The Two Paths to Righteousness

by Matt Kennedy

The Church of the Good Shepherd

If you have come to Good Shepherd for any length of time then you know that one thing we proclaim here as bedrock solid biblical truth is that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way that anyone can have eternal life with the Father. Well, today I have to admit that this is not the whole truth. Today’s gospel demonstrates that there is not just one path to salvation. There are two. One path is through faith in Jesus Christ. The other is to live a life of righteousness.

 Let’s open our bibles to Mark 12:28-31. Jesus is in Jerusalem. He’s been peppered with questions by the authorities. He’s handled them masterfully, impressing even those trying to entrap him. Finally, one teacher who’s been watching Jesus all along steps forward and asks:

“Of all the commandments which is the most important?” (Mk 12:28)

 His question is not as a trap. Unlike his fellow teachers of the law, this teacher honestly wants to know the answer. He recognizes Jesus’ authority, wisdom, and the truth of what he has taught so far, and so he humbles himself to ask Jesus’ to ask for direction. This is sometimes hard for leaders to do. It’s hard for men to do in general. We like to have the answers we don’t like to ask for them. But this attitude of humility, this readiness to learn and be taught, is exactly the attitude we must have when we approach Jesus and when we approach his Word.

  So the teacher asks Jesus an honest question and receives direct answer: “The most important commandment is this: Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Stop there. This declaration is called the “shema” which is the Hebrew word for hear. It is a direct quote from Deuteronomy 6:4. The shema is the first thing an orthodox Jew says every morning and the last thing he says at night. Before he dies, he prays to have the presence of mind so that the shema will be the last words on his lips. The shema is not a command. It’s a declaration. God is one. There is no other God other than the God who has revealed himself in the scriptures. He alone created the heavens and the earth. All other gods, all other faiths are idols.

This declaration is crucial because it provides the foundation for the next part of the command. Jesus continuing to quote Deuteronomy 6:4 says: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Because the Shema provides the foundation for this the command to love God, there’s no way to get confused with regard to the identity of the God we are to love. Love the One and only God who has revealed himself, who has shown himself in the bible and no other.

Loving some cosmic essence, loving some amorphous Spirit, loving the cloud of unknowing, or loving one of the various gods worshipped around the world violates this command. We are to love the God of the scriptures alone. And not just love him, but love him with every fiber of our being. Anything that takes his place as first in our hearts, in our lives, in our priorities becomes a god, an idol that we love more than we love him.

So the first part of Jesus answer is that you must love the one true God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all our strength. The second part is this: “love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mk 12:31) Again, Jesus is not revealing anything new. He’s still quoting from the Old Testament. This time Leviticus 19:18. The same care and concern you have for your body, for your feelings, for your rights, for your convenience you should have for others. Be as concerned for the welfare of other people as you are for yourself. Later Jesus ramps up this command by saying, “Love your neighbors as I have loved you” which means that ultimately we are to love others sacrificially. We are to put others above ourselves and not just be as concerned, but more concerned with their wellbeing than our own.

 In Matthew, Jesus sums all of this up by saying that all the law and the prophets hand on these two commands.

All 613 laws found in the Old Testament and all the commands found in the New Testament are ways of acting out love for God or for your neighbor. Take the Ten Commandments. What are they? 1 You shall have no other gods 2. Don’t make idols and 3. don’t misuse God’s name. All three act out your love for God. The last six are: 5. honor your father and mother, 6. don’t murder, 7. don’t commit adultery, 8. don’t steal, 9. don’t bear false witness, and 10. don’t covet or “envy” your neighbor’s stuff. All 6 act out your love for your neighbor. The 4th commandment: keep the Sabbath holy is the one commandment in the scriptures that manifests love for God and neighbor at the same time. You express your love for God in worship and express your love for others in fellowship. That’s one reason church is so important. When you come here on Sunday you get to fulfill the both categories of the commandments

 So every command you read in the scriptures represents a concrete action that manifests your love for God first and then for your neighbor. That’s why Jesus said, if you love me you’ll obey my commands. Obedience is the outward manifestation of a softened heart, a heart turned toward the Lord.

