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Tag: Jesus

  • Who May Judge SIN?

    Who May Judge SIN?

    Continuing in the Gospel of John

    ‘Who made you judge and jury,’ some ask the Christian who applies the Law? “Don’t judge sin,” some even preach deceptively. Many a sinner will quote Jesus to you: “Judge not, that you be not judged. – Matthew 7:1

    We have been following the Good News of the Messiah Jesus told by John, only surviving disciple after all others had died for their witness of Truth, rather than recant the only Way to heaven, Christ Jesus. His Good News is explanation and not necessarily chronological.

    Previously in John 7 at the Jewish Festival of Booths Jesus shouted out an invitation to the crowds:

    “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

    Now we move on to a discussion the following day about authority in the Law. Religious authorities who love to judge sin confront the Messiah with one of their favorites, adultery.

    John 8:

    2 At dawn he went to the temple again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them.

    Let’s not miss that Jesus had been teaching on the Holy Spirit of God the previous day.

    He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

    John 7:39 CSB

    Jesus said this about the Holy Spirit as witness to Himself as the Messiah of the Living God!

    Wouldn’t you want to know more about this Man claiming the very power of the One Lord and God? So the crowds came, along with those who claimed earthly authority over the Law of Moses.

    How do YOU judge sin?

    3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. 4 “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery.

    Now, dear christian in this twenty-first century crowd, you think very little of the seriousness of her first century indiscretion with a man to whom she was not married. In fact, in all likelihood many of you commited a different and similar sin when you first loved the significant other of your own life. We are oh so ready to condemn any man who claims the authority of God over our own less severe way to judge sin.

    5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”

    So does Jesus believe in capital punishment?

    How dare she sleep with another man! After all, she is married.

    6 They asked this to trap him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse him.

    You know the old (not so funny, really) question of the lawyer: “When did you stop beating your wife?” No right answer to the prosecuting question as stated. There’s more to her story than the evidence presented.

    By the way, have you already answered without having had additional evidence presented – facts which perhaps only God may know?

    Is accusation not guilty until proven innocent in these last days?

    So here we look to the Messiah confronted an accusation of adultery in a court having already judged sin of the accused woman.

    Jesus as Judge

    The crowds look on. Religious officials have stated the Law clearly and ask for sentence confirming their judgment of this accused violator. Surly the Messiah who claims that every jot and tiddle of the Law must be fulfilled will not show mercy to this woman who sinned.

    Yet Jesus does not speak a sentence to judge sin clearly accused of this woman.

    7 When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them,

    “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.”

    8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground.

    How does the Messiah of God judge sin?

    Jesus has already witnessed the standard by which the Lord will judge sin.

    “I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

    John 5:30

    “Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.”

    John 7:24

    One reason the Pharisees confront Jesus rather than having arrested Him at that time is continuation from a previous confrontation.

    John 7:50 Nicodemus—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them [the Pharisees] —said to them,

    51 “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”

    Neither does the Lord Jesus judge this woman accused of adultery without full evidence of what she has done. In His judgment Jesus shows mercy.

    God is Light and Life – Sin is Darkness & Death

    Do you, man or woman of flesh, judge sin?

    Jesus stood to render His decision as Judge:

    “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

    John 8:7b KJV

    8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. 9 When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center.

    Justice?

    Was the full justice of the Law served here? Certainly not.

    Did Jesus grant mercy to the woman who sinned against her husband and the Law of the land? Yes, mercy and grace where penalty could have been demanded.

    Would He judge sin at a later time? (Perhaps you had not thought of His temporary grace calling this sinner to repentance.)

    Will Jesus judge sin – adultery, dishonesty, failure to show mercy to the poor or unjustly accused, victims of hateful vengeance?

    • “Put boundaries for the people all around the mountain and say: Be careful that you don’t go up on the mountain or touch its base. Anyone who touches the mountain must be put to death. – Exodus 19:12
    • “Whoever strikes a person so that he dies must be put to death. – Exodus 21:12
    • “If a person schemes and willfully acts against his neighbor to murder him, you must take him from my altar to be put to death. – Exodus 21:14
    • “Whoever strikes his father or his mother must be put to death. – Exodus 21:15
    • “Whoever kidnaps a person must be put to death, whether he sells him or the person is found in his possession. – Exodus 21:16
    • “Whoever curses his father or his mother must be put to death. – Exodus 21:17
    • “Whoever has sexual intercourse with an animal must be put to death. Exodus 22:19

    “Observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people. Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD. Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.

