“Today you will be with me in paradise”

Posted on December 10, 2025 by Pastor Foley

“When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

This final Sunday of the church year is called “Christ the King Sunday”. The purpose of this Sunday is to give us a picture of what it means that Christ is the king. But in Luke 23, Jesus is being crucified. How does this depict Christ as King? Wouldn’t it have been better to choose a scripture like Revelation 19:11?

“I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war.”

Many Christians these days think this way. They believe that Jesus’s weakness was displayed on the cross, but that Jesus’ power will be revealed when he comes again. But this is a worldly understanding of power.

In the world, power is what you use to save and protect things. So, many Christians think that God is calling us to use power to save and protect strong families and marriages and to ban abortion. We think of Christ’s death on the cross like a soldier who died standing up for his country. And we think that Christ is calling us to sacrifice for him and for Christian values.

If we are to understand what it means that Christ is King, one of the most important things to understand about the King is that he does not change.

“I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” (Malachi 3:6)

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

It is true that Jesus was born, died, resurrected, ascended, and will come again. But that does not mean that his character changes. Before Jesus comes, when he is on the cross, when he was resurrected, when he ascended, and when he comes again, he is the same!

“so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:28).

When Jesus was on the cross, it wasn’t that Jesus’ character and power were hidden. Instead, they were on full display. Jesus revealed his identity and God’s identity fully.

“After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” (John 17:1)

“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,” (Colossians 2:9)

The problem is not that Christ’s power was hidden on the cross. It is that we have a warped and sinful understanding of power.

“With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”” (Matthew 26:51-54)

Jesus did not restrain his power by refraining from calling on angels. If he wanted to, he could call down from heaven more ‘power’ than the disciples could even imagine. But Jesus knew that that is not true power. Compared to God’s word, everything else is weak. Jesus knew that when God’s word said that something must happen in a certain way, no amount of worldly power could stop it.

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

The word of God is stronger than any power in the world. Jesus knows this, and this is why he only uses the power of the word.

“Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.” (Revelation 19:15)

The sword of the word is the sword that protects Jesus when he is on the cross. Nothing can happen to him (or to any of us) that is against the promises of the word of God. When Jesus was on the cross, the religious leaders tried to get him to act against the word. They told him if he was the King of the Jews, to come down from the cross. But Jesus kept the word of God: not saving his own life but instead using it to love his enemies.

Jesus lives out the word of God faithfully on the cross. This is why, on the cross, Jesus is not only dying for our sins, but he is ruling as our King. This is why Paul said that, on the cross, Jesus defeats his enemies.

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians 2:15)

Ruling is not controlling others by your power. That would be a worldly understanding of power, not a heavenly one. Christ is ruling by carrying out the will of His Father in heaven, as we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer.

From the beginning to the end of his life, Jesus lives a life of trust in what His Father has said to him regardless of what he sees or hears. That is the definition of real power.

This is important for us to understand because the Bible says that Christians will reign with Christ. Does this ‘reigning’ mean that we are going to sacrifice ourselves in a spiritual battle for our country, strong families, and Christian values?

No. We will reign the same reason Christ does. Because we live lives of simple, unshakeable trust in the word of God no matter what we see or what others say to us. In this way, the word of God is done on earth as it is in heaven.

We wrongly think of martyrdom as being about big, bold, noble actions on the part of the martyr. We think of the martyr as enduring persecution and torture, defending the faith, standing up for Christ. We imagine the martyr entering heaven triumphantly and Christ giving them a big hug and proclaiming, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

But Christ does not praise martyrs for bold sacrifice on his behalf. Instead, he praises us for living lives of simple trust in his word. This is what it means to be Christ’s good and faithful servants. Christ praises us for trusting that he will act according to his promises, just as Christ trusted that God would act according to God’s promises. Martyrs are those who wait with patient endurance for God to deliver them and the world from evil, just as he promised. What he calls us to do isn’t to use our power to enforce his will but to use our will to trust the power of his word.

This is the difference between the two criminals with whom Christ was crucified. The first criminal cries out, like many in the world today, “God, fix this problem for me and then I will believe in you” or “God, give me the power to fix this thing”. But that is not faith. It is merely a demand that God act according to our worldly understanding of power to protect what we believe is precious, namely ourselves.

But the second criminal does three things:

  • He acknowledges his own guilt and unworthiness.
  • He proclaims Christ’s innocence and worthiness.
  • He places his simple trust in Christ’s words.

“Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”” (Luke 23:42-43)

What does Jesus mean by “paradise”? We don’t know, and Jesus doesn’t tell us. But we are not called to fill in the blanks, we are called to trust that Jesus will tell us what we don’t know when we need to know it. But what we do know about “paradise” from the word of God in Genesis 2 is that the “paradise” of Eden is the place where God walked with humans without mediation. Because Christ is the God who walked with humans in the Garden of Eden, he is promising that unmediated relationship to the thief on the cross.

The way of the cross, how Christ lived and calls us to live, is to walk with unwavering trust that God will act according to his word. This is the way Christ has always lived, how he reigns, and how he conquered his enemies. There are no enemies whom Christ calls us to cut of their ears. Christ doesn’t call us to defend him or establish his kingdom. He calls us to trust and testify to his promises, just as he did with his Father’s promises all the way to the cross.

And Christ calls us to witness to his defeated enemies that he has made a promise of mercy to them called the gospel. Christ calls us to reign with him over all the powers and authorities in this world as we proclaim that gospel and join him in living according to the way of the cross.

The way of the cross is still rejected by the world as foolish. Often the way of the cross is rejected even by the church. We wrongly see the way of the cross as weak and insufficient to protect the things that are precious to us and precious to God. Like the disciple in the Garden of Gethsemane, we still pull out our little swords and try to cut off the ears of our enemies, thinking that by our power we are defending the kingdom.

But Christ tells us to put away our swords. Christ saves us not only from our sins but from our horribly wrong understandings of power. Christ is not calling us to use power for the “right things”. He is calling us to repent of our worldly understanding and use of power and instead live a life of simple, unshakeable trust in his promises as we walk according to God’s true wisdom and power, the way of the cross.

Posted in Bible, Bible Study, Reading the Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Children of the Resurrection” (Luke 20:27-38)

Posted on November 25, 2025 by Pastor Foley

Scripture speaks about two ages. These are sometimes called “this age” (or “the present evil age”) and “the age to come”, or “this world” and “the world to come” or “the kingdoms of this world” and “the kingdom of God”. The difference between these two ages is how God reigns.

God always has all power and authority, even in this present evil age where scripture calls Satan the God or king or ruler of this world. Even when Satan is called the ruler of this world, it is still God who holds all the power. Nothing that Satan or the other enemies of God do can stop God or even slow God down from accomplishing his purpose. Their actions opposing God are used by God to accomplish God’s purpose. We see that most clearly, of course, in the crucifixion of Jesus.

In this present evil age, God reigns indirectly. God reigns through mediators. God rules over his people through the kings and governments. God provides for his people through their families and their jobs and through the government.

But in the kingdom of God, God rules over his people directly. He provides for them directly, without any intermediaries. He himself is the shepherd. He himself provides the daily bread, directly. This is what we see Jesus doing in the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).

When Jesus says that the poor are blessed because the kingdom of God is theirs, it is because in the kingdoms of this world, in this present evil age, God’s provision for the poor goes through intermediaries, and they all take a portion, so the poor are left with nothing.

Does this mean that evil intermediaries are stopping God from accomplishing his purpose? No, even from the Old Testament, God promised that he would judge the intermediaries:

“As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet? “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.” (Ezekiel 34:17-24)

Jesus is the real David. And the coming of the Kingdom of God is how God rights all wrongs. Jesus doesn’t come to reform this world and raise up better rulers in this present, evil age. He ends this age on the cross.

“None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Corinthians 2:8)

When the rulers of this world crucified Christ, they ended their own evil age. It looks to us like nothing has changed since Christ’s death and resurrection. But looks can be deceiving. Christ defeated his enemies on the cross. But he chose not to destroy them. Instead, he ordained a short time to offer his enemies his mercy before his return. This offer of mercy is called “the gospel of the kingdom”. And we are living in this time.

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14).

In this period, all of God’s enemies are already defeated. They have the ability to deceive and make us think that they are still powerful enough to oppose God. But they are not.

In Matthew 24:14, note that Jesus calls the gospel the “gospel of the kingdom”, not the “gospel of the forgiveness of sins”. Forgiveness of sins is one aspect of our salvation, but the Kingdom of God is more than that. The Kingdom of God means that God is providing for and ruling over his people directly today. This includes, as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, our daily bread.

In the present evil age, God taught people indirectly through mediators and teachers. But now, in the Kingdom of God, Jesus teaches us directly. This is the new covenant–the New Testament.

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Mark 10:29-30)

The Kingdom of God is not something you enter when you stop breathing. It is what you enter when you are baptized into Christ’s death. From the moment of your baptism, God is providing for you directly. That it his responsibility as our Father. And our responsibility is to trust Him to be that sole provider. That is what “faith” means.

