I’ve entitled our message this evening “The Standard of Justification.” So, what is the standard by which we are justified before God and made free to enter heaven when we die? There are actually two standards that we’ll discover: One is our standard of righteousness (or right living), which is the Law; and the other is our standard of justification, which is Jesus Christ. The Law can never justify our actions before God; however, there are some people who try to use the Law in just such a way, attempting to keep the Commandments of God in the hope of working their way to heaven; but according to the Bible, the only way to heaven is through faith in Jesus Christ (cf. Ephesians 2:8-9).
In our passage of Scripture we’ll see how Jesus encountered a lawyer who was using the Law to consider himself as good enough to earn eternal life; however, Jesus turned the Law around to its proper function. John R. W. Stott says, “We cannot come to Christ to be justified until we have first been to Moses, to be condemned. But once we have gone to Moses, and acknowledged our sin, guilt, and condemnation, we must not stay there. We must let Moses send us to Christ.”(1) You see, the Law can never be used to demonstrate a man’s goodness and worth, because it will only reveal his guilt; and we’re going to see tonight how Jesus used the Law to show an individual his exceeding sinfulness, and how he could only be justified by grace through faith in Christ alone.
Witnessing by Utilizing the Law (vv. 25-26)
25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? What is your reading of it?”
The first thing we see in this passage is someone asking Jesus how to inherit or receive eternal life (v. 25). First of all, the person asking this question was a lawyer, and we’re going to come to find out that his motives were not at all sincere; but that’s beside the point. For right now, the point is that we’re confronted with a very important question; one for which many people are seeking an answer today: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” or “What must I do to go to heaven when I die?”
In response to this question, many pastors and evangelists would share “The ABC’s of Becoming a Christian”: “A,” admit to God that you’re a sinner and repent; “B,” believe that Jesus is the Son of God; and “C,” confess your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. There’s nothing wrong with the ABC’s, because they share the message of God’s grace – that God, in His rich love and mercy, sent Jesus to die for the sins of all mankind; and that if we’ll admit our sin and repent of it, and confess our faith in Jesus Christ, then we’ll be forgiven of our sin and receive eternal life. This is crucial information for a lost person; but notice that Jesus did not begin with the message of God’s grace. He began with something totally different.
In verse 26, Jesus said to him, “What is written in the Law? What is your reading of it?” He began witnessing to this lawyer by first sharing the Law. To simplify things, the Law is the Ten Commandments; however, in reality, there were actually 613 commandments. Jesus started with the Law, because the gospel does not make full sense until the Law is preached first. Robbie Flockhart, a renowned street preacher of the nineteenth century, said, “You must preach the Law, for the gospel is a silken thread, and you cannot get it into the hearts of men unless you have made a way for it with a sharp needle; the sharp needle of the Law will pull the silken thread of the gospel after it.”(2)
Justification Is Not By the Law (vv. 27-28)
27 So he answered and said, “You shall 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 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
We continue to see how Jesus directed this lawyer to reflect on the Law. The lawyer recited two things he remembered. He spoke about loving God (v. 27), which is derived from the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-5; and then he spoke about loving one’s neighbor as oneself (v. 27), which is derived from Leviticus 19:18. In Matthew chapter 22, Jesus stated about these two precepts of the Law that “on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (cf. 22:37-40). Therefore, the entire Law can be summarized in just two commandments, and keeping these two commandments in the forefront of one’s mind at all times will lead to observing most of the Law; most, but not all. Some call this “The Law of Love.”
In reply to his recitation of these two commandments, Jesus said, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live” (v. 28). So, was Jesus saying that keeping the Law, or observing some portion of the Law, would lead to eternal life? The answer is “No.” Galatians 2:16 tells us, “A man is not justified by the works of the Law but by faith in Jesus Christ.” The Law cannot justify us before God and gain us eternal life. Jesus simply stated, “Do this and you will live” (v. 28), not “Do this and you will live eternally.” Jesus was speaking about life, or about living in the here and now.
You see, in the Old Testament it was inferred that adherence to the Law would lead to prosperous living and a good life. For example, the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:5, says, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Immediately after the Shema, in the very same chapter, we read this: “The LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day” (v. 24). So, keeping the Law lends potential to life – a prosperous and good life in the here and now – but it cannot lead to eternal life.
What about love? Jesus referenced “The Law of Love,” speaking about loving God and others. Is love the answer to our problems? Well, it can help solve our relationship problems, and thereby improve our life here on earth by reducing conflict and strife; but what about improving our life in heaven? Many people take what Jesus said and interpret it to mean that if we simply demonstrate love to others through kind words and acts of service, or even worse, in the name of love accept things that the Bible labels as sin, that God will see us as good people and reward us with eternal life; but keeping “The Law of Love” will not get us to heaven. Galatians 5:4 says, “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by Law; you have fallen from grace.”
