Demand #20 – Do the Will of My Father Who is in Heaven – Be Justified by Trusting in Jesus
Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
—Matt. 7:21
If you would enter life, keep the commandments.
—Matt. 19:17
The tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
—Luke 18:13-14
External Conformity to Laws Is Not Enough
So how are we to understand these Scriptures? The first two, isolated from other verses, could be taken to mean we are saved by works. The last verse is difficult to make sense of after reading the first two verses since it teaches an imputed righteousness or justification that is not dependent on works.
A wealthy man asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17). Jesus answered his question in two steps. First, he said, “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother’” (Mark 10:19).
The man responded, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth” (Mark 10:20).
Our outstanding problem with Jesus (and God) is that He looks at our heart. That is why He said thinks like “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20). We think, “Well they were hypocritical” so we have no problem. They weren’t all hypocritical and when we think that are we simply saying that our obedience to the law is better somehow because at least we aren’t hypocritical. I’m afraid we take a very superficial view at times and maybe consider that hypocrisy is the only sin Jesus really cared about. Well that isn’t true. Jesus is holy and hates sin in all its forms and the moral law is still binding on our hearts. In part, that is why we are studying the commands of Jesus.
The problem Scribes and Pharisees had was that they thought that only externals mattered. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence” (Matt. 23:25). Polishing the outside of our lives is still a very popular solution. We love the praise of other humans more than God’s approval.
Jesus, just like He does with us, told the wealthy man to give up his god (little g) and make Jesus the Lord of his live. “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). Others always benefit when Jesus is the Lord of our life.
Perfection Through Jesus
Jesus doesn’t teach that there is anything wrong with the law of God. It is perfect and beautiful. Psalm 119 is a testimony to the beauty of God’s commands and laws. The problem is in our heart and our hearts are corrupt. The standard can’t be lowered. God is holy and the standard is holiness, Jesus said “You therefore must be perfect,” Jesus said, “as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). Well I’m not perfect. Even if I became perfect it wouldn’t make up for my imperfections up to this point.
So how is Jesus the Way, the Truth, and the Life for me since I have a sin nature and have a history of failing to live a perfect life? Well it happens in two ways. First, God justifies me by the work of Jesus on the Cross and secondly God sanctifies me for His use in my day to day life. Justification is a once and for all work accomplished on the Cross and sanctification or being set aside for His use in every moment will not be finished until heaven.
Justification
Jesus came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45) and said that His blood would be “poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28) and that believing in him as he was lifted up on the cross would give eternal life to undeserving sinners (John 3:14-15).
We have no other hope of righteousness. No man comes to the Father except through Jesus. The substitutionary atonement of Jesus is our only hope (John 3:36) and God sees us as righteous in Christ because Christ’s righteousness is given to us as the penalty of our sins was paid by Jesus.
“This Man Went Down to His House Justified”
Of course simply removing our guilt doesn’t make us obedient and since God is holy we fall short in every day we live even after salvation. Jesus illustrates how this knowledge should affect us. He tells a parable of a Pharisee and a tax collector who went up to the temple to pray. These two men represent the groups that were popularly viewed as most righteous (the Pharisees) and most sinful (the Jewish tax collectors, who compromised themselves by working for the Romans and fleeced their own people to line their pockets). The Pharisee highlighted his obedience to the law: “I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:11-12). But the tax collector, Jesus says, “standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other” (Luke 18:13-14). The word “justified” is crucial. It captures the very purpose of the parable. Luke introduced this parable by saying: “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt” (Luke 18:9). Therefore, the parable is dealing with the question of how to be “righteous” before God.
In our justification God, as a judge, declares us righteous. It isn’t what we’ve accomplished it is what we are by the Grace of God. That is what God does to the tax collector in Luke 18:14: “This man went down to his house justified”— God recognized him as righteous as he went down to his house because he looked to the mercy of God for his righteousness. Piper make a great point in that even giving God the credit for your achievement is still a fatal flaw. The Pharisee said, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11). Even the Grace the produces good behavior in our lives is not our source of righteousness in God’s holy presence. Right living is a good thing and a thing to rejoice in but it doesn’t make us superior to others in righteousness. You will not outgrow a desperate need for the mercy of God. When “nothing but the blood” isn’t enough for you, then repent and cry out for mercy from God and a fresh sense of how great your salvation is.
In the next command we’ll look at sanctification and how God uses it in our lives as we learn to live moment by moment set aside for His purpose and glory.
Demand #21 – Do the Will of My Father Who is in Heaven – Be Transformed by Trusting Jesus
Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.
—Mark 3:35
Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!
—Luke 11:28
Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
—Matt. 7:21
Piper repeats Jesus’ statement in Matthew 7:21. It is a striking warning and can be considered as one of the most frightening verses in the Bible. However, it is a needed warning. I’ve lived through times when we were supposed to believe in “carnal Christians”. It really becomes a form of wishful thinking and at times the church has latched onto even the weakest evidence of confession and claimed it as salvation even when there was no evidence in the person’s life that they were Christians.
I think the historic concepts inherent in the steps of noticia, assensus, and fiducia help us understand what Scripture is teaching. The facts, acknowledging the truth of the facts, and placing saving faith in the facts as the Holy Spirit works in a person’s life produces salvation. That is a salvation that is eternally secure.
