The Kingdom Perspective

Are you a part of the moral majority? No, I don’t mean the late Jerry Falwell’s defunct political lobby. Rather, do you consider yourself better than the average person?

I recently heard a rather humorous public poll. People were asked: “Are you more loving and gracious than most people?” Over 80% of Americans said they were. Do the math. According to the average American, they are more loving and gracious, than the average American; humorous but telling. Of course, this doesn’t add up. And neither does it add up to God. This poll reveals the fact that we tend to have an inflated view of ourselves. We tend to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

We may fool ourselves and maybe even others, but not God. God examines the heart, and He does so accurately. Moreover, He doesn’t judge on a bell curve, whereby as long as you’re better than the “really bad people,” that is, as long as you’re in the “moral majority,” you’ll pass the final exam. No, God judges righteously, according to the perfect and eternal standard of His character. It is for this reason that Jesus commanded: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). To what then are you comparing yourself, to the “moral majority” or to the faultless Father?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

~ Matthew 5: 46-48

What is your greatest problem? If you could change one thing in your life what would it be? Maybe it’s a bad habit. Maybe it’s your job. Maybe it’s the way your kids behave. Maybe it’s the way your spouse behaves. Or maybe you’d just like to change your spouse period.

Well, what do you think Jesus would say is your greatest problem? Listen to what He says in Matthew 15. “[T]he things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man unclean…” (Matthew 15: 18-20). According to Jesus, what is your greatest problem? Your heart; in other words, that part of your soul that decides what you will love, that part of your soul that is the controlling factor for your entire life. Jesus says that your heart is corrupted, that it is infected with a life-threatening disease, and unless it is cured, it leaves us in a state of toxic impurity before God. This is our greatest problem.

So, how about you? Do you think that if you just change the circumstances of our lives, then you’ll be alright? It has been my experience that we tend to think that we simply need a little outpatient surgery, but Jesus is prescribing a heart transplant. But how can this be done?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“And He was saying,  ’That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.’”

~ Mark 7: 20-23

How about a quick one-question quiz: Which group of people did Jesus have the biggest conflict with? Alright, time’s up. It was the religious leaders of His day. Surprised? You would think that they’d be the first ones to jump on His bandwagon. They made a fundamental mistake regarding the nature of sin, however. They believed that sin was primarily an external issue, something that was not intrinsic to the human heart and that could be easily controlled. In other words, they falsely assumed that if they’d just rearrange the externals of life, relatively petty things of behavior and speech, then they’d be okay.

But Jesus had a radically different agenda. Listen to the prescription He gives them. “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matthew 23: 25-26). Unlike the religious leaders of His day, Jesus identified the chief human problem to be the heart. The human heart is the source of sinful behavior.

So how about you? Do you live as if merely rearranging your external behavior will make you a better person before God or do you realize that it is ultimately a matter of the heart?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, ‘Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him, but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.”

~ Mark 7: 14-15

Sin is a universal condition of the human heart. According to the gospel, there are not good people over here and bad people over there. If this were so, it would be simple to rid the world of evil: Just get rid of those bad people over there. This is not the case, however, for the Bible plainly teaches that sin is a universal problem. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). All are under the power of sin and accountable to God; perhaps nowhere is the condition of the human heart more poignantly stated than in Jeremiah 17:9. Listen: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Russian writer and thinker Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has put it this way: “If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” But dying to self is exactly what Jesus prescribes.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

~ Romans 3:23

What is the end result of not knowing God? 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 says that God “will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” It goes on to say that they “will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.”

Jesus Himself gives you another picture of judgment day relative to whether or not someone knows God personally. He said, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from Me you evil doers’” (Matthew 7: 22-23).

Whether or not you really know God and are known by Him has eternal ramifications. The end result of not knowing God is not knowing Him for all eternity. This means being cut off from the source of all life and happiness forever. Mindboggling, but…

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”

~ 2 Thessalonians 1: 6-9

One of my children’s favorite stories is the classic The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. You will recall that the young Edmund is beguiled by the chief villain, the White Witch. She easily makes him into her willing prisoner by giving him what he wants, Turkish Delight. Now mind you this was no ordinary Turkish Delight. It was a magical Turkish Delight. The more little Edmund ate of it the more he craved it. Instead of satisfying his hunger it multiplied it to the point that nothing else mattered to him. Indeed, Turkish Delight began to mean more to him than anything else. He was even willing to betray his own family for the sake of it.

What an apt illustration of sin! It promises satisfaction and for a time gives the illusion of it. But over time it only increases the hunger to the point where it becomes your master. Without being checked by the grace of God, it leads you on a downward spiral of consumption and addiction. Certainly, this pattern is more obvious in some than others, nonetheless, it is the state of us all. Listen to the words of Jesus: “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who sins is a slave of sin” (John 8:34).

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.’”

~ John 8: 34-36

“The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So says the familiar Bible verse Romans 6:23. It is really quite simple: If we are to be rescued from our condition in sin, it will be because we do not get what we deserve and we do get what we do not deserve. On the one hand, we deserve the justice of God’s judgment because of our sin. On the other hand, we don’t deserve the gift of eternal life in Christ, but we receive it because of God’s grace. Someone has well said, “Justice is getting what you deserve; mercy is not getting what you deserve; and grace is getting what you do not deserve.” You see, grace is God’s unmerited favor. We don’t get it because we have done something to earn it, but simply because God has chosen to give it. Indeed, He gives it in spite of our lack of earning it. He gives it in spite of the fact that we deserve His judgment.

If we are to be rescued from our rebellion against God it will be because God does something that He is not obligated to do. If we really understood the greatness of our offense against God and the righteousness of His judgment against us, we would be shocked at His free grace and mercy in Christ.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord.”

~ Romans 6:23

Many may say that they are tired of hearing preachers talk about how badly off they are in sin and how needy they are for forgiveness. The truth from a biblical perspective is that such a reaction to the notion of sin is evidence of pride on our part. It assumes that we are really not that badly off; it assumes that there must be some native goodness in my soul. It asks, “Can’t we talk about something more positive?”

Well, we can talk about tremendously positive things in Christ, but not without first talking about our misery in sin. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, “The first link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness but my badness; not my merit but my misery; not my riches but my need.” Unless we start there we have no hope of getting to the positive riches of Christ. Christ loves us as poor wretched sinners, and unless we start there the greatness of His love rings somewhat hollow. By first honestly looking at our
condition in sin, we magnify the glory of His grace.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”

~ Romans 5: 6-8