness, your goodness has to exceed the scribes and Pharisees. It can't just be, I behave well. I've never murdered anybody. He says, no, are you angry though? Do you look down on people? Do you have relationship issues?
Do you have people that you're holding bitterness towards that you haven't reconciled with? Some of you are saying, I've never cheated on my wife. I've never cheated on my husband. I'm perfectly chaste when it comes to hearing. He goes, yeah, but how's your heart? You see, Jesus begins to go through and say, it's not just your actions, but it's your intentions.
It's both. It can't just be, oh, my intentions were good. He says, no, the rules matter. But it can't just be, I follow the rules well. He says, no, your heart matters. And then he says something that's terrifying.
We're going to put it on the screen. It's in your Bibles. Verse 48. As he finishes this up, he says, you, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.
He means it. It's not hyperbole. It's not exaggeration for effect. You see, earlier when we said, what does God want from us? And I think if we had handed out index cards and everybody had written something down and we passed them up here, sat up here for a little while and just read them, I doubt that anyone would have written perfection, nothing less. I think all of us would give room for effort, intention.
What Jesus just said was, he walks through and says that God is paying attention to what you do on the outside. And that the God of the universe is paying attention to what's going on on the inside. And his standard is perfection. Now, remember your English class. Just for a second, picture yourself in English class. Teacher gets up.
Says, I've got an assignment for you. It's a 25-page paper. Immediately, you die a little inside. They begin to go through the rules on, you know, MLA or Turabian or what kind of citing you're going to give, what kind of bibliography you need, how many sources you need, what the regulations are on how many spaces and on your footnotes and how they want the title page. They begin to go through all of this. And then they say, teacher looks at you and says, now, here's how this paper is going to work.
It's 25 pages. Using this rubric, this guidelines. I'm going to proofread these. I'm going to have a friend of mine who proofreads for a national publication proofread it. I'm going to run it through a computer program to proofread it. We're looking for every English grammar rule that has ever been made.
All of them. We're going to be keeping up with compound possession errors and alternate subject and verb agreements and punctuation and spelling and everything. And if you make a mistake, we will stop grading. You will receive a zero. And this is 100% of your grade in my class. I say we revolt immediately.
Complete anarchy. Do you know how much, how many people would be, if this is middle school or high school, how many moms and dads are showing up and being like, you've got to be kidding me. How many of them are like, I want her to write a 25 page paper and I'm going to grade it. And she gets fired. Like how many people would be showing up? Like how many, how many crying 19 year olds are in the dean's office?
Do you know Jesus just stood Jesus. And looked at those who were going to follow him. And, and by looking at them was looking at us and said, all of it matters. All of it applies externally and internally. And the rule, the system is perfection. Now, as best I can, I want to explain a few things to help us get to this point.
Because I think for some of us, we're immediately going, either he has to be exaggerating or I'm done. Part of the problem is if he's telling the truth and if he speaks on behalf of God, you can't drop this class. You live on earth. You belong to him. You don't get to exempt. You don't get to, you don't get to, there's no add drop to being a human.
You stand before a holy God. But let me explain to you kind of how we got here. Here's what the Bible says. The God of the universe is good. And out of his own goodness. Out of his own beauty.
Out of his own truthfulness. Out of his own grace and love. He created the earth. He created it because he was loving. Not so that he could have something to love. But because his love overflows.
He created it because he was good. He created the earth good. That the earth existed. He made humans specifically to mirror him. To image him and to exist in a relationship with him. The Bible says very quickly that humans, because they existed, because they had personhood, they could then choose between worshiping God or trying to exalt themselves.
If you hadn't read it, spoiler alert, we chose ourselves. We chose ourselves. I want to be most important. I want to be most highly honored. I want to chase after the things that I think will make me happy. That's what humans did.
That's where hatred and racism and genocide and theft and murder come from. That we broke the good world that God had made. Here's what the Bible says. God made this world good. It rebelled against him. And that God, the God, the creator God, is a good judge.