 And here’s where the second way of salvation comes in. The reason this teacher of the law asks his question is that in many places the bible teaches that if you obey the law and do what’s right you’ll be saved. In Romans 2:6-13 to take one example, Paul writes,

“God will give to each person according to what he has done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.”

  So Faith in Jesus Christ is not the only way to find salvation. You can love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and all your strength and all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself. You can obey the whole law. You can actually be righteous.

  Of course our understanding of what it means to be righteous and God’s understanding tend to differ. Usually we compare ourselves to other people. I caught myself doing that as I was reading about that pastor from New Life Church in Colorado Springs who just got caught buying drugs from a male prostitute and having a homosexual affair. I started to say to myself: thank God I’m not like that guy…and then I remembered the prayer of the Pharisee in Luke 18. A Pharisee and a tax collector go to the Temple. The Pharisee stands up and says, “thank you Lord that I’m not like that dirty nasty tax collector over there. I follow the law and do all you’ve commanded me to do.” The tax collector kneels in the back and won’t even look up at the altar. His prayer is short. “Have mercy on me Lord, I’m a sinner.” And Jesus said, the tax collector, not the Pharisee went home justified. Why? Because they were both sinners. But the tax collector was the only one humble enough to recognize it.

  Rather than measuring himself against everyone else, he measured himself against perfect law of God and recognized that he didn’t meet the mark. That’s the first task of the law. It was given first so that we’d stop looking at everyone else and realize that we’re sinners, that we, that I, don’t obey God’s law. I don’t love God with every fiber of my being. I don’t love other people like I love myself even now as a believer, filled with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes I don’t want to pray. Sometimes I don’t want to worship. Sometimes I don’t want to obey God. I break his law. And if you’re honest with yourself you’ll say the same thing. That’s good. The law was intended to teach us that. God’s verdict is already in. He knows each and every one of us. From the beginning of time to the end he’s seen and examined every single human being who’s ever lived and he’s pronounced his verdict in Romans 3:10-18: No one is righteous. No one seeks God. All have turned away. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We’re all guilty. But a lot of people don’t know that. They’re wandering around like that Pharisee thinking that they’ll make it because at least they’re better than that guy. The law says no.

  If my hope is that when I die I’ll stand up and say to God I may not be perfect but I’m better than that guy. Or Lord, I used to be a sinner, but you filled me with your Holy Spirit and since then I did this and this and this and this, so now on the basis of all these good things I’ve done, you’ve got to let me in. If that’s my hope then I’m lost. Because when I hold the beautiful, wonderful, perfect law of God up against my heart I see dirty rags. If my works and good deeds are my hope then I have no hope. And neither do you.

  Thank God he’s provided another way. Jesus loved the Father with every fiber of his being. Jesus loved his neighbor as himself. He alone perfectly fulfilled the law of God. And everyone who recognizes that they don’t and can’t, can call to him like that tax collector, “Lord have mercy on me, I’m a sinner.” And all who do, who call to Jesus and surrender to him will be saved. God will cover their sins with the perfect righteousness of Christ. My dirty rags were and are covered by the pure white robes of Christ’s obedience and my sins are forgiven because he died in my place. That’s the gospel.

How many people come to church all their lives and get it wrong, thinking it’s all about being a decent person and earning a spot in heaven when they punch out. That’s not loving God. That’s working for a boss.

The ironic thing is this: Once you cease your efforts and humbly surrender to and trust in Christ, then the love for God and neighbor you could not muster by your own, is poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit. When you stop trying to prove yourself to God and start living with him through faith, then he, working in your heart, turns you around and then and only then, can you actually start to follow the Great Commandment. You can’t follow the law until the one who authored the law lives in your heart. You can’t truly love him until he lives in you. But before he can live in you, you have to recognize that you can’t do it. That you are not enough.
 

Amen     

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