(John 5:39-40)
“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."
When Jesus was asked which of the commandments concerning sin were the most important, He told us that all of the commandments and instructions of God are summed up in this: "love God with all of your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt 22:37-38)
The longer you follow Jesus and the more time you spend in His presence, the more you see how woefully inadequate you are when it comes to keeping these commands.
Jesus makes it clear that the instruction is simple.
God does not require us to memorize a handbook of rules and regulations. He doesn’t require an elaborate and exhaustive pilgrimage to some distant land or engagement in complicated ceremonies in order to please Him.
Our problem is not related to how much we give, how much we sacrifice or how many tears we shed when we fail.
Our problem is that we serve a holy and righteous God, in whom there is no darkness whatsoever
When God instructs us to love with every ounce of our being, it is because He loves with every ounce of His being.
There is a way of searching the scriptures which is displeasing to God.
There is a method of trying to please God which is not only unfruitful but counterproductive.
There is a way of trying to serve God which can actually drive us away from Him, where the good we intend, turns to an evil that is disgusting in His eyes!
When we have a surface level relationship with God, we are content with addressing surface level sins. We try to clean up our speech, we put in some volunteer hours and are faithful to make it to church every sunday.
While all of these acts are good and we should do them, we face a perilous position as Christians when we put our focus on these things.
When we believe that the purpose and intent of Gods instructions concern surface level symptoms of our sinful nature such as the way we speak and the way we spend our Sunday mornings, we end up like those people who "search the scriptures thinking they will find eternal life."
In this scenario, we are not following God, a living and breathing Father... We are following a law.
We open the living and breathing Word and are met with dried ink on paper.
Though we see we do not perceive. Though we listen we do not hear or understand. (Isaiah 6:9)
We end up living like Pharisees, content with ceremonial acts that leave us in a more dangerous position than we were before we believed!
Satan, convincing us that we are living the "Christian life", has us right where he wants us.
Thinking that our works are good, we block the growth and transformation that God wants to accomplish in our life.
We give up a continual, ever-lasting life, and trade it for an appearance of morality amongst those around us.
Jesus says to someone in this state: "Woe to you! Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity."
Nonbelievers see this state of living and they are revolted as if seeing a rotting body!
God sees it and says "All of your righteous acts are as filthy rags" (literally used menstrual garments)
Our problem is not that we serve a complicated system but that we serve a holy God.
God truly loves others.
He proved it when He sent His own Son to suffer and bleed and die for you!
God truly is righteous!
He has never had an impure or evil thought!
God truly is courageous and honest and admirable and mighty and strong and steadfast and full of integrity and morality.
When you go beyond the surface of your symptoms and habits, when you hear AND understand, when you search the scriptures and actually see, you see past the surface and say, like Paul, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"
You don't say "who will deliver me from cursing." or "who will deliver me from laziness on Sunday morning." or "who will deliver me from drinking in excess"
You say "who will deliver me from this dead, rotting body in which there is NOTHING good?!"
Praise God that He is willing to give us the same power that took the dead, rotting body of His own Son and raised it to fullness of life.
Our problem is that we do not understand Hosea 6:6 which says "I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings."
God is not hiding this power from us.
You don't need to make a pilgrimage to a far off land or set up an elaborate alter to find it.
You simply need to come to The Son, exactly where you are, exactly how you are, and He will give it to you.
Come to Him now!
Come to Him again and again!
Come to Him when things are good and when things are bad!
Come to Him when you feel it and when you don't!
Come to Him when you are doing good and when you are doing bad!
In every moment and every situation, come to Him and you will find life.
There is no other way.