“Faith” does not mean that God will open the gates of heaven for you after you die. That kind of faith costs you nothing. “Faith” means that we trust God alone for what we need, not the intermediators of the world. This changes who you are relying on today.

That brings us to today’s scripture, which is about marriage, the resurrection, and the Kingdom of God.

“Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” (Luke 20:27-38)

The Sadducees don’t believe in the resurrection from the dead. They think it is a crazy idea. So they use the normal, everyday concept of marriage to try to show how much resurrection does not make sense.

But Jesus turns their argument upside down. For Jesus, the normal idea is resurrection, not marriage. Jesus uses the concept of resurrection to show that marriage makes no sense in the Kingdom of God, and that marriage is an institution that belongs only to this present, evil age.

Marriage was a mediator that God worked through in the present, evil age. But God rules over people directly in the Kingdom of God. So marriage is not found in the Kingdom of God.

The Sadducees draw an example from the law, which is another mediator which God worked through in the present, evil age. In the law, if a man’s brother dies childless, he had the responsibility to take his late brother’s wife and continue his brother’s family line. The Sadducees are saying, “The resurrection doesn’t make sense because a resurrected woman could end up with seven resurrected husbands”. But their mistake is that they try to derive the Kingdom of God from the present, evil age.

Christians make the same mistake when we forget about what the Bible says about the Kingdom of God and talk about going to heaven when we die. And we think of heaven as being like our present life with all of the bad parts removed. We think of heaven as where we see our departed family and friends. We think it would be sad and awkward to see our spouse and not be married to them, so we hope for some kind of special relationship with our spouse in heaven.

But what Jesus does, and what we Christians need to do, is to start with the resurrection as a given and think about the present, evil age in light of it. For Christians, the resurrection should be the starting and ending point for all of our thinking.

In the present evil age, people’s life source comes from their parents. But in the resurrection, God supplies His own eternal life to people directly through the Holy Spirit. Marriage, having children, and having families what God’s indirect way of providing for people once sin entered the world. Once sin and death entered the world, people would be protected by, provided for, and ruled by their parents. And spouses would find sexual fulfilment in each other instead of being overcome by lust. This doesn’t mean that marriage is evil. It is the good way that God provides for people in a sinful world.

Jesus said:

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Matthew 19:4-5)

Doesn’t this mean that marriage was God’s original plan? Just because it was God’s plan for this world doesn’t mean it was God’s intended eternal state for humans. God’s intention was always that this world would be planted as a seed.

“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…” (Hebrews 9:27)

But God’s Kingdom will never end. That is why Jesus says that, in the Kingdom, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In the Kingdom, God will directly provide all of the things that He used to indirectly provide people through marriage. This is what it means that we are God’s children. God provides for us directly because He is our Father.

“And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.” (Matthew 23:9).

When you enter the Kingdom of God through baptism, you have one Father who directly provides for all your needs and rules over you directly for all things. And you have one family: the family of your Father in which Christ is your elder brother. This family is created by the blood of Christ alone, by the mercy of God alone.

These things do not happen after our physical death. It is at our baptism that we become children of the resurrection. It’s not that Jesus was resurrected, and then sometime later, in a second, separate resurrection, we will be resurrected. Scripture is clear that there is only one resurrection. Since Jesus has been resurrected, we know that that the general resurrection from the dead is now underway. Martin Luther said it like this: Christ is the head and we are the body. When a baby is born, once the head comes out, the rest of the body comes out easily!

This is why Jesus and Paul told believers (who are “children of the resurrection”) that it is better not to marry (though marriage is not a sin). Paul also makes clear that married people should not leave their marriage when they become Christian because the spousal relationship is a picture of Christ and the church. The New Testament is clear that the relationship between spouses and parents and children is a way that God indirectly cares for us in the present, evil age. But, for those who have become children of the resurrection through baptism, these relationships are replaced by God’s direct care.

Catholics (wrongly) consider marriage a sacrament. That means they believe that through marriage God directly imparts his grace. But we Protestants do not consider marriage a sacrament. That means that we (rightly) understand that our marriages are not part of the kingdom of God. That doesn’t mean we treat our marriages like trash. It does mean that we do not look for our spouses to provide for us what God alone intends to provide for us directly. And it means that the primary relationship of a Christian husband and wife—and the primary relationship of Christian parents to their children—is brother and sister in the Lord.

The reason why this is important is that these days Christians are out protesting, saying that what Jesus wants is strong marriages and strong families and that God is going to use these things to care for the next generation. But God’s care for his people is always only the kingdom of God. God’s care for people in the kingdom is direct. He provides for them directly. He rules over them directly. God’s care for this generation, and the next generation, and every generation is to offer them entrance to the kingdom of God based only on his mercy in Christ.

