Remember the old Star Trek television series? It captured the imagination of an entire generation when it first came out. The crew of the starship USS Enterprise endeavored on a 5-year mission – and as those familiar words explain – “to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
“Go beyond!” That was the mission of the starship Enterprise and its crew. And each episode recounted their experiences as they boldly went forth. The ability to forge ahead into uncharted territory takes courage and foresight. The life of a Christian is of no exception. In fact, our Savior himself is urging us to forge ahead and go beyond. Let us consider these words of Jesus, then, and learn from him, as our Savior urges us to “boldly go where no man has gone before.” So, DARE TO GO BEYOND! 1) Being Letter Perfect and 2) By Clinging to His Grace.
1) Being Letter Perfect.
The Pharisees heard the cry. They heard God say, “Love the Lord with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” They knew the rules but didn’t know God. In their attempt to be letter perfect, they ignored the greater principles that stood behind God’s rules. Jesus once said the Pharisees would strain out a gnat and swallow a camel (Matthew 23:24). Jesus says to us, “Don’t be like them. Your righteousness has to far exceed this sorry display."
When we look at our own lives we see that we’re no different from the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. We, too, know the rules, and we try to be letter perfect. We know God commands worship--so we go to church once a week but ignore the greater principle of making worship a daily lifestyle. We would never consider having an affair--again God has a rule against that--but we don’t even think twice about viewing on-line pornography for the purpose of sexual self-gratification. We would never dare lie under oath in a courtroom, but its alright to stretch the truth when your parents ask why you came home late.
We are good at being letter perfect. And the danger is that we can become content with our outward keeping of God’s commands. We are all good at thinking we deserve God’s love and mercy. We become content with merely going through the motions – thinking that we have earned God’s love by being letter perfect.
What must we do to be letter perfect? Must we attend Sunday school and Bible study, too? Letter-perfect people will try to answer that question with a watch or clock. As long as we “put in our time” and suffer with the rest as the pastor drones on, well, then we’ve done our duty. How much are we supposed to give as an offering? Letter-perfect people will try to answer that question with a dollar amount as if we can somehow put a price on the work of redemption. Yet, sinful hearts will be tempted to put a price tag on Christ’s work. When we do that we will be led to do less than what God requires because we’ll be more concerned about the penny than with the principle. God requires us to be faithful, to give in response to his love in a way which demonstrates that his forgiving mercy is the most important thing to us. Only then will we see beyond. And that means we must go beyond. We must go beyond being letter perfect. We need perfection.
Let us not think we are buying God off, or fulfilling his commands by simply coming to church or attending a Bible study. These are all attitudes of a Pharisee -- a person who is more interested in keeping rules than loving God. Being concerned with only the letter of the law produces people who do less than God requires, for God always requires more than outward obedience. God desires complete devotion to him and his Word. He demands we offer him devoted lives. God requires a willing heart and glad spirit.
The Pharisees were trying to live perfect lives. What kind of demands is Jesus painting for us in the land beyond perfection? Obviously, for us to go beyond perfection, we need to go beyond the letter of the law. We need to go beyond the law through grace. We need to simply hear the word of Christ: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Jesus is referring to the Bible, specifically the Old Testament. From Genesis to Malachi, there is one primary message: all people are sinful and deserve punishment from God, but God promised to send a Savior from sin.
2) By Clinging to His Grace.
Jesus is that promised Savior. He came to fulfill God’s commands because Christ is both the lawgiver and the law-keeper. In his perfect life, Jesus was more than letter-perfect. He was completely devoted to his heavenly Father’s will. He did not slip in thought, word, or deed. And he did this gladly. He was perfect in attitude. Jesus perfectly honored the written Word. He studied it. He taught it. He lived it. Jesus went beyond being letter perfect. He was generous in every way. He gave of his wealth setting aside the glories of heaven, and enduring poverty. He gave of his time. His entire life was devoted to others. He gave his very life for us. By his death, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins against the law of God. He paid for our desire to be letter perfect. He was condemned in our place for our shallowness and lack of love. Through his resurrected life Jesus imparts his righteousness to all who believe in him as their only hope for salvation. He makes us righteous through his imparted righteousness. And that’s the key. It’s grace – undeserved love -- that enables us to go beyond perfection. It is God’s love for us that takes us beyond the outward letter keeping, and into a new land of love-based action.
Only when we cling to God’s grace will we go beyond perfection because only grace gives us heart of Christ. The world high jump record is 2.45 meters (that’s over 8 feet). That’s the greatest height anyone has ever cleared with his or her body. One person has done it once in 1993 – hasn’t done it again. It is the standard by which all great jumps are measured. If a jump doesn’t meet or exceed that height, it falls short of being the best that was ever done.
Christ came into this world, he raised the bar, and he cleared it. He went beyond. He met the requirements of perfection for you and me. Simply by having faith in Jesus, we’ve cleared the bar as well. It is by faith -- by believing in God’s grace and mercy – that we are saved. We can’t clear the high jump of perfection on our own. Only Jesus can do that, and he has done. He did it for us.
We cannot be perfect enough on our own. It’s been said that the closest a person ever comes to perfection is when he fills out a job application. That’s when we get to talk about our ideal selves. A job application gives us the chance to paint a picture of ourselves as the perfect person for hire. In reality, we are not perfect. We can’t pretend to be. It’s not enough to simply wish we were. And we can’t rely on our ideals, as if we are filling out an application to heaven.
Yet, Jesus did go beyond. He applied for the job as Savior and fit the job description perfectly. The Scriptures testify to this. Jesus says himself, “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” Jesus came to fulfill the Word of God. He kept all of God’s commands perfectly and he fulfilled every promise about the Savior contained in the Old Testament.
Jesus is the one who went beyond every command and prophecy God has ever spoken. He has fulfilled all things for us. Now, we simply cling to his grace and know we, too, have gone beyond. We have God’s Word. The Holy Spirit has given his sure Word to us. The Bible reveals the mysteries of God. And it is by faith in Christ that we dare go beyond our own logic or understanding, and simply believe the Bible to be the truth of God.
God’s Word reveals his grace to us. This is where we see how far God has gone beyond. He has the power to go beyond the hand of Satan, the control of sin, or the jaws of death. He has gone beyond in order to rescue us! Cling to that message of grace! Believe you have a Savior whose love is better than life! Cling to him and know that he will take you beyond. Only the grace of our Savior can lead us to dare go beyond our fear and worry. Only the grace of our Savior can inspire us to dare go beyond ourselves and serve him as he has served us. Only the grace of God can move us to dare go beyond thanklessness and to worship him with glad hearts. Only the love of Christ can move us past the fear of greed and to give a generous portion of our own wealth to our King. Only his grace can cause us to go beyond selfishness and give some of our time to the One who rules eternity. Only the love of Jesus can move us to dare go beyond hatred and to forgive someone else regardless of whether they deserve it or not.
To dare go beyond – Jesus did. He went beyond all the odds and fulfilled God’s promises. A Texas college math class once computed the odds of one man fulfilling all the Old Testament prophecies about the Savior. They said if you covered the entire state of Texas with silver dollars to a depth of two feet, threw in one silver dollar painted red, then blindfolded yourself and pulled out the one red dollar on your first try, that equates to the odds Christ fulfilled in his coming. Jesus dared to go beyond. He went beyond being letter perfect, so that you might live beyond with him. One day Jesus will keep his promises and he will come back to take you beyond this life to be with him in heaven. How can we know that Jesus is the Messiah? He’s that one red dollar who dared to go beyond. And he found you and me. Amen.