Christians may sin really badly after salvation. As the Baptist 2nd London Confession States …
“though they may through the temptation of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of means of their preservation fall into grievous (291) sins, and for a time continue therein; whereby they incur (292) Gods displeasure, and grieve his holy Spirit, come to have their graces and (293) comforts impaired have their hearts hardened, and their Consciences wounded, (294) hurt, and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgements (295) upon themselves: yet they shall renew their (296) repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end.
(291) Mat. 26.70,72.74; (292) Is. 64.5.9. Eph. 4.30; (293) Psal. 51.10.12; (294) Psa. 32.3,4; (295) 2 Sam. 12.14; (296) Luk. 22.32. & v. 61 62.
The actions of the Holy Spirit are effective in the life of someone who is saved to bring them to repent from their sin. Evidence of a changed life is a normal part of the Christian life.
Some Measure of Real, Lived-out Obedience Is Required
Saving faith necessarily produces a changed life. Falsely claiming that Jesus is Lord of your life may work pretty well at church but it will not work before the judgment throne. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). He says that on the day of judgment he really will reject people because they are “workers of lawlessness.” “Then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matt. 7:23). He says people will “go away into eternal punishment” because they really failed to love their fellow believers: “As you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Matt. 25:45-46).
Some measure of obedience to the will of God is a necessary consequence of salvation. “Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). This transformation is called sanctification and you should be seeking an pursuing it as part of your Christian life. Sanctification means being set aside or set apart for holy purposes. We are created in Christ Jesus to walk in works that God has prepared for us ahead of time to do. We become set apart for Him. So if a person is not set apart at all then you would pray the Holy Spirit would convict them of their sin and change them. That is, bring real repentance and salvation to that individual. That person who sits on the fence, aware of the Gospel but without saving faith, is in that frightening position in which they are not serving Christ even if they are calling Him Lord and they are not carnal Christians even if some call them that because they are not Christians. They are their own lord.
So what about Good Works? Once again the Baptist 2nd London Confession makes some great points.
1. You are not to invent religious duties as good works. Only God’s is Lord and your zeal is not to invent things to do for God.
2. Good works, done in obedience to Gods commandments, are the fruits, and evidences of a true, and lively faith; and by them Believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the profession of the Gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries and glorify God whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto, that having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end eternal life.
3. Their ability to do good works, is not at all of themselves; but wholly from the Spirit of Christ; and that they may be enabled thereunto, besides the graces they have already received, there is necessary an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit, to work in them to will, and to do, of his good pleasure; yet are they not hereupon to grow negligent, as if they were not bound to perform any duty, unless upon a special motion of the Spirit; but they ought to be diligent in stirring up the Grace of God that is in them.
4. You will never cause God to owe you anything from any act or series of acts of obedience.
5. Our best works do not atone for any sin and even though a work is motivated by the Holy Spirit we mix our weakness and imperfection with it so that the work would not stand severity of Gods judgment.
6. Yet Believers and their works are accepted in Christ; not as though we were perfect in Gods sight; but that God looks upon us in his Son and is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections.
7. Works done by unregenerate men although for the matter of them they may be things which God commands, and of good use, both to themselves and others; yet because they do not comefrom a heart purified by faith, nor are done in a right manner according to the word, nor to a right end the glory of God; they are sinful and cannot please God; nor make a man meet to receive grace from God; and yet their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing to God.
Jesus transforms us so that we really begin to love like he does and thus move toward perfection that we finally obtain in heaven. Jesus teaches us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” the petition “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:11-12). So we pray for daily forgiveness.
Every Healthy Tree Bears Good Fruit
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). “Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit” (Matt. 7:17). The fruit does not make the tree good. The tree makes the fruit good. Good deeds do not attach us to Jesus.
Is God’s Will Today Expressed in the Old Testament Law?
Jesus said, “Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24: 44). Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matt. 5:17-18). Jesus fulfilled the law. So the purpose of the law is not to achieve righteousness before God. We are too weak and prone to sin for that.
How Our Experience of the Law Changes with the Coming of Jesus
When Jesus taught that “whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him” (Mark 7:18), he virtually nullified the Old Testament ceremonial laws. Mark says, “Thus he declared all foods clean” (Mark 7:19). “On his own authority alone, Jesus set aside the principle of ceremonial purity embodied in much of the Mosaic legislation.”
Second, motivation takes a radical shift towards a desire to please God because we love God.
Third, God’s move is no longer centered on ethnic Israel since He is building a spiritual Israel which is the Church. Jesus told a parable about the owner of a vineyard whose tenants would not give him his produce. He repeatedly sent them servants whom the tenants beat. Finally, he sent his son whom they killed. All this represented God’s relation to Israel as a people. The great majority of them did not render the fruit of worship and obedience, and finally they killed the Son of God (Matt. 21:33-41). Jesus asked his listeners what the owner should do. They said, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons” (Matt. 21:41). Jesus applied this correct answer to his Jewish listeners in a cataclysmic way, signifying a huge change in the law. He said, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you [Israel] and given to a people producing its fruits” (Matt. 21:43).
Fourth, the entire religious system involving priests and temple and sacrifices reached its goal and end in Jesus.
Believe on His Son, and Bear the Fruit of Love
We need to treasure Jesus and not material possessions in our lives. Like the wealthy ruler those things that are false “lords” need to go so that the Jesus can be Lord of our life. As Piper says, “The fruit demonstrates the reality of the union and the authenticity of faith.”
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