Challenges

 “This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.”

‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭6‬ ‭ESV

As people of faith, we are often confronted by those with questions. And these questions are not just any questions. They are questions that directly challenge our beliefs.

These questions are asked not to learn about us. They are asked not to learn about our faith. They are meant to produce a “gotcha” moment.

What they are seeking to do, in that moment, is to discredit us. They are seeking to eliminate any type of influence we may have. And they may even be seeking to destroy our own faith.

This is what the crowd was seeking to do with Jesus in the eighth chapter of John. They had brought to him a woman, caught in the act of adultery. And they reminded him of what was prescribed by the Law.

Such people were to be put to death. They were to be stoned. And they asked Jesus what he had to say about this.

Whichever way he answered, they thought they had him. If he failed to condemn this woman, they could accuse him before the people. They could say that he didn’t hold to, or that he denied, the clear teaching of Scripture. But if he did condemn the woman, they could accuse him before the Romans. They could accuse him because, as we read in John 18:31, it was not lawful for them to put anyone to death. They could accuse him, then, before the Romans of violating their law.

Jesus, however, is God. And his wisdom far surpasses that of man. He, then, was able to answer them in such a way that he could not be accused.

He told them that whoever was without sin should cast the first stone. He reminded them, in other words, that they were all guilty. And, for this reason, they were all deserving of judgment. Like the adulterous woman, they were all deserving of death.

We, of course, are not God. And we do not possess the same level of wisdom. For this reason, we may not be able to answer such challenges in a way that preserves us from accusation.

We should, however, expect such challenges. We should expect that people will seek to discredit us. And we should expect that they will seek to undermine our faith.

We, therefore, must seek the wisdom of God. We must ask that he will strengthen us in faith. And we must entrust ourselves to his care.

Condemnation or Mercy?

 “And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.””

‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

When we sin, we tend to think that we are deserving of forgiveness. We tend to think we are deserving of mercy. And we tend to believe that others owe this to us.

We, however, are quick to criticize. We’re quick to rebuke. And we’re quick to condemn.

This is true of all of us. It’s true of the righteous and the unrighteous. It’s true of the rich and poor. And it’s true of men and women.

We are quick to see the sin in others. We are quick to point out their shortcomings and flaws. And we’re quick to demand that justice be served. 

We want to see the sinner receive his due. We want him to receive what he has coming to him. Anything less, we believe, is unfair.

What we fail to remember, in those moments, is that we too are guilty. We fail to understand that we too are sinners. And we fail to acknowledge that we too deserve the penalty of our sin.

Jesus was making this plain to the crowd which had brought to him a woman caught in the act of adultery. As they did so, they reminded him of the Law, and what it said in such a case. Such a woman, they pointed out, was to be stoned.

Their motives, however, were not pure. They sought to test him. They sought a way to accuse him, regardless of the answer he gave.

Jesus, however, did not contradict the Law of God. Nor did he insist that they violate the law of Rome, which forbade such executions. He said that, whoever was without sin, should cast the first stone.

He was telling them, in this way, that they were all sinners. And he was reminding them that they all deserved to die. Each and every one of them were deserving of the consequences of their sin.

Hearing this, they all began to go away. One by one, they left. And, soon, no one remained to accuse her.

This is the reminder that Jesus gives to each of us, as well. We are all sinners. We all deserve judgment. And we are all in need of God’s mercy.

More than that, we should desire mercy not only for ourselves. We should desire it for each and every sinner. We should long for all, even those guilty of the most heinous of sins, to receive the blessing that Jesus came to provide.

An Essential Lesson

 “And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”

‭Mark 10:20 ESV‬

When we think of the Christian faith, we tend to think of it as a system of rules. We think of it as a list of things we’re to do and as another list of things we’re not to do. And being faithful, we believe, means doing our best to obey God.

We then, from time to time, evaluate ourselves. And, as we do so, we conclude that we’ve done a pretty good job of keeping the rules. We conclude that we’ve, generally speaking, been faithful.

We know that we’re not perfect. And we know that we make a lot of mistakes. But, overall, we believe that we’re doing pretty well.

This is natural. It flows out of our sinful nature. But if we’re to receive the salvation that Christ came to provide, we have to understand how wrong we are.

This is what Jesus was explaining to the rich young ruler. He came to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. And Jesus told him to keep the Commandments.

We almost gasp as we read this, knowing it contradicts the gospel. The gospel, after all, tells us that we’re saved not by what we do, but through faith. We, however, have to look at Jesus’ words in context. 

As we do so, it’s clear that Jesus wasn’t suggesting it’s possible for man to keep the Commandments. Nor was he saying that it’s possible for us to save ourselves. He was, in fact, demonstrating the opposite. 

Hearing Jesus’ words, the ruler responded much as you or I would. He responded, saying that he’d done so from his youth. He sincerely believed, in other words, that he’d kept the Commandments. 

Jesus, then, sought to show him otherwise. And he did so by telling the ruler there was yet one thing that he lacked. He was to go and sell all that he had and give to the poor.

This is something the ruler was unwilling to do. Jesus, you see, addressed the very sin with which he struggled. And we know this because he went away sad. 

The point of Jesus’ words is not that, as believers, we must give away all that we have. Again, he sought to show the ruler that he was not as good as he believed himself to be. And this is the lesson that we too must learn.

Although we tend to believe we’ve done a pretty good job of keeping God’s commands, this is far from the case. Although we don’t all struggle with the same sin, we are all sinners nonetheless. And for this reason, like the ruler, we are in desperate need of the grace of God.

God of the Living

 “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭31‬-‭32‬ ‭ESV‬‬

These words have been going through my mind as my father’s death approached and finally came. And in them, we find great comfort and hope. We find comfort and hope as we grieve those who have gone on before us, and as we consider our own mortality.

The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, came to Jesus and posed to him a hypothetical scenario. He answered them, saying that they knew neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. He then shared with them the words seen above.

In the Scriptures, God declared that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And notice the tense. He didn’t use the past tense, but the present.

He didn’t say that he was their God. He said that he is their God. He is their God even though they’d died long before.

He is not the God of the dead, Jesus says, but of the living. These men, in other words, were not dead and gone. They were yet living.

In the context of the gospel, we understand what Jesus was saying. When we die, our life does not cease. Even though our body dies and is laid in the grave, that is not the end of our story. As believers in Jesus, our spirit goes to be with the Lord. And, in the end, our bodies will rise from the grave to be with him forever.

In the same sense, I can say that the Lord is my father’s God. He is his God even though his life in this world has come to an end. He is now present with the Lord in spirit. And one day, at the end of this age, his body will rise to live forever in the new creation.

Further, the Lord is my God. And this will remain true even when my life in this world comes to an end. He is and will be my God throughout all eternity.