Wednesday, May 22, 2013

To Do Righteousness & Justice is More Acceptable than Sacrifice

"To do righteousness & justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice." (Proverbs 21:3)
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, which is His response to the question put forth to him by the expert in religious law.

The question, simply put, is this: "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

Jesus answers the man with a question, as He wants to demonstrate to His disciples that there is a great difference between knowing the "spirit" of the law, or knowing merely the "letter" of the law (see Paul's differentiation in 2 Cor. 3:1-6).

At first glimpse Jesus' breathtaking response seems to contradict the glorious doctrine affirmed by the totality of Scripture, namely the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

The man answers "correctly", citing the two main headings of the Decalogue (= the Ten Commandments), namely, "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind", and "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27; cited from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18).

Now for those of us who are reformed, we are almost taken aback when we hear this, for the words of Luther and Calvin, and more importantly the apostle Paul, thunder in reply, "No, we are saved [= "inherit eternal life"] by grace alone through faith alone; we are not made right with God by anything we do, including loving God or others!" (Eph. 2:8-9; cf. Gal. 2:16; Rom. 3:21-30, etc.).

What are we to make of this apparent contradiction? Do we inherit eternal life by believing or by loving?

I believe Paul answers this very dilemma in Galatians 5:6, where he tells us that the fulfillment of the law is "faith expressing itself in love" (NIV).

Simply put: love is the expression of faith.

This accords with the teachings of the Reformers, who taught us that though we are saved by faith alone, this faith is a "not alone" faith. That is, faith in [the true] God "works" or "expresses itself in" love.

And since love has more verb-like characteristics than noun-like characteristics, love "does" things.

In Proverbs 21:3, then, loving one's neighbor, the fulfillment of the law (see Romans 13:8), looks like this: "doing what is just and right."

Going back to the parable of the Good Samaritan, the religious priest, likely going to Jerusalem to perform sacrifices for the people, failed to do what was just and right. All the sacrifices he would soon be performing would not be "accepted" or "chosen" (literal translation of the verb in Prov. 21:3) by God.

Similarly, the Levite (NLT = "temple assistant"), likely going up to Jerusalem for temple maintenance - his "sacrifice" - likewise went out of his way to avoid helping the man in need. All his levitical "sacrifice" was not accepted by God, since He "chooses" what is just and right over empty ritualistic "sacrifice."

The Bible teaches repeatedly and emphatically that only the sacrifices of those whose hearts are right are received by the Lord. Repeatedly, Solomon calls such people "the upright". They [literally] live "straight." That is, there is no distinction between the sacred and secular. They don't put on their Sunday face to make "sacrifices" to God, only to return to living selfishly from Monday to Saturday.

How often we in the church live unjustly and unrighteously during the week, only to get religious and offer up our weekly "sacrifice[s]" on Sunday!

Now it is important to note that the LORD is not opposed to sacrifice, lest we get all "social gospel" (i.e. devote ourselves entirely and only to helping others in need and [correspondingly] throw out anything that smacks of "religion"). Let us remember that God inspired and devoted a whole book of the Penteteuch - Leviticus - to this very theme.

And yet God, knowing our propensity to wander off into vain and heartless religion, is faithful to remind us that our 'sacrifices', when offered with dirty hands and/or hearts, are not accepted by Him.

Finally, in Luke 10, one man, likely one who is deemed "irreligious" by the "religious", does what is just and right. This man - a despised Samaritan - goes out of his way to help the man on the brink of death. He cleans his wounds, takes him to an inn, and even pays for any additional recovery expenses. This Samaritan was not going to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice (see John 4:20). And yet Jesus is telling us that he was living out the principle of Proverbs 15:3 more biblically than the insanely religious Jews who could "love" in word and talk, but not in deed or truth (cf. 1 John 3:18).

So this day, this week, this month, when we are confronted with either doing what is right or doing what is religious, let us remember this verse. How often, on the very way to 'serve' God, or even in the very act of 'serving' Him, God puts before us someone in great [almost always spiritual] need. The dilemma for us is this: will we pass over to the other side of the street so we can make our 'sacrifice' to God? Or will we sacrifice to God in doing what is just and right?

May God remind us who have been regenerated - and thus given a new heart with the ability to love others - that "to do justice and righteousness is more acceptable than sacrifice."

Sacrifice is good. But sacrifices offered by hands that spend the week doing what is just and right are His true delight. In fact, the very deeds of justice and righteousness are themselves a sacrifice to Him (cf. Rom. 12:2).

May God give us the grace to not lift up sacrifices with hypocritical hearts and dirty, blood-stained hands (James 3:8).

May we learn from rejected Israel, to whom God spoke, "What to Me is the multitude of your sacrifices? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats." (Isaiah 1:11).

What did Yahweh require of them? "Cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; correct opposition; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." (1:16-17)

Simply put: sacrifice without "righteousness and justice" is worthless. (Bible geeks, read esp. 1 Sam. 15:22)

God grant us a single heart to offer up such sacrifices that are pleasing in His sight!

In Christ, the Sacrifice that sanctifies and motivates His peoples' sacrifices,
And for His glory in His church,
Pastor Ryan

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