And in the kingdom of God, his care for us does not come through strong marriages and strong families. It comes directly from him to us without any mediation. Those who enter the kingdom who are married do not receive special care from God that single people don’t receive. There is no advantage to marriage in the kingdom of God. In fact, as Paul notes, often their marriages can interfere with Christians receiving and acting on what God has for them, because our focus is divided between the kingdom and the things of this present evil age, specifically, marriage. So as Christians, we don’t seek marriage. And we know that God did not send Jesus to reform the present age through strong families and strong marriages. As Christians, we are to seek only the kingdom of God, and the direct rule of God, and the direct provision of God.

Posted in Bible, Bible Study | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Posted on November 11, 2025 by Pastor Foley

“9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14)

At first, this seems like a very simple parable: A prideful Pharisee boasts to God about how good he is. A humble tax collector admits how bad he is. And Jesus says that the tax collector goes home justified. So, the point of the parable seems to be: “Be humble”.

The Pharisee and the Publican by Gustave Dore (1870 – Public Domain)

But Jesus’ parables are never as simple as they seem. What the Pharisee prayers here is in fact very close to Psalm 26 and Deuteronomy 26:

“Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered… I do not sit with the deceitful, nor do I associate with hypocrites. I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked” (Psalm 26:1, 4-5)

“Then say to the Lord your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them.” (Deuteronomy 26:13)

The Pharisee is diligently keeping the commandments. The tax collector is not. The law says in Numbers 5:7 that the one who sins “… must confess the sin they have committed. They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged.” The tax collector comes nowhere close to that in his “repentance”.

The Pharisee is not the bad guy in the parable. The tax collector is! The Pharisees were like the “Charlie Kirks” of Jesus’ day. They loved God. They loved their country. They were not afraid to stand up for their values. They were not cowards. They devoted their lives to teaching people to honor God so God would bless their nation and grant revival. They were very respected in Jesus’ time.

And the tax collector is the kind of guy everybody hates. He couldn’t care less about his nation. He’ll do whatever the Romans ask, as long as it benefits him personally. He doesn’t know the Bible. He only knows that he is a bad person by any standard. But apparently now his life is so messed up that he goes to God and begs for help. But it’s just a prayer of desperation, not spiritual conviction. Why would God justify that guy?

But in fact this parable is not a parable about humble behavior or about how humans deal with God. It is a parable about how God deals with humans. In this parable, Jesus reveals a massive shift in how God deals with human beings. What is the shift?

We have to go back to John the Baptist to find out.

John the Baptist is often wrongly thought to simply be the final prophet who was calling Israel to repentance. Until that point, God’s relationship with Israel had followed this pattern:

  1. God made a covenant with Israel on Mount Sinai
  2. Whenever they violated the covenant, the prophets called upon Israel to return to the covenant.
  3. Whenever they returned to the covenant, God restored them.

This is exactly what the Pharisees were teaching at the time of John the Baptist: “Return to the covenant and God will restore us.”

But John the Baptist was proclaiming something entirely different. John proclaimed that the judgment on the nation of Israel prophesied by the Old Testament prophets had finally come.

“John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”” (Luke 3:7-9)

The Pharisees were preaching repentance. And John was preaching repentance. But John’s repentance was not “repent and return to the covenant so God will have mercy on Israel”. John said that one greater than him would come to cast fire on the earth. The temple, the law, the priests, and the relationship to Abraham could not protect Israel from the wrath to come. This is why it was so symbolic that John the Baptist preached in the wilderness, around the Jordan River where Israel had first come into the land. It was a sign that salvation could not be found in Israel in the places and according to the means it had been found in the past.

This is why the religious leaders hated John. John said that the only thing that could save Israel from the fire was water: baptism for the forgiveness of their sins. John sent the baptized people back to their homes to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. It was like they were entering the promised land all over again. John said that those who received baptism would not burn when the fire came. Instead, they would receive the Holy Spirit.

This is why, when people asked John what they should do, John didn’t tell them to do things like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable did: fast more, tithe more, pray and offer more sacrifices at the temple. Instead, he told people to share their food and clothing, stop extorting others, and be content with their pay.

When Jesus—the One greater than John—came, he took up the message John had proclaimed, and he fulfilled it. Jesus said, “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it” (Luke 16:16).

What does this mean?

