From Matthew 20:17-19 / Free Grace?

At first glance, these 3 verses seem like an abrupt and inconsistent insertion. From 19:16-20:16, Matthew has recorded an extensive exposition of grace. How salvation is all of grace, and why it needs to be so. But he is not done.

Now, as Jesus sets His face to go up to Jerusalem He deliberately takes the 12 aside to address what will happen there. He will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes. He will be condemned to death. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. He will be mocked. He will be flogged. He will be crucified. And He will rise again on the third day.

What is this all about?

2 things.

1 – While grace is free to the recipient, it is horrifically costly to the Giver. The term “free grace” is a bit of a misnomer. It cost us nothing to receive it. But look at what it cost our Savior to grant it. We must never let go of this reality. Salvation is not a blithe “Ollie, Ollie, Oxen free” on the part of God.

As has been quoted several times before – John Flavel writes: “  It is a special consideration to enhance the love of God in giving Christ, that in giving him he gave the richest jewel in his cabinet; a mercy of the greatest worth, and most inestimable value, Heaven itself is not so valuable and precious as Christ is: He is the better half of heaven; and so the saints account him, Psal. 73:25. “Whom have I in heaven but thee?” Ten thousand thousand worlds, saith one,* as many worlds as angels can number, and then as a new world of angels can multiply, would not all be the bulk of a balance, to weigh Christ’s excellency, love, and sweetness. O what a fair One! what an only One! what an excellent, lovely, ravishing One, is Christ! Put the beauty of ten thousand paradises, like the garden of Eden, into one; put all trees, all flowers, all smells, all colours, all tastes, all joys, all sweetness, all loveliness in one; O what a fair and excellent thing would that be? And yet it should be less to that fair and dearest well-beloved Christ, than one drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths. Christ is heaven’s wonder, and earth’s wonder.

Now, for God to bestow the mercy of mercies, the most precious thing in heaven or earth, upon poor sinners; and, as great, as lovely, as excellent as his Son was, yet not to account him too good to bestow upon us, what manner of love is this!^{1 1} Flavel, John. 1820. The Whole Works of the Reverend John Flavel. Vol. 1. London; Edinburgh; Dublin: W. Baynes and Son; Waugh and Innes; M. Keene.

But not only is He bestowed upon us as Heaven’s treasure – He does so at the expense of the Cross.

Oh what a Savior!

2 – He will also rise again! For free grace to be full, He must not only die in the sinner’s place – He must be raised up again for our justification. Forgiveness of sin is only 1/2 of the equation. It is one thing to be found “not guilty” in a court of law, but quite another to be pronounced righteous. And in the case of Believers, righteous with the very righteousness of Christ Himself.

So it is Paul will write by the Spirit: Phil 3:7-11 “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Dear Christian, God in Christ has not merely forgiven you your sins, but imputed to you the righteousness of His own dear Son, that you may obtain the fullness of the inheritance belonging to the Firstborn.

Grace, upon grace, upon grace, upon grace!

Hallelujah!

From Matthew 20:1-16 / The Justness of Grace

It is important here to disregard the unfortunate chapter break. Jesus is not done the great theme of salvation by grace alone occasioned by the rich man’s inquiry in previous chapter. Because this is of such massive importance, Jesus is going to go on and show how it is grace is not somehow unjust, and, to reveal how the pride of the human heart inherently hates the idea of grace, especially when shown to others. These 16 verses are virtually an exposition of 19:30. How and why it is many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Note first: There can be little doubt the figure here has to do first and foremost with the jealousy of the Jews once they see the Gentiles brought in, and that, without having had to serve under the yoke of the Law.

What grace we Gentile believers receive! Our Jewish brethren have borne the heat of the day. They have labored so much longer. But He has called us near the end of the day, and magnified His grace in granting to us the very same eternal life which He has promised to all who have heard His call and responded. Grace, marvelous grace.

In the private devotions of Lancelot Andrewes, he marvels on God’s “munificence”: God’s “giving the reward of a day for the toil of an hour.” Lancelot Andrewes, The Private Devotions of Dr. Lancelot Andrewes, Part II (trans. John Mason Neale; A New Edition.; Oxford; London: John Henry and James Parker, 1865), 51.

