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