    Exodus 31:14-15

    His Merciful Sentence

    “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” –

    Jesus’ question to accusers who would judge sin – John 8:7 NASB

    “I am the light of the world.

    You judge by human standards. I judge no one. And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

    Jesus’ standard to judge sin – John 8:15-16 CSB

    Is Jesus the Messiah?

    If Jesus was, IS, and will always be the Lord God, the Messiah, then He IS Light itself. Jesus is the very image of Light of the Father God our Creator, sustainer and Judge.

    12 Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

    13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

    14 “Even if I testify about myself,” Jesus replied, “My testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. 15 You judge by human standards…

    Is this not true of every man or woman who must judge another man or woman?

    Therefore what is our standard of temporal justice, prior to the judgment of our souls?

    Leviticus 19: Laws of Holiness – Separation to the LORD

    לֹא־תַעֲשׂ֥וּ עָ֨וֶל֙ בַּמִּשְׁפָּ֔ט לֹא־תִשָּׂ֣א פְנֵי־דָ֔ל וְלֹ֥א תֶהְדַּ֖ר פְּנֵ֣י גָדֹ֑ול בְּצֶ֖דֶק תִּשְׁפֹּ֥ט עֲמִיתֶֽךָ׃

    John does not present every proof of witness that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, but closes his Gospel written after many proofs of the resurrection of Jesus with this:

    But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

    John 20:31 CSB

    Light of Life from beyond the grave

    12 Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

    … “You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”

    20 He spoke these words by the treasury, while teaching in the temple. But no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

    … and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.”

    … You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

    25 “Who are you?” they questioned.

    “Exactly what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them.

    Do you believe the Light or hide in the darkness of death?

    26 “I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him—these things I tell the world.”

    To be continued...
  • The Way is Narrow & FEW find it

    The Way is Narrow & FEW find it

    The road is BROAD that leads to DESTRUCTION.

    Matthew 7:

    You with ears to hear, listen to this message below. 57:35

    Paul Washer – HeartCry Missionary Society – 2006 message to Youth Conference

    13 “Enter through the narrow gate. 
    For the gate is wide 
    and the road broad that leads to destruction, 
    and there are many who go through it. 
    14 How narrow is the gate 
    and difficult the road that leads to life, 
    and few find it.

     15 “Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. 
    16 You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 
    17 In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. 
    18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. 
    19 Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 
    20 So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.

     21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ 
    will enter the kingdom of heaven, 
    but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 
    22 On that day many will say to me, 
    ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, 
    drive out demons in your name, 
    and do many miracles in your name?’ 
    23 Then I will announce to them, 
    ‘I never knew you. 
    Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’

    JESUS IS THE LIFE!

    (not this life you claim on the broad path)

    What must you do?

  • A Priest, a Rabbi & a Stranger …

    A Priest, a Rabbi & a Stranger …

    A 21st Century Parable

    You know the old story (actually, several variations on a theme). Three men (but today you might have to include other designations) encounter the same situation and the third one gets the punch line.

    That’s not quite what happened to me recently as I witnessed the following story (which also includes a woman I don’t mention and a well-dressed black man I include).

    My story’s ending may be unexpected but to the best of my knowledge none of the three strangers were a priest, rabbi or a pastor. You may see some humor in it. Picture these strangers I encountered today.

    Which neighbor of the three might you have been?

    Stranded at our Neighborhood Kroger

    It was no emergency and I was prepared. Yet I was unprepared for what would follow when my car wouldn’t start.

    Yes, I had jumper cables in the trunk so I raised my hood and looked for some help.

    Stranger number one

    A man approached from the grocery store with just a few things in his bag. He headed for his car parked in the row just behind my stranded car with the hood up. I approached him as he entered his car.

    “Could you help me jump my car?”

