“I feel like I’ll never be good enough.”

I heard that very honest comment after Sunday’s teaching, and have been thinking about it all week. Where, one might ask, is the good news in knowing that the righteousness God requires is something we can never attain? That my best efforts will never be good enough? Where is the grace in that??? These are good questions, and Matthew 5 is a hard teaching. We are tempted, like Jesus’ original hearers, to ask, “How will I ever measure up if even the religious superstars don’t?” (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check out the podcast)

Short answer: we don’t measure up, which is why grace is really good news.

Longer answer: for me there are at least four reasons why the news is so good.

One – For me, the good news begins with the hardness of the teaching – that the obedience God requires is more than outward, surface-level conformity. It’s hard news, but exceptionally good, that God is not interested in me simply looking good and going through the motions while the whole time my heart is corrupt. I’ve been outwardly good, and it’s lame. There is nothing good about pretending to be something you really aren’t and really don’t want to be. I am exceedingly glad that God wants something better than that for his children. I need a deeper goodness in my life, and am grateful God wants it for me too.

Two – The really great news is that Jesus has offered us the only righteousness that is righteous enough. Only he can live up to a standard of pure, unadulterated goodness. And in his love for us, Jesus dies for us. Our sins are attributed to him, and his perfect righteousness is attributed to us. It is an amazing, undeserved exchange. Our sins are washed away and we are now, in fact, righteous.

Three – The good news gets better! Not only is Jesus’ righteousness credited to our account, but God is in the process of making us like Jesus. Not only are we declared righteous because of Jesus, but God has made us new creations, with new hearts. And as we lean into Jesus, we find that our desires, thoughts, values, etc., change, and our lives line up increasingly with the new heart and less with the old. We become what we now are.

Four – Finally, and we must keep this in mind, God’s love and acceptance of you and I is not conditioned on how well we perform. God’s love is wholly without strings, and was there for us before we were able to do anything good or bad. And his acceptance of us is based wholly on the work of Jesus, not on our win/loss record. As Paul put it, “It is God who saved us and chose us to live a holy life. He did this not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan long before the world began—to show his love and kindness to us through Christ Jesus. And now he has made all of this plain to us by the coming of Christ Jesus, our Savior, who broke the power of death and showed us the way to everlasting life through the Good News. (2 Timothy 1:9-10)

Love doing life with you. Lord bless you friends -

Tim
Mt 6:33

So this Thursday we begin this year’s Theology Lounge. If you haven’t been part of this before, here’s how it works:

Every summer our small groups take a break and instead we do one large-ish group that is focused on more in depth biblical teaching. It’s our own “seminary lite,” and is a great opportunity to learn and interact at a pretty significant level (file this under “loving God with all your mind”). Classes are a good blend of lecture and interaction.

This summer’s topic is Theology 101: Finding Our Place in God's Story. Dave Beck will be teaching the class (which works out as his doctorate is in systematic theology) Thursdays from 7-9pm beginning this Thursday July 8th. See attached for more details, and to join email Dave at tdbeck@verizon.net.

In other news, next week we begin a teaching series on living a Jesus-like life. As believers in Christ, our ultimate goal is to apprentice ourselves to Jesus, and in the process become like him. For the rest of summer we’ll be exploring what that means and how we can live it well.

And for those who are around tonight, we’ll be looking at some of the biblical themes illustrated in the spirituality of LOST. Whether or not you are a fan of the show, I think you’ll appreciate learning through it.

Lord bless you friends!

Tim
Mt 6:33