He's a good judge. So I'm explaining what that means. Good Judges condemn the guilty and release the innocent. That's what a good judge does. For example, I say there's a doctor. Great doctor.
Amazing doctor. He's like Dr. House from the show, but likable. Like Dr. House and that other doctor that hangs around with him. Like if you mixed them together and he was as good as Dr.
House, but like friendly and kind of like a good person. He works at a hospital where they bring him the toughest cases, not only from that hospital, but from around the U.S., around the globe. He figures them out and he does it with friendliness and a smile. He cures you of your random disease and then gives you a cookie. Like he is amazing. He goes on trial because it turns out.
This is hypothetical. Don't get stressed out. Turns out he's also a serial killer. Yeah, right. A little messed up. He, he, like three people a year.
Not patients. Just, you know, random people. His lawyer is not going to stand before the judge and say, judge, I motion that we just throw this case out. And here, here's why. Math. My client last year saved 100 lives.
That's close to two a week. That would have died otherwise. We've got affidavits signing. This guy said, I was going to die, but then I didn't. 100 of them. And he only killed three people.
100 Minus three. He's at a plus 97 for the year, judge. How many people did you, how many lives did you save last year? The judge is not going to say, good point. The judge is going to say, guilty. Because when the question of perfection comes in, the question is not, what's the good stuff you've done?
The question is, have you ever done something wrong? Has he broken the law? You see, Jesus just looked at his followers and said, all of it matters. All of it's in force. And when you stand before the judge of the universe, the question is not, are you mostly good? The question is, where and when and how have you failed?
And he's a good judge who doesn't acquit the guilty. He's a good judge who doesn't let you walk. Now, for some of us, we're going to, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I get your little scenario. I understand how that works. Can't be like 51% good and 49% bad or whatever.
That I don't get to erase my bad deeds with good ones. I get that. But you're going to tell me that the God of the universe, not just with murderers, not just with heinous people, not just with genocide, but that he's going to look at someone like, I'm going to go to jail for life over unpaid parking tickets. That's it. That's how God works. If I've lied once, if I've broken the rules once, if I've stepped out of line once, if I, sure, okay, I've lied.
I've broken some relationships. I've got some people I'm still mad at I won't talk to. Yeah, I've intentionally said things in my life to hurt someone's feelings, went out of my way to do it. Yeah. But the God of the universe is going to make me walk in front of him and then he's going to declare me guilty over small stuff like that?
I understand that argument. I understand that feeling because I feel it. Let me explain the problem with that. Let's think about art for a second. I like to draw. I like to paint.
My mom for Christmas gave me some oil paints. So I've been watching Bob Ross on Netflix. And painting. Little Bob, like happy trees and happy clouds and all that kind of stuff. They're not that great, you guys. To be honest with you, I'm trying to learn.
Bob Ross is way better than me. But I put some energy into him, put some effort into him. But I'm not, I mean, like most of us aren't like, you don't know much about fine art. Maybe you do. But we've heard of people like Michelangelo, Van Gogh.
We know about the Mona Lisa. We know about the Sistine Chapel ceiling. So let's say you messed up one of my paintings. Let's say you did it on purpose. You were mad at me. I did something to hurt your feelings.
So you were like, I'm going to hurt his painting. And then you feel bad about it. So you come to me and you say something along the lines of, look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have poured paint all over your painting. It's not that big a deal.
I hope you can forgive me. And you really wouldn't think it was that big a deal. And here's why. I'm not that good of a painter. It's not that good of a painting. You're like, I'll buy you some more paints.
I'll get you another canvas. Let's call this one a wash. I'm sorry. But if you walked into the Sistine Chapel and threw a paint-filled water balloon at the ceiling, or if you walked into the Louvre and you threw ink or paint on the Mona Lisa, there's no getting that back. You've messed up something that's priceless. Michelangelo can't step back in and do another one.
And here's the problem, the massive problem with us when we look at the God of the universe and say, seriously? I lied seriously? I intentionally said something to hurt someone's feelings? Seriously? I broke a relationship and you're going to hold that against me? You're going to declare me guilty for eternity?
