God showed up at work today

This morning, I had an interesting discussion with a co-worker. After clocking in, he asked me for a few minutes of my time at break, which would be an hour later. He said that he always respected my opinion and would like to ask me a question about something.

This threw my mind in overdrive and I started to pray about this encounter. I have a lot of great opinions (at least I think I do), but if this was going to be a spiritual matter, I wanted to be sure I was giving him God's thoughts and not mine.

Time came for break and this friend came and asked me about a verse in Matthew 5, where Jesus said; "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. His question was; "did He really mean that literally, or was that just an expression? My answer was "yes." Now that you're confused, let me explain myself...

The Older Testament (neither one of them are new anymore, you know) give us what we know as the Law. The Law as it was given was to rule the people of Israel in a governmental way, but even more than that, Galatians says, it was given as a school master, a tutor, really, a moral overseer, until faith would be revealed. It was intended as an insurmountable obstacle, to crush or break us and make us realize that we were completely incapable of living up to that perfect standard of God's law, 'cause if you break one, you're guilty of breaking them all.

There were a group of people in Jesus' day that felt they had the corner on keeping the Law. They were called the Pharisees. They knew the Law backward, forward, inside out and upside down and every which way to Sunday. They prided themselves on being able to do what the Law commanded...outwardly, that is. When Jesus came, He saw these guys and spoke to a few of them and found out what they were really made of. He knew they really weren't keeping the Law, they were just players in a competition amongst themselves. They were showing how "holy" they were and basically implying that everyone that wasn't in their group were scuzbag sinners. One encounter that was quite telling in Luke 18. Let's look in.

18 And a certain ruler questioned Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 19 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 "You know the commandments, 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'" 21 And he said, "All these things I have kept from my youth." 22 And when Jesus heard this, He said to him, "One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess, and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 23 But when he had heard these things, he became very sad; for he was extremely rich.

Hey Jesus, what do I have to DO to inherit eternal life? Jesus told him to keep the Law (knowing that he really couldn't do that). He replies that he's been doing that since he was a kid (outwardly). Then Jesus exposes his heart and tells him to sell all his stuff and come and follow Him. The saying goes that a fool and his money are soon parted, but not so with hard hearted, crooked, conniving Pharisees in their exclusive club. He went away sad, cause he loved his stuff more than he loved God.

This is all background for the Matthew 5 question. That part is what we know as The Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus starts it, it says He saw the crowds following him, so He sat down, His disciples took front row seats and He began to teach. But guess who's also in the crowd? Yup, those Pharisee guys, with the elegant robes and long tassles, 'cause that's how they roll. They want to see this upstart teacher, this Rabbi who wasn't from THEIR group and what He had to say. And say it, He did. He starts all nice with the Beatitudes, but by verse 17, He starts on the Law, just for those guys out there on the fringe of the crowd, trying to blend in. He almost mocks them as He tells the people "unless you have more righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees, you won't make it to heaven." Then He dashes everyone's hopes by ripping their righteousness apart, saying, "You've heard it said..." (external), "but I say to you..." (let's go deeper, let's go into the internal, into your heart). He hits them with example after example from the Law and exposes their intents and motives and gets to verses 27-28. Yeah, we're finally here.

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'; 28 but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." Did Jesus mean that literally? Yes, he did. But it was meant as more than that. I told my friend that it was meant to obliterate my and your illusions of holiness and righteousness. We don't have any. Period. You may think that because you may not commit the big, obvious, outward sins that you're doing pretty good. Guess again. Romans 3 is clear. "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." Isaiah wrote that even our best stuff is like filthy rags to God. Our filthiness is a horrible offense to the perfect God of the universe. Our hearts are deceitful and wicked above all things. Who can know it? Jeremiah wrote.

When I mentioned Romans and Jeremiah, tears came from his eyes and he became downcast. He remarked that so many people tell him how great of a guy he is and he said "but I'm not." I said "you're right. and neither am I." I had to stop him, "Before you lose hope, there's more." I reminded him that any goodness he has inside him comes from God, as a gift. In the midst of the rubble of our lame and puny righteousness, after God gets done destroying it, there is the beauty of His grace. When we understand the magnitude of our wretchedness, then we then understand the magnitude, in the other direction, of the gift we receive from Jesus. Even while we were sinners, Christ came and died for us, Romans 5 tells us. He didn't have to, He wanted to because He wanted to get us back on right terms with God!

The Pharisee asked the wrong question. You can't DO your way to heaven. If you could work for it, God would owe it to you like your boss owes you a paycheck if you work on your job. God doesn't do it that way (see Romans 4 for that one). "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast." Eph 2:8-10 He gives it as a gift, because we have nothing of any worth in ourselves to trade Him for it. Nothing we have is anywhere near the worth of Jesus' blood. We belive our way to heaven. John wrote about it in his first book; "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Most of this was shared in a capsulized form in the 10 minutes we had for break. There's a lot more to it and I hope one day we can sit down and share some more. The verses that were the good news part seemed to encourage him. But the point is, reader, we're all in the same boat. We may think we're ok because we don't cheat, steal, cuss or chew or run with girls that do, but God sees your heart. Has it been washed clean by the blood of Jesus? If it has sometime in the past, what condition is it in today? God offers us a daily cleansing, a spiritual bar of soap, if you will, when John wrote; "If we confess our sins(agree with God that what we did was wrong), He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 Believing in Jesus is the big bath, the shower that gets rid of our nasty past life. It writes our names in the Lamb's Book of Life. It gets us to heaven when our time here is done, but the daily confession, straight to God, is the bar of soap, the daily cleansing that keeps things right between us and God. All of it is a gift to be received, as God offers it freely to all. So reach out. Take it, go ahead. It's yours if you just will. If you have any questions about any of this, please ask! It would be an honor to help you.