We Are Justified Only by Faith (v. 29)
29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
The lawyer had earlier asked Jesus, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (v. 25), and Jesus answered by pointing him to the very Law in which he professed to be an expert. Here, we find the reason why Jesus asked him, “What is written in the Law? What is your reading of it?” (v. 26). Jesus had already discerned the intention of this lawyer’s heart. Verse 29 begins with “he, wanting to justify himself.” Jesus knew that the lawyer had been using the Law to justify his actions, believing that keeping the Law would earn him favor before God; but had he really kept the Law? Had this lawyer been kind enough, loving enough, and even good enough to go to heaven?
What about you? Have you kept the Ten Commandments and are you good enough to go to heaven when you die? We recently looked at three of the Ten Commandments, but tonight let’s look at three more. Has anyone here ever murdered someone? Most of us would reply with a resounding “No,” but based on the Sixth Commandment (Exodus 20:13), Jesus declared, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:21). How many of us have ever been angry with someone?
Has anyone ever taken the Lord’s name in vain? The Third Commandment says, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain” (Exodus 20:7). This is using God’s name in ager expressed as a curse word, and it’s called “blasphemy.” It’s a common occurrence in our society today and seen often on television, but God promises that He will not hold anyone blameless who takes His name in vain. Colossians 3:7-8 says. “The wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience . . . [so] put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, [and] filthy language out of your mouth.”
Let’s do one more, based on the first two Commandments. Have you ever made an idol, or a god to suit yourself? The First and Second Commandments tell us, “You shall have no other gods before Me” and “You shall not make for yourself a carved image” (Exodus 20:3, 4). Most people will say that they’ve never made an idol or a god to suit themselves; but “have you pursued money more than God? Then you have made money an idol. Have you given work more attention than God? Then work is an idol.”(3) So, after looking at just three of the Ten Commandments can anyone, through keeping the Law, be justified and good enough to go to heaven? Well, the answer is “No.”
You see, “this lawyer needed to be humbled by the Law . . . so Jesus gave him its demands. We are commanded to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. If you read the full narrative [in] verses 30-37, you will see that Jesus told him the story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate the spirit of the Law, showing the man how far he had fallen short of its requirements. Jesus pointed this proud man to the Law of God so that he could recognize his [own] personal sin.”(4) Romans 3:20 says, “By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin,” and Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
This man thought he was demonstrating love to his neighbors; his Judean neighbors, that is, or people like himself; but what about the outcasts of society, like the Samaritans? According to Jesus, they too were his neighbors. The lawyer found out really quick that he could never totally fulfill “The Law of Love,” because there would always be someone he would see as unlovable or unworthy of acceptance; perhaps because of their race, or maybe because of some disagreement or fallout in the past. When Jesus emphasized the Law, the lawyer discovered that he had fallen short in one of its precepts; and in James 2:10, we read this: “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”
Jesus used the Law as a standard by which the lawyer could compare himself to see whether he measured up; and of course, he fell short. The Law is our standard of righteousness (or right living), but not our standard of justification. The purpose of the Law is to reveal where we have fallen short of God, but the law cannot make us righteous; it cannot justify us before God. The word “justify” simply means, “Just if I’d never sinned.” To be justified is to appear as blameless before God. We can only be justified before a holy God by having our sins paid for and our slate wiped clean; and our sins were paid for by Jesus’ death on the cross. Galatians 3:24 says, “The Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” – that is, faith in Jesus Christ and His saving work alone.
Time of Reflection
There are many people today trying to justify themselves by the Law, thinking that if they keep certain commandments that they’ll be good enough to go to heaven when they die. Many people believe that the way they’re living is okay and they don’t understand that they’re actually living in sin; therefore, “simply telling someone the good news that Jesus died on the cross for his sins makes no sense to him . . . Your insinuation that he is a sinner, when he doesn’t think he is, will be offensive to him.”(5)
But look at how Jesus shared the gospel. In answering the lawyer’s question of “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus did not begin with the message of God’s love and the cross; He instead began with the Law. Why? Because the Law destroys our self-righteousness and reveals us for what we really are; fallen sinners. In Romans 7:7, Paul said, “I would not have known sin except through the Law,” and in Romans 5:20, he declared, “The Law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” Grace cannot become truly amazing until we first realize that we’re sinners with exceeding and abounding sin in our life.
The Bible tells us in Romans, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The Law requires death for our sins; but the message of God’s grace is that Jesus died for our sins when He hung on the cross. He paid the penalty for our sins, in order to free us from the demand of the Law. Jesus was not only crucified and buried, but He rose again from the dead, showing that He had power over sin and death, and power over the Law; and Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
If you’re here tonight having realized that you truly are a sinner in danger of judgment and hell, then I invite you to come and experience grace and the forgiveness of sins. God, in His rich love and mercy, sent Jesus to die for the sins of all mankind; and if we’ll admit our sin, repent and turn away from sin, and confess our faith in Jesus Christ, then we’ll be forgiven and receive eternal life.
NOTES
(1) Ray Comfort, The Way of the Master (Wheaton Illinois: Tyndale House, 2004), p. 104.
(2) Ibid., p. 52.
(3) Ibid., p. 131.
(4) Ray Comfort, What Did Jesus Do? (Bartlesville, Oklahoma: Genesis Publishing Group, 2005), p. 46.
(5) Ray Comfort, The Way of the Master, pp. 69-70.
