NORTHSHORE CHURCH OF CHRIST

Are you a rule-follower? Do you hate it when someone fudges, breaks in line, bends the rules?

The Pharisees hated rule-breaking so much they piled rules on top of rules just to make sure no one broke the rules. The worst sin, for the Pharisee, was rule-breaking, and they came up with lists of over 600 laws which they fastidiously kept before the people. Not only did they keep the laws themselves but they laid their standards on the backs of their brethren. In other words, they believed and taught salvation by rule-keeping.

The Pharisees scoured God's laws to figure out how to stay absolutely spotless.

God commanded priests to wash before they ministered in the tabernacle. To mirror that, the Pharisees required the washing of the hands before eating anything--and the washing of all vessels and utensils--so they wouldn't ingest any unclean thing and thereby defile themselves. That's why they became upset when Jesus' disciples "broke the tradition of the elders" by eating with unwashed hands (Matt. 15.2).

God clearly required the Jews to rest on the Sabbath Day, to cease from their daily labors. They were not allowed to build a fire or gather firewood on the Sabbath. Taking it just a step further, the Pharisees wrote a few extra laws (which logically flowed from God's, right?), which included no picking of grain (harvesting!), no rubbing grain together in the hands (threshing!), and no chewing freshly-picked grain (grinding!). That's why they accused Jesus' disciples of law-breaking when they did all three of these things (Matt. 12.1-2).

Holy men and women of old fasted and prayed to the Lord and gave alms to the poor. The Pharisees then, in order to plumb the depths of righteousness and holiness, gave to the poor (Matt. 6.1-4), prayed (Matt. 6.5-6), and fasted (Matt. 6.16-18) to be seen by men. After all, what good were those holy activities if no one knew how incredibly holy they had become?

Much to their dismay, Jesus spoiled their scene and began to peel the outer layers of their so-called righteousness to reveal empty, dark, and rebellious hearts. Jesus told the Jews their righteousness had to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5.20)! How could one possibly out-righteousness a Pharisee? They were the self-appointed keepers of the Law. They sat in the seat of Moses, claiming to speak for God.

One of the leading Pharisees of Jesus' day was Nicodemus, who approached Jesus by night with great praise, calling Jesus "Rabbi" and affirming his belief that Jesus was from God because of the signs He was performing. Did Jesus welcome Nicodemus with open arms? To the contrary, He answered him rather roughly, questioning the Israelite teacher's basic understanding of spiritual things! Don't you know you must be born again before you can see the kingdom of God? Why don't you understand these things? (John 3)

The major point was this--Nicodemus needed JESUS to reveal the heavenly things. Nicodemus could not approach Jesus as a fellow Rabbi. He couldn't think of Him as simply one sent from God. He would have to accept Jesus as God. He would have to accept his own sinfulness before the Almighty One, no matter how carefully he had kept the Law of Moses all his life, no matter how pure he thought his hands and feet and eyes were, no matter how many righteousness points he felt he had racked up over the years. In truth, unless he looked to CHRIST, Nicodemus stood no closer to God than a tax collector or prostitute!

Can we be so in love with God's LAW that we totally miss HIM? In reality, the Pharisees didn't love the law in the same way they might love a person. They really loved themselves. They loved the idea of showing God how righteous they really were. They loved being more righteous than everyone else around them (Luke 18.9).

Yes, we can fall into this trap--quite easily, in fact. Have I done this myself--thought of myself as a gatekeeper of God's law, an interpreter who really knows what God means about almost everything (admitting a few nooks and crannies I haven't totally figure out yet...)? Is my standing before God based on how well I understand His laws and how well I keep them? Is my standing in His kingdom based on my outstanding performance? Is my purity some great gift I give to God, which places me above my peers and gives me something to boast about?

If we think like that, we sit in the camp of the Pharisees. We love law, not Christ. We love ourselves, not our brethren. Examine the gospels and you'll find the Pharisees persecuted and oppressed their own brethren because of their self-righteousness, and worst of all they rejected and slaughtered their own Messiah.

Brothers and Sisters, don't get me wrong--we should love God's law--but for the right reason. We should love God's law because it's God's law. We should love His commandments because they come from Him and we love to obey Him. We shouldn't love the law apart from Him. We shouldn't look to the law to do for us what only God can.

Here's the point: The law does not and cannot save us! Jesus saves

"Why are you confident in your salvation?"