Casting it in the light of Jesus’ words to the repentant thief on the Cross – and promising “Today shall you be with me in Paradise” – he writes: (paraphrase) how it is He – Gives sight to the blind, Looses the bound, Clothes the naked, Raises the fallen, Upholds the falling, Heals the sick, Gathers the dispersed, Feeds the living, Sustains the faint, Quickens the dead, Casts down the proud, Sets up the humble, Redeems the captives, Helping in the time of need. “Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the Gods? Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?”

And what is the chief among His wonders? Salvation for His enemies on the basis of pure grace and grace alone. Wonder of all wonders indeed!

Note second: How anti-grace still lurks in our hearts. For who among us does not recoil at the thought of a Hitler or a Pol Pot sharing the eternal rewards of an Apostle Paul should they have confessed their sins and turned to Christ by faith in their final moments?

Grace is actually repugnant to remnants of our sinful selves. The truth is, we often want justice for those we despise, while all the while claiming grace for ourselves. But Jesus is going to expose our hearts to us, and why it is we ALL need, grace. Because sin still abides within us. Some sense of personal merit invades even the most righteous when viewed against the backdrop of such an illustration. Surely, others who have not walked with Christ for decades are not to receive the same as ourselves?

This is not to negate the reality that there will be varying rewards in the Heavenlies, though we are given precious little insight into what that will look like. Passages like 1 Cor. 3 certainly give us a hint as to the reality of it. But when all is said and done, if we would be champions of the Gospel of grace, we must needs divest ourselves of any thoughts of deserving anything from the hand of God more than what He has promised to all who obey the call to come and follow Him, irrespective of how long or how well they may have done. Sinful legalism still raises its ugly head within us when we begin to compare ourselves with others.

Note third: The crowning concept in all of this is unambiguously placed before us in vs. 15. As the sovereign God over all people and all things – including salvation – He is allowed to do what He chooses with His riches in glory. To bestow, or withhold, to lavish and to mete out as He delights. Period. And, who are we, any of us, no matter what the conditions, to begrudge Him His delight to be generous as He sees fit?

How poorly we truly grasp grace.

Personal note: When I was a young man, I had a job with a large bank. One day, my boss came to me and said she was planning to promote me to an inside job (I was a courier at present), and to give me a substantial raise. One thing though was necessary to bring this change about. She needed to hire a replacement for me. And, I would need to train this replacement before I could take my new station.

Before long, the new hire was brought on board and we had about 2 weeks together to prepare him to take my place. I liked him a lot and thought he would do well.

Near the end of our time together, the new hire, Bruce, remarked to me how much he enjoyed the job, congratulated me on my promotion, and in passing mentioned how he could not believe he was being paid so well for this position. He let slip his salary. And much to my shock, dismay and great resentment, he was contracted to be paid more than I was about to receive given both my promotion and raise. I was seething with anger.

I made my anger at the situation well known to my boss. With my self-justified deep resentment, I refused to take care of an emergency situation over a holiday. She had to go in instead. The next work day I received a written reprimand for my insubordination, while fuming back my justification for having been wronged in the whole affair.

As I recall and Providence would have it, shortly after my pastor preached on this very text. My heart was struck and I was deeply convicted. Had I not gladly contracted with my employer to step into my new role at my new rate of pay? Indeed. And had Bruce contracted with my employer for something other? Indeed. And did not my employer have the right to pay Bruce what she determined for him doing my old job and me doing the new job? Indeed. Was any wrong doe to me? No.

It was then that the power of this passage struck me through such a temporal experience.

The problem was, I had already resigned my job in anger and moved on. The Spirit, in His precious ministrations prodded my heart until months later, I called my old boss and asked to met. She graciously agreed. And there I told her how wrong I had been in my attitude. I shared with her the way the truth of this passage had been unfolded to me by my Pastor, asked her forgiveness, and it became the platform to share the Gospel with her.