    He rather reluctantly looked down and away from my glancing appeal from outside his door. “Sorry, but I can’t.”

    Okay, I thought. He’s dressed up and could be in a hurry. Someone else will help. So I walked to a car on the other side of the same row where my car sat helplessly with its hood up.

    Stranger number two

    Another kind-looking man had just entered his car with a soft-knit cross hanging from the mirror. My spirit lifted with hope that here was a brother who would help. So I asked.

    “Could you help me jump my car? I have battery cables.”

    He nodded his head gently saying, “My battery is really low. I don’t think it would help.”

    My heart dropped as I walked back to my car thinking of his cross on the mirror.

    Later I thought, “Gee, I should have asked him if he was a priest or Levite?” (Of course I would never do that and neither would you, but we all think those things.)

    So I called for road service, which could reach me in my local neighborhood grocery parking lot in something like forty minutes. It was then that Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan came to mind. Even most non-believers know that one, but no good Samaritan here today, I thought. No big deal. I’ll just wait.

    Stranger number three

    As I sat in my car with the hood up for a bit more time in thought a man walked up to me and asked if I had help on the way.

    “Yes, I called a tow truck, but all I need is for someone to help jump my car.” He agreed to try and pulled his car up in front of mine.

    After connecting my jumper cables to both cars I got in my car and turned the key. Nothing.

    The man then said, “Let me get in my car and give it a little gas.”

    I reconnected the cables making certain to have the best contact possible then we both got in our cars and I tried again. This time, success!

    I thanked him, disconnected it all, drove home, unloaded groceries from my idling vehicle and drove to a neighborhood repair shop for a new battery.

    Just like one helped by a fictional hero of my youth, ‘I didn’t even ask this man his name.’ He was The ‘Lone Stranger’ helping someone in need.

    God knows the name of each good Samaritan and some praise their witness to a world steeped in self-righteousness, unlike a neighbor loved by the LORD.

    A Not so Funny ending

    Unlike the man in Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan, I was not on a distant highway, hurt and hopeless due to such a severe attack by robbers.

    Ok, you might laugh that I’m not exactly your helpless victim in peril here. And you may laugh just a bit more at the great irony of the man with the cross in the window not helping a brother in Christ. (It’s really kind of typical of our witness, isn’t it?)

    Yes, maybe there’s a lesson here too.

    So in our 21st century story I guess it’s the second guy who gets the punch line and the third guy’s no joke. In fact he’s just the kind of neighbor we all wish we had.

    The Good Samaritan

    Jesus’ parable could have begun with ‘a priest, a rabbi and a pastor’ scenario because in this same way His characters were just as familiar to the parable’s hearers.

    Three characters who could have helped

    A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

    Luke 10:31 CSB

    To our many dear Jewish friends I might mention that the Messiah Jesus was considered a ‘lesser’ Jew from Galilee in the eyes of those proper Judean Jews who leaned on their status and the Law. After all, His parable was told to answer a question from the crowd mostly of Jews.

    This Priest is a Jewish Priest, a very pure and proper sort of guy. (We would not have much difficulty envisioning a Roman Catholic Priest or Orthodox Priest with all the robes, incense and the like.) The Priest of the LORD is a long-forgotten intermediary of Jewish worship.

    In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

    Luke 10:32 CSB

    The Levites were a Priestly class of Jews better than everyone else by their nearness to religious duties. (Of course nobody in charge of ‘christian’ churches would ever feel like that.)

    We get it (and so did the Messiah’s crowds). A second man also could have helped, but didn’t. (The crowd awaits the Rabbi’s punch line.)

    So everyone knows that the next one will help. (Perhaps they will be of a different religious school of thought.)

    A Samaritan Stranger

    Samaria, on the other hand, had a bad rap in Judah due to long-established cultural prejudices.

    Those who followed the best religious practices expected a Jew to be the hero (just like we might expect a ‘good christian’ to do the right thing). Nobody expected a “Samaritan” to be ‘the good guy.’

    But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion… He went over to him… and took care of him… [paid an innkeeper] and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

    Luke 10: excerpt from Jesus’ parable of The Good Samaritan

    Questions from Lawyers

    Those who know a little more about the parable where two ‘religious’ guys (yes, Jews) didn’t help a man in need may know what prompted the Messiah’s parable.

