Saturday, November 11, 2006

Getting into heaven

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, `Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life" (Matthew 25:31-46)

In this reading, Jesus gives us a picture of the coming judgment of all Mankind. But this is not just information for the curious; Jesus tells us how it will be so that we can make ready. So today we will look at Jesus’ words and consider how our deeds in life will be judged by our holy Savior when He calls us to account.

Scripture tells us to serve the Lord. This presents us with a problem. God is invisible and untouchable—how can we serve Him? God created everything—how can we give Him anything that is not already His? God is perfect, while we are corrupted by the taint of sin—how can anything we do be good enough to please God? God commands us to serve Him, yet it seems as if serving Him would be impossible.

In these words from Matthew, Jesus explains how we can serve God. Jesus says, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' God cannot be seen or touched, but His children can. Jesus is the only Son of God, but God has many other children as well—children by adoption through faith in Jesus. Paul writes in Romans 8:23-24, "we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved." And because we are God’s children by adoption, Jesus becomes our brother. Right now, we cannot see or touch our Lord Jesus, but we can see and touch His brothers and sisters; right now, we cannot serve our Lord directly, but He assures us that we can serve Him by serving the other members of God’s family of faith.

And what service does Jesus praise the faithful for? Service that anyone can do. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, it doesn’t matter if you are a talented artist or speaker or are good with your hands. Anyone can offer food to someone who is hungry. Anyone can offer a glass of water to a thirsty worker. Anyone can offer a stranger a warm corner to sleep in or a spare coat to get through the winter. Any one of us can sit with a sick person in the hospital; any one of us can visit a prisoner in jail. All these actions can be summed up in God’ words love your neighbor as yourself (Galatians 5:14).

Is Jesus implying that we earn our entry into heaven by our good deeds? Not at all. Scripture is very clear that our actions in life in no way earn "brownie points" with God. In Romans chapter 3, Paul writes: we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. We are not saved by following God’s commands; God tells us be holy, because I am holy (Leviticus 11:44). But Solomon, with His God-given wisdom, wrote: there is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20). It is the clear teaching of God’s word that no one can be saved by living a perfectly God-pleasing life, because such a thing is humanly impossible. Paul adds in Ephesians chapter 2, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.

Good works do not earn us entry into eternal life. Only faith in Jesus gives us this most precious of gifts. We maintain that a man is justified by faith. Faith in what? Faith in Jesus, the Son of God who took on the form of a human being so that our eternal Lord could die in payment for our rebellion against God’s perfect standards. Our rebellion—our sin—made us enemies of the God who created us and who loves us. God demands holiness and punishes evil with the fires of hell. Evil is what the cursed do with their lives. Evil is living life selfishly, refusing to give food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, refuge to the homeless, clothing to the destitute, care to the sick and the imprisoned. Evil is "me first" and "to hell" with everyone else.

We are all naturally selfish. We are all by nature headed towards hell. But Jesus became a man among us to accept all of God’s punishment for our sin. When He died on the cross, Jesus endured all of the fires of hell that we were rightfully due. Because of Jesus we need not fear God’s anger at our failings. Because of Jesus we need not fear God’s judgment of our lives. Jesus has taken God’s anger away from us.

But as we can see from today’s Scripture reading, not everyone receives the benefit of Jesus’ sacrifice. There are many who will be called ‘cursed’ and condemned to unending flames. Why? How are they different from the righteous? The difference is, we have faith in Jesus. We know who Jesus is, we know what He has done for us, and we live our lives built on His promises of forgiveness and eternal joy after physical death. And this faith, this ability to understand and trust in Jesus’ promises, is a gift of God—Paul says, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. God not only promises us forgiveness and eternal life, He even gives us the ability to believe in His promises. It is this faith that sets us apart from those who will be called cursed. They will be called ‘cursed’ because they chose to reject the gift of faith and with it, forgiveness and eternal life.

So if good works do not earn us eternal rewards, why does Jesus bring them up at our time of judgment? Good works do not save us, but they are evidence that saving faith lives within us. Jesus said, Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them (Matthew 7:17-20). Jesus uses a fruit tree to illustrate an important concept: just as a good tree can be identified by the good fruit that it bears, a man of faith can be identified by the good works that he performs. Good works are evidence of living faith. James adds, What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead (James 2:14-17).

On Judgment Day, when Jesus speaks of the good deeds of those He has made righteous, He is not telling them how they earned heaven. By reviewing the list of our good works, Jesus is pointing out the evidence that saving faith has lived in our hearts. And when Jesus condemns the cursed for lives empty of good works, He is damning them because there is no evidence that saving faith lived in their hearts. Faith in Jesus alone determines whether heaven or hell is our final destination. Scripture says, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son (John 3:17-18).

Jesus tells us of the Final Judgment so that we may make ready. Faith in Christ is the key to entering heaven. How do you know if you have a saving faith? Jesus tells us to look at how we live our lives. Do we love our neighbors? Do we, at least on occasion, go out of our way to help a brother or sister in the faith? Do we do things for others out of love, or only because we will eventually seek a favor in return? Do we look at our selfish acts with disgust and ask Jesus to forgive us? Do we act as if death is the end, so we must squeeze every bit of pleasure out of life that we can? Or do we live confident that death only leads to paradise, and so we can take a pass on temporary, sinful earthly pleasures? Do you see evidence of your life bearing just a little ‘good fruit’?

None of us bear the kind of good fruits that we ought, because we are by nature sinners. Jesus and James caution us that if we can see no evidence of good works in our lives at all, we had best take the time to really think about our priorities while there is still time. But Jesus reassures us that His grace more than compensates for our weakness. When the thief on the cross said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom," Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:42-43). That thief had wasted his entire life producing evil fruits, evil deeds; yet at the end He accepted Jesus’ gift of faith and showed just one good fruit—He asked Jesus for mercy. And in response to that one good fruit, which grew from faith, Jesus said: "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

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