I thought little about it all through the years, except when coming again to this passage. That is, until about 10 years later, when through another friend, I found out my former boss and her husband had both since come to Christ, not long before she was diagnosed with cancer and passed away.

And to this day, all I can do is rejoice in grace, grace, marvelous grace. Grace that exceeds, my sin and my guilt. Yonder and Calvary’s mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

From Matthew 19:23-30 / Threading The Needle

An awful lot of ink has been spilled on this passage – along with the portion above. Some have used it to prove that wealth itself is sin. Others, focus on trying to dismiss the “camel through the eye of a needle” imagery.” Perhaps so as to make it seem not easy, but still doable. Both in my opinion miss the chief points. Jesus was indeed appealing to something impossible, not merely difficult. Impossible.

Note the first application: This entire scenario from vs 16 all the way through 30, has nothing to do with the quantity of money or goods one may possess. Monetarily wealthy people are no less salvable than anyone else. Nor are the poor more salvable. The issue, as with the man in the story, focuses on the problem of whatever we find too valuable in our eyes to part with that we might have Christ is what we think makes us “rich”. Whatever, or whoever, we cannot do without – if it in any way hinders our following after Him – that is what will keep us out of Heaven. In the words of the commercial “What (or who) is in your wallet?” come to mind?

In the final analysis, we each have our own currency. We each have those things which are most dear to us. People, things, reputation, ease, self-image, accolades, accomplishments, you name it. We are put to the mettle when we are put in the position of – when push comes to shove – what to me is more valuable than following wholeheartedly after Christ?

Note the second application: Who is the rich person here? The one who thinks he has it all already. And therefore, he can give nothing up. The rich man wanted to do, not to not do.

This man thought he had something he could bring to the table to make him acceptable before God. The wealth he at first brought to the table was his obedience to the Law. And herein surfaces a theological problem which must be carefully examined.

Many, even solid evangelical men throughout history, building off of a skewed understanding of Adam’s circumstance in the Garden, postulate that had Adam continued in obedience, he would have warranted eternal life for himself and his posterity. However, the Scripture itself makes no such intimation. Without more data, the best we can surmise is that he would have remained as he was indefinitely. Why? For the same reason the man in our text errs. Because obedience is simply our duty. It earns us nothing. Even if one were to keep the Mosaic Law perfectly in heart and mind from the day of their conception – they would not have earned a thing. New York State has yet to send me reward checks for never driving over the speed limit. It is only what is expected.

Jesus Himself will clarify this principle in a simile He uses in Luke 17:7-10 – “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”

Given the two considerations above, we are left with the same questions as the Disciples: “Who then can be saved?” And Jesus answers it point blank: “With man this is impossible.”

If one cannot BE as good as God, and one cannot contribute anything above what is only our duty – how is it possible for anyone to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus’ answer? “with God all things are possible.”

Through the Cross. Through faith granted to the soul – faith in the saving, substitutionary atoning sacrifice on Calvary – God does the impossible, and saves us. Grants us an inheritance: “to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:4-9)

Hallelujah!

From Matthew 19:16-22 / The Missing Piece

There is so very much to consider in this well known scene. Mark points out the effusive use of “good teacher” in his Gospel. An approach which would have been considered over the top in his day. Luke condenses the account to embrace and focus on what we have here in vss. 23-30. But what is central to all three accounts is this: How it is Jesus must restate the question in order to get to the real issue at hand. You ask me about WHAT is good. The question is not “what” is good, but “WHOM” is good. You cannot DO something good enough, you must BE good, the way God is – perfectly and in Himself. That is not a question of acts but of nature.

Jesus does not introduce some new, lower standard than has always been the case. The standard of goodness always has been and still is – God Himself. To obtain eternal life by one’s own good works, would require one’s goodness to rise to the level of God’s own. No wonder “with man this is impossible.” v-26

You are not good, so how can you do some good work which will give you eternal life. It is the wrong question. What you need to do is go back to see your inability to keep even the Law, let alone some superlative work which would bestow the Kingdom on you.