Seriously? Seriously, what we're saying to the God of the universe who created truth and beauty and love, he painted them as on a tapestry that he wove them into the world so that love actually exists. It's real. We feel it so that truth is actually beautiful and glorious because he's beautiful and glorious because he poured himself into these. When we look at him and say, seriously? I just lied.
What we've done is we took the beauty that was truth and we intentionally marred it and we intentionally broke it. When we say, look, it's just a relationship. It's just unforgiveness. What we did was we took love and we intentionally harmed it maybe again and again and again. And we've looked at God and said, you're really small and your glory doesn't matter that much. Can't you just let this one slide?
It's not that big a deal because what we believe is that he's not that big a deal. That he's not very glorious. He's not eternal. He's not beautiful. That love and truth aren't actually as beautiful as he says they are. You see, the reason a lie works is because truth exists.
The reason it snuck past somebody, the reason you're still getting away with it is because somebody's actually believing that it's truth where you've counterfeited it and then you've begun to look at God and say, you need to cut me some slack. It's not that big a deal. I think you're getting a little carried away. I think you think a little too highly of yourself. Do you know how arrogant we are? That we would look at the God of the universe who demands that we be perfect to be in his presence and say, you've got to be kidding me.
Do you know how small we are? Do you know how much we've intentionally destroyed all the beauty and the glory that God has woven into the world? And do you know how little we care? You see, Jesus stood and said, perfection is the standard. And we want to argue because we actually don't believe God's that perfect or the truth is that glorious or the justice matters that much or the mercy or the love really are as beautiful as we say they are, as he says they are. We believe God's really small.
So what do we do? If that really is God's standard, if Jesus really does speak on behalf of God, if that really is the condition that all of humanity finds itself in, that we're going to, it's not just a 25-page paper, it's your life, and the standard is perfection, what do we do that one day we're going to stand before a good judge and we are going to bring with us all of our sin, that we're going to walk before him with everywhere we've ever failed, what do we do? Go back to verse 17. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. You see, Jesus stood before his followers and he's going to press into them how much their sin matters and how much perfection is real and how much in order to walk before God you have to be blameless. But he said as he began, I've come to fulfill it and I've come to accomplish it. And Jesus uses the term accomplished a couple of times in the New Testament. And I want to show you three of them because I think it helps us understand what he's talking about here. This is from Luke 12.
I have a baptism to be baptized with and how great is my distress until it is accomplished. He's talking about what is going to happen at the end of his life, which is the cross. That's his baptism that he has to be baptized with. In Luke 18, he says it this way. He takes the 12 aside. See, we are going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the Son of Man, that's himself, by the prophets, will be accomplished.
You see, Jesus said he's going to fulfill the law and the prophets. John 17, this is right before he's going to the cross the next day. I glorified you on earth. He's praying. He's talking to God. Having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
You see, what stands at the center of Christianity is not that we're supposed to be perfect. What stands at the center of Christianity is a cross and an empty tomb. You see, if this is where it ended, with God sending Jesus to declare to us be perfect, then this would stand at the center of Christianity or some teaching that Jesus had. But Jesus' teachings are pale in comparison to the cross. Because what Jesus came to accomplish was the cross, where he came to fulfill the law and accomplish what it said was going to be accomplished in the prophets. So Jesus stepped in, lived a perfect, sinless life on our behalf, and died on the cross for us.
I want to read a section of Isaiah 53. I'm going to run through it kind of quickly. But I want to show you how he fulfills the prophets. This is Isaiah. Who has believed what he's heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he, that's Jesus, grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he's borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, that's Jesus, my servant, make many to be accounted righteousness. He shall bear their iniquities. You see what the Old Testament promised over and over again was that God was a good judge.
He was not going to acquit the guilty. But then prophets began to say there's going to come someone who's going to carry the guilt for us. There's going to come someone who's going to bear our transgressions, bear our iniquity, bear our sin. Who's going to take all the times that you stepped out of line in your heart or in your actions. And he's going to place them on himself and he's going to die for them. You see Jesus lived perfectly.