    Jesus was answering another question from a lawyer. (You probably know his question.)

    But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

    Luke 10:29 NASB

    Don’t falsely assume that the Samaritan was not a religious man with good and godly principles (just as Jesus points out that we cannot conclude that everyone who claims obedience to the Law will do what is right).

    Prior to this question, most of us know Jesus confirmed the lawyer’s restated validity of the Law of Moses, which even Samaritans likely followed.

    But then the lawyer went a step further by asking, ‘How does this apply in this contemporary case?’ (Who is my neighbor?)

    A Contemporary Contention

    By now most of us tire of endless questioning by contentious legal minds. They demand the right of their differences.

    Who did right and how should we judge the failures of others?

    They play to the crowds who expect more from religious and political leaders than the ordinary people they represent.

    Careful, though. I tend toward this ‘phariseeism;’ and likely, beloved Christian brother, faithful Jew and misled Muslim, so do you.

    Jesus said, “You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.

    And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.

    John 8:15-16 NKJV

    Ordinary powerless Jews and gentiles loved Jesus’ leading because He has an answer to the endless questioning of others by self-righteous men. It is God’s answer to an all-important question.

    The Questioning before the Law

    So the lawyer in the crowd standing in the spotlight of the crowds surrounding Jesus restates the Law. (Moses had reiterated it so many times.)

    Deuteronomy – Devarim, “the words [of Moses]”.

    וּמָ֨ל יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ אֶת־לְבָבְךָ֖ וְאֶת־לְבַ֣ב זַרְעֶ֑ךָ לְאַהֲבָ֞ה אֶת־יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ לְמַ֥עַן חַיֶּֽיךָ׃
    source:
    30:12  לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִוא לֵאמֹר מִי יַעֲלֶה־לָּנוּ הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ וְנַעֲשֶֽׂנָּה׃

    5:20 ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

    15:2 “And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the LORD's release.

    27:24 ‘Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly.' “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'

    Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

    Leviticus 19:18 KJV

    Do ‘christians’ know the question Jesus answered with this parable?

    ANSWER: The lawyer had asked Jesus this leading question:

    “… what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

    The Good News of Luke 10:

    Recall that Doctor Luke is a gentile disciple of the first century church, who would have been an outsider to ‘God’s chosen.’

    The Parable of the Good Samaritan

    25 Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

    26 “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”

    27 He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”

    28 “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”

    Do you as well have yet another question?

    “Do this and you will live,” the Messiah Jesus tells us.

    What must I do to receive eternal life? …

    This is the question Jesus answered with the parable of The Good Samaritan.

    Do you have a ‘Jesus’ bumper sticker on your car? (Didn’t you just cut me off in traffic? And you were on your cell, right?)

    You don’t really want to know more than what the LORD has commanded us, do you?

    Who’s right?

    So Jesus seems to pick on the Jews (rather than pick the Jews).

    Can a stranger actually inherit eternal life?

    Christians often treat Jews and Muslims who worship the One God as Samaritans, even though some follow custom and righteousness without grieving the Holy Spirit of the LORD.

    We all see and judge those Catholic Crosses and Protestant Jesus symbols. Yet what do these witness to others?

    Can anyone but the Lord God judge a man’s heart or draw one to repentance and eternal life?

    Some who do not fully believe that Jesus IS the only way to eternal life may be destined to see the Light of Truth on the path of righteousness.

    Even some secretive believers must hide their faith in the Living Messiah of the Lord God. Christians traveling the road between this temporary earthly home and the Jerusalem of true worship must go into all the world with Good News (and not false witness).

    Do you have a question for Jesus?

    You can take the LORD at His Word. Or ask a brother or sister truly following Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, “What must I do?”

    Beloved wounded man of flesh, fallen into the pit of sin along the dust of this dry and temporal life in failing flesh, I pray for your restoration to life, a recharging of your soul into the beginning of a true witness for the Messiah Jesus, One with the Father and Holy Spirit of the Most High God.

    Along this busy quick highway of life, before its end what must you do?

    Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”