Monday, April 4, 2016

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.  “Teacher,” he asked,  “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  “What is written in the Law?” he replied.  “How do you read it?”  He 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.”   - Luke 10:25-28

Let’s begin with a question…what is the most important question you could possibly ask?

The question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” is easily the most important question any person can ask. It is more important than the question, “Where should I live?”  It is more important than the question, “Whom shall I marry?” It is more important than the question, “What career shall I pursue?”  The reality is that life is so uncertain that a person could be in his grave before he marries or enters a career.  So the matter of where one spends eternity is the crucial issue to settle before all others.

A man well versed in the study of the Jewish Law (a lawyer) asked this very question of Jesus Christ.  But it is possible to ask the right question with the wrong motives, and that is just what this Jewish lawyer did. He knew the answer to the question in his head, but his heart was not right before God.  He was not open to the fact that he needed eternal life for himself.  He knew the Law far better than the average Jew. He kept the Law...or so he thought.  After all, he was no "pagan" or Samaritan!  He was asking the question about eternal life to test Jesus.  Perhaps he wanted to trip up Jesus or to demonstrate his own superior knowledge in front of the crowd.

But Jesus turned the question back on the lawyer.

Jesus did not say to the lawyer, “What do the scribes and Pharisees say?” He didn’t ask, “What is the tradition of our Jewish religion?” He didn’t say, “That’s an interesting question. What is your opinion?” He didn’t inquire about any mystical spiritual experiences had by the man. Rather, Jesus directed the man back to the written Word of God: “What is written in the Law?  How do you read it?”

The Bible and the Bible alone is our sole authority in matters of faith and practice. This may sound basic to you, and in some ways it is; but it is under constant attack and so we must hold firmly to it. It was one of the central issues of the Reformation (Sola Scriptura).  It is a crucial dividing line between evangelical Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic Church.  If we move away from Scripture as our only authority, we are adrift on a sea of subjectivity where we can end up saying many things that contradict the Bible. So, what does Scripture say on the crucial question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  This is essentially the question that Jesus puts to the lawyer.

The lawyer answers Jesus by quoting the two great commandments--that we must love the Lord our God with our total being and love our neighbor as ourselves.  Jesus praises this answer: “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live” (10:28).  Notice that Jesus did not say, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Neither did Jesus say,  “Just pray this little prayer after me.”  Why did Jesus answer as He did?  Maybe He needed some training on how to share His faith! Or, maybe we need some instruction from Him on how to share our faith!

When it comes to loving God with our total being, we cannot begin to love a God whom we do not know. And, as Jesus has just said, “No one knows who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Luke 10:22).  If this lawyer had evaluated his life correctly by the standard of God’s Law, he would have seen immediately that he fell far short. He would have fallen down before Jesus and cried, “How can I know God and love God as I ought?” Jesus would have replied, “Repent of your self-righteousness and believe in Me. I alone give eternal life to those who believe and follow Me.”

Have you asked this all-important question about eternal life?

Have you found the answer in Jesus Christ?

Have you shared this answer with anyone else who may be asking the question?

Pastor Jeff Frazier