Skip to main content

Easier For the Heavens and the Earth to Disappear

             The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. (Luke 16:16-17)

         When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.  Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

            Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”

            Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (Luke 18:23-27)

              But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. (II Peter 3:10)

 

            The passage from Luke 16 suggests a reason why Jesus said that John was the greatest of those born of women but less than those in the kingdom of God. It’s not because he did something exceptional. It was because he was in a position to change the announcement from “the kingdom of God will come” to “the kingdom of God is near.” Like Moses, he got to see that kingdom from just outside of it, but died before the people started to enter it.

            I should probably think about that a little more but as interesting as it is, and as much as we should set that as our goal, the bigger issue is that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for any part of the Law to do so, and it’s “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

          Jesus tells us that “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” We know from Revelation and II Peter 3:10 (above) that the heavens and the earth are going to pass away. What are we to make of these claims of difficulty? And what do we make of them in light of our being saved by grace and not by the Law?

          If there is nothing else here, there is the fact that in spite of what some folks say, we can’t make the world come to an end. If we can’t do that, how can we imagine that we can make the Law pass away? The Law never saved anyone. One doesn’t get into the kingdom by keeping the Law. Neither keeping the Law (and all the additions to it) nor being rich was proof of God’s favor. If you put your faith in either the Law or wealth, things won’t end well. That doesn’t mean the Law is bad, or that being wealthy is evil. Just that we can’t make the Law go away.

          But God can, and He has given us a new and better Covenant. Parts of the new are like the old, so the old isn’t gone, but some parts are not relevant to us. That’s discussed at length in the book of Hebrews. The point is still that we can’t make the Law go away, but God can.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more