And he fulfilled the law. He loved perfectly. He obeyed perfectly. He fulfilled the law. That he could walk before God blameless. That he could stand before the Father and say test me, try me, weigh me.
And God would have to accept him. So he didn't deserve death. He didn't deserve punishment. He didn't deserve wrath. He was holy and blameless. But he not only fulfills the law, he fulfills the prophets.
Which says there's going to be one who's holy and blameless. There's going to be one who's righteous. And he's going to take the sin of us. He's going to take our guilt, our pain, our punishment. And he's going to die for it. And by his righteousness, many will be accounted righteous.
He's going to pay our debt so that on our debt it says zero. Jesus means it when he says perfection is the standard. But see what the Bible says is that Jesus is our perfection. And that we get to be clothed in his righteousness. And we get to walk before the Father blameless and pure and holy. So Colossians says that he's going to make us holy and blameless and above reproach.
Corinthians says that he who knew no sin became sin for us so that we could be made into the righteousness of God. I think we often have the question how? How does that work? How does placing faith in Jesus, how does me trusting in Jesus transfer all my sin to him so that when he died that God punishes him for me. And then takes his love and his grace and his redemption, his righteousness, puts it on me and then loves me. How does that work?
The Bible doesn't really answer that question very clearly. But the Bible tells us very clearly that it works. That Jesus' death on the cross in our place works to give us his righteousness to take away our sin if we place our faith in him. So Jesus says in John, he says, the work is to believe on him whom you've sent. That we're to believe in Jesus and our sin can be taken away. That's the gospel.
That Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets and that those who place faith in him are made perfect. If you are in Christ, you are perfect. Your sin is gone. When you walk before God, he's not going to have anything to weigh against you. He already condemned Jesus for it. You can't be condemned.
I want to take just a second. You see, we have to go from saying the law is my righteousness or my behavior is my righteousness or my intentions are my righteousness. How do you answer the question when I meet God, what will I say he needs to equip me on account of? What am I going to say I tried? Am I going to say I was mostly good? What the Bible says is we get to stand and say Jesus is my righteousness.
If I get to walk before God and say I'm made holy and righteous and blameless because of Jesus, not because of anything I've done. Jesus is my righteousness. Christ is my righteousness. He's what makes me perfect. He's what makes me okay. So I want to take just a second to help you see how this begins to show up.
You see, if we believe that our work, our intentions, our ability to behave, if we believe that that's what makes us okay, it does something to us. It hardens our hearts. If you believe that your effort is what makes you okay before God and he's going to weigh you based off your actions and your intentions, it doesn't soften you. It doesn't grow you in love towards him. It hardens you. He becomes like a boss or a landlord, not a father.
If you had a father who looked at you and said, in order to be my child today, here's what you have to do. And then you can be my child. And then you can share my table. You wouldn't grow in love towards that father. Your heart would harden towards him. You see, but Jesus says our heart has to change and our actions have to change and that he's ultimately going to fulfill this for us.
So I just want us to show when it comes to acceptance, if you believe that it's based off of your work or if you believe it's based off of Jesus' work, that's what we're going to talk about as we finish up our time this morning. I just want to help you identify this in your heart because some of you may be sitting here and saying, yeah, I believe that. That's basic. That's Christianity 101. I get it. Jesus made me okay.
Y'all talk about this every week. I've been here a couple of weeks. This is all y'all talk about. Some of y'all, you're saying that. That's cool. Come back next week.
We're going to talk about the same thing. Jesus is awesome. We're going to talk about him every week. But some of you say you believe that, but then you actually live as if you still think it's based off of you. Some of you are going to say, no, I believe the gospel. I believe that Jesus died for sinners.
But then you're going to live your life. You're going to practically walk as if you think he's going to weigh you at the end of your life and not base it off of Jesus. And I want to help us identify this a little bit. Acceptance. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to call one religion because that just religion says I'm going to do my work and this is what's going to make me okay.
So we're going to call this religion just any amount of my effort, my works, and then we're going to call the other one gospel. Is that fair? Doesn't matter. I'm doing it anyway. Acceptance. Religion says I obey, therefore I'm accepted.
