Reformation: The Willingness to Grow
and Change
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the September 7, 2013
Sabbath School Lesson
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you,
you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5, NIV
Much has
been written and said through the centuries since the incarnation of Jesus about
the relationship between what mankind provides toward salvation and what God provides. Those
doing the discussing tend to fall into three main groups. First, there are
those who believe that a man is simply judged by what he has done in life, and
if there is enough good to outweigh any bad he may have done, he will be
allowed to enter heaven. In the second group, we may find those who believe that
a man does what good he can, but if it is not enough to outweigh the bad, Jesus
will make up the difference, and the sinner will be allowed to enter heaven. In
the third group are those who maintain that it is impossible for man to
contribute anything to his salvation, and rather than make up any shortcoming,
Jesus provides all the righteousness the sinner possesses and that
righteousness is the only requirement to enter heaven.
Which is
right? Are the scales tipped heavily toward our works of righteousness? Or are
they more balanced with our works and Christ’s righteousness contributing equal
weight to the equation? Or is all the weight on the side of Christ and His
righteousness? What we believe regarding this heavily influences how we see
Christianity and how it shapes our lives. With the first two options, we often
hear a steady drumbeat of “Obedience! Obedience! Obedience!” You see, if our
works contribute in any way to our salvation then it becomes necessary to be
sure those works conform to expectation. We must first determine the
expectation. Then we must measure ourselves against it. Of course some will go
beyond and find it convenient to measure others as well.
To determine
those expectations, believers will often go to the Bible, but they may also use
extra-biblical sources. They will search their sources for rules to develop a framework
for obedience. Sometimes those rules will be straightforward, as in the
Decalogue.[i]
Rules like those can be very black-and-white, lending themselves quite easily
to a rigid structure for obedience. At other times, varying degrees of
interpretation are necessary to develop rules to obey. For instance, the rule
where some would prohibit Christmas trees is often based on the prophet
Jeremiah’s writings concerning idolatry.[ii]
While Jeremiah knew nothing of Christmas, and I know of no one who prays to a
Christmas tree like the people of Jeremiah’s time were praying to their wooden
idols, still the search for a framework for obedience to enter heaven causes
some to place interpretations on Bible passages far afield from the intent of
the original authors.
This is
nothing new. The list of rules developed in such ways had become so extensive
by the time of Christ that they created a burden few could bear. The religious
leaders became experts at managing and interpreting those rules. Being beyond
the ken of the average man who must be concerned with survival for him and his
family as opposed to esoteric rules about ritual washings and what is or is not
a burden to be carried or a work to be done on the Sabbath. The more esoteric
those rules became, the more the average person would need to go to a
specialist to understand their application. This gave those who interpreted the
rules, the religious leaders, tremendous control over the spiritual lives of
the people which translated into a great deal of secular power as well. The
assumption being that in spite of the power derived from such a position of
authority, the benevolence of the one in power would naturally prevent its
abuse. However, history is rife with examples of why that was not such a good
idea.
Those who
act as interpreters of such rules can begin to see themselves as speaking for
God and with God’s authority even though the interpretations may only be
products of their own understanding and perspective. Once one begins to see
themselves in this light, they may feel that their interpretation is
unassailable as it is derived from their special standing with God. This is the
basis for the doctrine of “divine right” which was asserted by many a monarch
in centuries past.[iii]
The Enlightenment purported to be a foil to such practices and produced several
documents and constitutions seeking to limit the power of the “divine right”
monarchs.[iv]
Nonetheless, those who see themselves as mouthpieces for God and interpreters
of articles of faith for others continue to pop up when faith is oriented toward
obedience and rule interpretation.
Is this the
faith of Jesus? When He encountered such individuals, His responses about such
practices were telling. The Pharisees approached Him to assert that He and His
followers were not submitting themselves to the accepted rules and the
interpretations of the church elders regarding ritual washings.[v]
Jesus challenged these rules as being man-made and based on interpretations
intended to benefit the religious leaders rather than the people. He pointed
out how egregious this selfishness had become in an example regarding an endorsement
by the religious leaders of the idea that one can eliminate the need to support
those of his own family by giving his wealth to the church. Jesus was all about
love and compassion. Perhaps He chose this particular example because it really
rankled Him.
Jesus pointed out that these rule interpreters were more concerned with the rules than
the people. He revealed that they burdened the people with these rules while
doing nothing to help with the burdens they were creating.[vi]
While the people became like frustrated robots eating this, washing that,
wearing or not wearing what they were told by these self-proclaimed mouthpieces
for God’s will, Jesus offered a better way. He offered to lift these onerous
burdens.[vii]
Because the need continues, what He offered then, He also offers now.
A modern-day
example can be found in the push by church leaders to see every child in
parochial school. They place this burden on the poor who cannot afford the
tuition, even though the church workers receive hefty discounts for themselves
when they send their children to the same schools. While many churches offer
church subsidies to encourage the poor to send their children, they often do so in a
humiliating manner that requires every family be screened to squeeze as much
financial participation as possible from the participants. Never mind that the
financial participation means that their children cannot wear the same nice
fashions that others might wear or have the same nice lunches as the other
children, the children are there. Sermons about the blessedness of these
sacrifices are endorsements of suffering that those who preach them do not have
to make due to their benefit of reduced tuition costs.
Of course
this could all be eliminated by a “Temple Plan” for the parochial school where
every child is guaranteed attendance regardless of financial circumstances and all
school expenses are simply a part of the church budget as opposed to squeezing
funds out of the poor. But some distance themselves from the unmerited grace of
the Bible and the socialism it implies and feel they must make sure the poor
are truly deserving of the help they receive. While it is never said to be
such, the process of screening the poor is frequently designed to make sure only the
deserving can enroll their children in the parochial school and to drive away
the rest.
Those who
were driven away by the religious leaders and their rules in Christ’s day came
to Jesus. When they did, instead of finding humiliation and condemnation, they
found grace. What a relief that must have been. No matter how hard they worked,
no matter how much they obeyed, they only ever saw judgment in the eyes of
those who should have been their spiritual shepherds. But with Jesus, it was
different. He taught them that obedience was a hundred percent God’s work and
none of their own.[viii]
The only thing they needed to do was to begin walking toward God instead of
away from Him.
Like the
father of the prodigal son, He would receive them and restore them.[ix]
The son could do nothing to increase his worth in his father’s eyes, but the
father could do everything to restore the worth of his son in the son’s eyes
and willingly and lovingly did so. Those who understand this tend to also believe
that we can contribute nothing to our salvation and that all righteousness
comes not from any obedience we can muster on our behalf. It comes only from
the unmerited grace we receive from the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Our
sins tell us we do not deserve God’s love, and the accuser[x]
and anyone doing his work are both eager to humiliate us and drive us away from
Jesus. They judge us on our obedience, but Jesus extends to us His love even
though we are sinners.[xi]
All we need to do is turn around and start walking toward Him instead of away
from Him. He will take care of the rest.