If you answer, "I am not confident in my salvation," that needs to be remedied! God wants you to be confident. Read 1 John 1.1-4, and see that God wants your joy to be full. You should "know that [you] know Him" (2.3), and you should "know that [you] are in Him" (2.5).

But allow me to address those who are confident in their salvation. Why are you confident?

Are you confident because of your church or your minister?

"I'm a member of the right church, and my preacher preaches the right doctrine."

Let us immediately dismiss this, for no person or body of men can ever save a soul.
 

For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written:

    “As I live, says the LORD,
    Every knee shall bow to Me,
    And every tongue shall confess to God.”

So each of us shall give account of himself to God. (Rom. 14.10-12)

Are you confident because you follow God's laws?

Does your assurance come from having been baptized (in the correct way and for the right reasons)? Does your confidence swell each first day of the week as you assemble with the saints and correctly partake of the Supper of the Lord? "I'm obedient."

Every Bible preacher under both Old and New Covenants preached, "Repent, and bear fruits worthy of repentance." The fruit of a changed heart surely should be seen in us, giving us a level of confidence as to our position with the Lord. However, the fruit is merely a sign of our salvation and not what causes it. The good works we do may reveal that we have been saved, but the works themselves don't save!

"He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy..." (Titus 3.5)

Are you confident because of your inward repentance and faith?

"I know my heart is right."

Please don't depend upon some attitude of your heart, some inherent internal goodness. Can you be saved without faith and repentance? Hardly! But these, like the good works above, only expose the fact that you are saved!

If we are honest, we know we are not worthy because the intents of our heart continue to hold traces of evil motives and weaknesses to temptation. When is faith ever strong enough? When is repentance ever full? We might believe our latest repentance came from complete and utter brokenness, but in a few more days our weaknesses resurface again! O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

From Where Does True Confidence Come?

Our confidence, ultimately, comes from Jesus Christ, the One whose word never falls to the ground, whose promises are never broken. He exists, He lives, and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Our confidence should never be in our seeking but in the One Whom we seek! Christ is our Yes and our Amen.
 

"For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee." (2 Cor. 1.20-22)

Brothers and Sisters, rest confidently in this, that God saves in Christ, not because of works we accomplish but because of THE WORK Christ has done and the work the Holy Spirit continues to do in us.

In Christ do I trust. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Gal. 2.20).

These seem on their face to contradict:

1. I am confident I am wrong on some spiritual matters.
2. I am confident I am in relationship with Jesus Christ.

How can I be confident in my relationship with Jesus, confident of my salvation, and also confident I am wrong in some of my Bible understandings?

Actually, I wonder how someone can be otherwise. Would it not be the height of arrogance to think I have every spiritual matter completely figured out? The humble (and realistic) appreciate their finite knowledge and intelligence. Only God is all-wise and all-knowing. Therefore, there must always be room for growth, for adding new information, for adjusting understanding.

Our confidence must never come from ourselves. When we believe our salvation depends on how right we are about things, our salvation becomes dependent upon ourselves. Hear me now—there is an objective right and a wrong, good and evil; it's just that we, as finite men in corrupt flesh, will never fully discern these things. We grow in discernment, learning every day (Lord willing) to more rightly divide the word of truth.

God gives us grace despite our imperfect knowledge. What abundant grace should we give each other, then? Truthfully, we should be strict with ourselves and gracious with one another, but we often get those reversed.

Paul wrote:
 

To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. (Eph. 3.8-13)

Where did Paul's confidence come from? It came from Jesus Christ! Paul was fully confident in Jesus' power, Jesus' love, Jesus' accomplishment. Paul placed no confidence in his own work.
 

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us... (Titus 3.4-5)

We can put up with brothers and sisters who understand Scripture differently than we do. Sure, we must have no disagreement in a few articles of faith, but the "same mind" Paul wanted the brethren to have (1 Cor. 1.10 and Phil. 2.1-4; 4.2) is not an exact oneness of understanding on everything but a oneness of attitude towards God and towards one other. Paul wanted them to have the same mind Jesus had (see Phil. 2.5ff), which was the mind of humble obedience to God.

When we divide from brothers and sisters because we have a different understanding, we may demonstrate a mind which is not consistent with Christ Jesus! Sometimes we must break fellowship with one another for a season...perhaps for longer...but that does not mean we must view each another as lost in sin. Paul and John Mark broke fellowship for a time and couldn't plow together in the same yoke, but only for a season. Neither was spiritually lost.

Have confidence in Jesus Christ. Hold fast that confidence! And love your brothers and sisters who also hold fast that confidence.