The gospel says I'm accepted, therefore I obey. One of the ways that begins to show up is what's your acceptance of others? How open to you? Do you have standards they have to meet in order to be okay? Do you have standards they have to meet in order to be able to be a good member of your community group? You may actually believe that you have standards that you have to meet for God.
Motivation. Why you do what you do. Religion says, religion's motivation is based off of fear and insecurity. I have to put in work to be okay. The gospel's motivated by grateful joy. Jesus is good.
He's glorious. He's a king. He loves me. I get to follow. I get to live. I get to pursue.
I get to be generous. Obedience. Religion says I obey God in order to get things from God. I obey him so that he owes me. The gospel says I obey God to get God. I delight in him.
I delight to resemble him. One of the ways this shows up in your community group, if somebody's struggling with something, what's your go-to? Here are the rules you need to follow. Here's how you messed yourself up. It's because you're sinning. Or is it, let me tell you how Jesus is good.
You see, those who believe in the grace of God will go grace first and still care about the rules. They understand that the rules still, obedience still matters, but they know that Jesus pays for our disobedience. So we get to say, hey, let me tell you the good news right now. You're not going to be punished for your sin because Jesus was. If you're in Christ, you're okay. Now, let's repent.
Let's change. Let's own our sin and let's move on. Here's how the difference is in how you handle circumstances. Religion says, when circumstances in my life go wrong, I'm either angry at God or myself. Because religion believes if you're good, you deserve a good life. So when your circumstances go bad, you're either mad at yourself because you must have been bad, you must have done something wrong, or you're mad at God because he owes you.
I did true love weights. Where's my husband? Those of you who grew up in youth groups. I'm not watching those kind of movies. I've been really generous. I've how on earth can you do this to me?
Or if you haven't been behaving well recently, God's punishing me. But see, the gospel, circumstances in life go wrong. I struggle. But I know my punishment fell on Jesus. That while God may allow this for my training, he's going to exercise fatherly love. He's not punishing me.
He's not mad at me. I'm not being, he's not looking at a particular sin and saying, I'm bringing the hammer down. He's saying, I love you. I'm going to train you. I'm going to be with you. If you believe that God punishes us for our circumstances, you have a lot less grace for people in bad circumstances.
You may not realize you do that with yourself, but if someone around you is struggling, how much are you going, yeah, but I bet they did something. They really brought it on themselves. How they handle criticism. When you're religious and you're criticized, it crushes you because your life is based off of your perception of yourself. I have to be good. I have to be okay.
I have to be well-liked. Criticism destroys you. If you believe the gospel, criticism is unpleasant. It's not going to get nice. But it doesn't destroy you.
You realize that your value isn't based off of how much people like you or how well you do at things. You get to rest in the grace of Christ. The other thing that happens is if you're religious, you actually become way more critical because you need other people to be bad so that you can be seen as good. Here's a difference in prayer. I forgot to say this. Tim Keller made this list.
He's a pastor in New York. He's really smart. I did download it from the internet. Here's what happens in prayer. Religion says my prayer life consists largely of petition and it only heats up when I'm in a time of need. The main purpose in prayer is to control your environment.
Prayer, when you believe the gospel, consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration. The main purpose of prayer is to fellowship with God, to appreciate and enjoy Him. Here's how confidence works. Religion, your self-view swings between two poles. You're either living up to the standards and so you're prideful and confident or you're failing miserably and you're depressed. That's the only way religion works.
Either you're doing a good job and you got swagger or you don't want to see anybody. If you're religious, when you sin or life gets hard, you disappear. We'll see you again in a couple weeks when you get it back together. Because you can't be around people unless it's going well. You're depressed. You can't talk.
You can't answer your phone. You can't let people know you're having problems. Your confidence just bottoms out because it's based off of you. And let me explain to you. If you're religious, your confidence is going to bottom out because it's based off of you. But in your gospel, people who believe the gospel have humble confidence.