Do you remember when God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden? After God drove them out, he placed an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance to block their return. John the Baptist is like that angel. He blocks Israel’s return to the law and the prophets as a way of salvation. From John the Baptist onward, Israel can no longer appeal to God based on its identity (as Abraham’s descendants) or its actions (as according to the covenant). Beginning with John, the law and the prophets only had one role: Pointing forward, to the preaching of the kingdom of God.

And what is that preaching? It is God’s final offer of mercy through Jesus, in the last hour, before fire is cast on the whole earth.

This is totally different from the way God had previously dealt with Israel because God deals with them apart from the law.

“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

Israel had broken the covenant beyond repair, so God gave righteousness apart from the law. Israel had become, like all the nations, an object of God’s wrath. But, amazingly, this was all part of God’s plan. It was his way of offering mercy to all people through Christ.

“For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.” (Romans 11:32)

Note that word: Mercy. It’s what brings us back to today’s parable.

The Pharisee appeals to God according to God’s covenant with Israel. But ever since the coming of John the Baptist, that way to God was closed, and there was no way back. The tax collector is justified because he appeals to God only on the basis of God’s mercy. Since the time of John the Baptist, that’s the only way for anyone to be justified by God. 

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law asked why Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. Today’s parable is his reply: It is because the only way to eat with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of God is to accept God’s final offer of mercy through Jesus Christ. That offer of mercy is made apart from the law or any standard of behavior. It is not a call to repent and return to a covenant based on actions. It is a new and final offer, a new covenant for the new and final Kingdom.

Israel would die in the wilderness as John the Baptist had shown. But, in Christ, God would raise up Israel from the dead. The New Israel would be built entirely on the mercy of God.

That is why Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners and why the tax collector went home justified, but the Pharisee did not. Citizenship in the Kingdom of God is only available through faith in Jesus Christ.

Most of us know we are saved just like the tax collector was saved in Jesus’ parable: by the mercy of God alone. But once we are saved, we often shift to an Old Covenant mindset where we relate to God and to others the way the Pharisee does in the parable; namely, according to people’s identities, values, and actions.

And the worst part is: we think that’s what God does, too. We wrongly think that God deals with salvation as according to the New Testament but that God deals with day-to-day conduct of people and nations as according to the Old Testament.

Think about the language we use and the sermons we hear about our personal discipleship and about our nation. It’s not language of God’s mercy in Christ. It’s language about Christian identity, Christian values, Christian action. And that language and way of thinking comes from the Old Covenant. It’s the language of fighting battles. Blessings and curses. Falling away and repenting. Enemies attacking us. Every election these days is described as a spiritual battle. New Covenant salvation becomes for us a gateway to Old Covenant-style thinking about our relationships with others, our nation, and God.

We think of the kingdom of God as something Christ began but which he expects us to complete. We think of Christ as a kind of heavenly arms supplier sending us spiritual weapons from heaven when we pray. We think Christ is calling us to fight battles to gain ground for his kingdom, against the enemies of our soul and of our nation. We believe God is sending blessings and curses on nations and people based on their actions.

This kind of thinking makes us react differently according to identity and values and behaviors of people and nations. We treat some people and nations as allies and some as threats. We treat some as good and some as evil. We have great confidence in what values and behaviors and laws God wants. We show that confidence every time we go demonstrate at events and post on social media about so-called Christian values.

But that is what is referred to here in this parable as “confidence in our own righteousness.” And Jesus says it is a fatal behavior. It violates the Constitution of the new Israel which is built on God’s mercy in Christ’s blood alone. When we think like the Pharisee in the parable, we will be sent home unjustified like the Pharisee in the parable. We will be cut down at the root, just as John the Baptist prophesied. 

God does not save us according to the New Testament and then send us and our nation back to the Old Testament for day-to-day living. He closed that way to Israel, and he certainly didn’t re-open it for Gentiles, who were given entrance to the kingdom solely based on mercy! John the Baptist still stands with his flaming sword at the border of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. He permits no one to return to the law and the prophets and the blessings and the curses and promises as a way of relating to God or to each other. And no one is permitted to lead their nation there either. From John on, the law and the prophets only point forward to Christ and his kingdom of mercy.

When we are saved into the kingdom of God, we are to live according to the law of the kingdom and the ways of the kingdom, without exception. The law of that kingdom is legislated from the cross. The ways of that kingdom—the values we stand up for and demonstrate for—are mercy, forgiving seven times a day, loving our enemies, blessing those who curse us, being the servant of all, looking to the interest of others, giving our possessions to the poor, receiving Christ’s family as our only family, and taking up our cross.

As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:16, “From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view”.

Posted in Bible, Bible Study, Reading the Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment