One day an expert in the law approached Jesus and asked him, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered with a question, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" The man answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and, love your neighbor as yourself." "You have answered correctly" Jesus replied, "Do this and you will live."
If you are honest with yourself you will admit that you do not love God 100% of anything. And you defiantly don't love your neighbor as if he were yourself. This man wanted eternal life and he wanted to know what he had to do in order to get it. Jesus said here's something to do, do it and you will live. If 100% is the standard for eternal life, let me ask you, how are you doing? There isn't one human being that loves God with 100% of their heart, soul, strength and mind, let alone loving their neighbor as they love themselves.
What the law expert quoted is commonly called the Great Commandment. I know of a number of Churches whose mission statement is to live by the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. What they are doing is inviting people to join them in keeping the law perfectly, which is not possible. There is nothing you can to inherit something, you don't work for an inheritance you receive an inheritance. You will never in this life even come close to loving God with 100% of your heart, soul, strength and mind.
There is only one person who ever fulfilled the Great Commandment and loved God and his neighbor 100%, and that's Jesus. God in his great love had mercy on us and saved us. We are spiritually bankrupt and are poor and have nothing, nothing of merit, nothing to recommend ourselves to God. "But God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions- it is by grace you have been saved." Though he was rich for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich by believing in him and by acknowledging Lord Jesus I am nothing, be my everything and by faith his righteousness is transferred to our account. What is the mercy of God? It is God bestowing spiritual riches on spiritually bankrupt people. Do you believe that?
No comments:
Post a Comment