You know that you're terrible. You know that you're a sinner. You know that you have nothing to offer God. You know that if you stood before Him on your own account, you would not be labeled perfect. We can't even do the 25-page paper thing. I don't even know all the Old Testament laws.
I'm so grateful that Jesus fulfilled them. I know I'm a sinner. You know that. But also, you know that you get to walk before God because of grace, because of Jesus' work. It can't be taken away from you. His effort, His achievement.
You get to walk before God because of Jesus. You get to walk before God with Him looking at you the way He looks at Jesus. You have absolute humility and absolute confidence. Last one, identity. In religion, your identity and self-worth are based mainly on how hard you work, how moral you are. And so you look down on those you perceive as lazy or immoral.
Your identity is tied to your effort. In the gospel, your identity and self-worth are centered on the one who died for you. You're saved by grace. So you don't look down on those who practice something different. Because you know that only by grace you are what you are. And you can rest.
Knowing that they're not taking away Jesus' good work. Your sin does not out-sin His grace. Your rebellion can't crush the cross that we get to be repentant. We get to place faith in Jesus. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing.
We're going to sing. That's the gospel. That's our hope. That God's standards for us are immensely high. But that He loves us so much that He achieved them for us.
That nothing less than perfection will do. But He loves us enough to accomplish it, to rescue us, to redeem us, to make us His. If you're in the room and you are not a Christian, you can be. Because Jesus did all of the work. If you've ever looked at the church and said, what a group of messed up people. They're such hypocrites.
Right. We're the first people who raised our hand and said, I messed up. I can't do this on my own. The people who are still religious and are trying their hardest to be perfect, they look way better than us. The people who followed Jesus around were the people who said, I have no chance to attain perfection. And Jesus says, yes, but I attained it for you.
You just get to trust Him. You get to push all your weight onto Him. You get to stand before the God of the universe one day and walk confidently before Him. That you know He'll welcome you as a father welcomes a son. Because Jesus has gone before you to take your guilt and your punishment. That you have no fear walking into that courtroom to face that judge.
Because He's not a judge, He's a father. That for those of us in Christ, one day we will be greeted and welcomed and given a seat at the table. And not a person there will say, look at what I've done. Every person there will say, look at Jesus and what He's accomplished for me. That my sin does not follow me. My sin does not scar me.
My sin does not stay with me. I love the fact that when Jesus rose from the grave, He could still show the scars in His hand and the hole in His side. The only person marked by our sin in heaven is Jesus, not us. And there's not a soul who will boast in anything but Christ in that kingdom. So if you have something to boast about, and it has to do with your effort, your work, your intelligence, your ability, you will not be in that kingdom.
When you walk before the king, when you stand before the judge, and you say, weigh me and try me, you will be found at fault. You will be declared guilty. You will be condemned. But when you walk before the king and say, Jesus was condemned for me, and I stand on grace and grace alone, that there was a Christ who came, who fulfilled the law, who fulfilled the prophets, and I trust in Him with all my heart, and I believe in Him, and everything that I have, and that He alone is my righteousness, and He alone is my hope, and He alone is my life, you're welcomed. Because that's the perfection that we get to attain through Christ.
If you don't know Jesus, I beg you to place your faith in Him. Because one day we all stand before the king, and He'll either be a judge or a father. You'll either be held accountable for your sins, or Jesus will. You'll either stand on your own righteousness or His. Let's pray.
God, I pray that with perfect clarity through your Holy Spirit, we would all see our standing before you. That we would see in our hearts clearly how we would stand before you without Christ. And that we would see in our hearts clearly how we can stand before you with Christ. And for those of us who placed our faith in you, I pray, Lord, that we would rejoice, that we would rest, that we would worship, that we would boast in you. And that for those in the room that have not yet placed their faith in you, who are still trying to prove themselves, who are still trying to work it out, who are still trying to stand before you and say, here's why I need to be welcomed, or here's why you're wrong, and this system is broken.
God, I pray that through your grace you would humble them, that you would rescue them, that you would make them yours. That right now they'd make a conscious decision to follow you. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