John Newton writes: “Yet one thing, we read, was [lacking]. What could this one thing be, which rendered so fair a character of no value? We may collect it from the event. He [lacked] a deep sense of his need of a Saviour. If he had been possessed of this one thing, he would willingly have relinquished all to follow Jesus. But ignorant of the spirituality of the law, he trusted to a defective obedience; and the love of the world prevailing in his heart, he chose rather to part with Christ than with his possessions.”

Note second, how this raises another vital question: So how can I BE good like God, so as to have eternal life? And this is where the Gospel is such good news; only by the imputed righteousness of Christ.

In vs. 19, it is the last of the mere commandments toward men that Jesus is about to press upon him. The Ruler believes he has done all the Law requires. But under examination, it is clear he has not – for he does not love his neighbor as himself, else giving all to his neighbor would only be like giving to himself. Here is where the Law will expose Him. Nor did he love God supremely, or the promise of Heaven, of being eternally with God and in His manifest presence would be worth everything. No, he had NOT done all these from his youth up. Our human pride deludes us so.

So it is in vs. 20, he is about to have his eyes opened – for he has fooled his own heart into thinking he has kept the law in regard to his neighbor. His question betrays two things:

a. His blind sense of his own sin. He imagines himself already righteous to God’s standard.

b. His belief that he can do something over and above the righteousness of God to obligate God to give him eternal life. That eternal life can be bought, and that it is not given as a gift of grace to sinners.

Note third: And slightly different (yet allied) to Newton’s statement – What did he still lack?

And the answer is – Faith. You will not believe that following me is worth the loss of everything else, even when I, the Son of Man, tell it to you face to face.

In 21, Jesus reveals his heart to him. Really, if you think you’ve actually done these, then let me show you what that would really look like, for you cannot truly love your neighbor as yourself until you’ve done everything you can to follow me in abandon and to pursue the kingdom to come in faith. You think you’ve kept the second portion of the Law as concerns love to neighbor, how about the first – love to God supremely? Do you recognize me as God, and that to love me supremely, above all you have is also required? Apparently not.

But if you really want to be perfect, you will have to have the heart and mind of God. He cares nothing for anything the World views as precious. His heart is one which will give all to those who have nothing.

Note fourth: The baseline argument is – Do what I have done. I have left all of Heaven. I have come in the likeness of sinful man. I have made myself poor so that others may be rich. I have forsaken all, that I may follow the Father’s will – trusting that what is before me, is worth it all. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” 2 Cor. 8:9

Note fifth: Sadly, tragically, in 22, the man goes away – apparently befuddled, and clearly unable to fulfill the law he already claimed to have kept from his youth up. He wanted God on his own terms – not on God’s. He would do ANYTHING, except believe he was a sinner in need of grace.

So it is with all who will not come needy, but who come supposing themselves to be rich toward God in their own righteousness (24). Until they give that up, it is impossible for them to be saved (26).

Note lastly: How Jesus confronts this man, is not to be universally applied as though none can follow Christ if they have earthly wealth. It is only if such wealth keeps them from trusting in Him alone for right standing with God.

In the Jewish mindset of the day, this made no sense. As the Old Covenant often placed material prosperity as a sign that one was “blessed” by God, favored, how can it be that one who has all the signs of God’s favor can still be far from eternal life? In this, many erred having believed that God’s outward covenantal blessings were ends in themselves, and not types and shadows of the real wealth of truly knowing and walking with God. Having made the Mosaic covenant an end in itself, they missed the reality of what it was pointing to.

Many even now, apart from the the Sinaiatic covenant, assume that earthly possessions and comforts means God is pleased with them as they are. They will even say “I am blessed.” And indeed they are. But being outwardly blessed is not the same as being in right standing with God. It only makes them responsible to steward those blessings for Christ’s Kingdom.

or, if in keeping their wealth, they must give themselves over to sin in protecting, growing and using their wealth. Abraham was rich. Job was rich. Solomon was rich. This state does not automatically condemn a man. But it is a state with its own very real and very treacherous pitfalls. Hence the prayer of Prov. 30:8 & 9 – “give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.” Each state has its attendant snares.