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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.

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