Archives For religion

Where Do Our Problems Come from?

samuel kee —  December 18, 2012 — 2 Comments

12572I’m sure you’ve had the experience of suddenly smelling an ugly stench, only to realize that it was coming from your shoe!  It’s not pleasant to discover that you’ve stepped in something, if you know what I mean.  Peering down at the sole of your shoe and seeing mashed-in bits of dog excrement is no way to be the life of the party.  Especially when you’re in a car and the sticky odor gets trapped in an enclosed area.

Jesus had some profound insights along these lines in his commentary on the human heart.  His diagnoses of the human condition was not just counter intuitive, but revolutionary.  Those days, like ours, religious people believed (and taught) that humans became defiled because of what they did or touched.  They thought the source of evil, in other words, was outside.  This understanding drastically affected their teaching.  They taught that in order to be good enough for God, then you had to keep yourself from things that might get you dirty.  You had to follow certain religious ceremonies; you had to keep away from the defiling things of this world; you had to eat only certain foods; you had to keep away from certain kinds of people; and so forth.  Their approach was to hunker down beneath a religious shield, so that the evil arrows of this world could not penetrate their lives and infect their hearts with the poison of sin.

Our belief today is not much different than the religious leaders of Jesus’ day.  We honestly think that if we just reform the outside, then the inside will follow in due course.  We think that if we had more education, gun control, better communities, better food, increased technology, or a different political party in office, then things would turn out alright.  We think that if we went to church, followed the rules, and tried our best to obey, then life would smell like roses again.

But while we’re constantly striving to reform the outside, Jesus says that it’s the inside that’s deformed.  Listen to these revolutionary words from Jesus:

“It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person…What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.”  (Matthew 15:11, 18).

Arguing against the idea that holiness comes from avoiding certain foods, Jesus identifies the real source of the stink.  The evil of this world does not come from outside of us, but from inside of us.  As Jesus says, it “proceeds from the heart.”  Ouch.  Let the weight of that statement crush your pride right now, as it has crushed mine.  The defilement and evil we see in this world, which infects our lives with lethal poison, is coming from our hearts.  Right now.  It’s not coming from a lack of education, etc., it’s coming from us.

We stepped in something and our souls are dirty.

The stench is coming from us; we’re carrying it around wherever we go.  Our hearts are like a smokestack in a factory, barfing out hideous evils and dissipating them throughout the world.  All of the evil we see in this world, has its origins about twelve inches beneath our brains.  Just to clarify, Jesus adds:

“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” (Matthew 15:19)

Do you recognize any of those evils in our world right now?  Any guesses where they came from?  Where is the smell coming from?  We had better check our souls, for that evil smell is coming from us.

It’s like dressing up a corpse: no matter how much you beautify the outside, it’s still just death wrapped in silk and Mary Kay.  No matter how much we try to solve the world’s problems on the outside, if we don’t solve the problem of our hearts on the inside, then nothing is going to change.  Life will still stink.

In the amazing grace of God, we are given a solution.  Jesus came in order to give us new hearts, not hearts of stone, but living hearts of flesh.  His mission was twofold: to absorb the punishment that we deserve for the evil that we have done; and to cleanse our hearts in order to fit them for heaven.  He wasn’t afraid to offend our sensibilities, either, because until we’re offended, we won’t be able to make this world a better place; in fact, we’ll continue to make it worse.

“God, here’s my heart.  Crush it, cleanse it, and cause it to desire you.”

© Samuel Kee, 2012

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God’s Shopping List

samuel kee —  April 15, 2012 — Leave a comment

You purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people.

My dad rebuilds wrecked cars.  He buys cars from all over the country.  Typically, after purchasing a car, a flatbed truck delivers it to his home.  He gets it into the garage (there are a few different methods…my personal favorite is the “push method”—but that’s another story).  Once in the garage, he rebuilds that which was wrecked.  Though the car would enter the garage totaled, it would leave transformed.

In Revelation 5:9, we read, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”  Jesus was slain for us and he used his blood to purchase us.  He bought us for God, paying the debt for our sins.  Notice that he purchased people from all over the world, too.  He did not just purchase Americans, but Africans and Europeans and Asians and Australians and Indians.  They are all his, by his blood.

What if, let’s say, once my dad purchased the wrecked cars, the truck drivers refused to bring them to my father?  What if they did not follow my dad’s orders to bring him what he purchased?  That would not be good.  My dad deserves the reward of his purchase.  On top of that, the totaled cars, if they could voice their opinion, need to be rebuilt.

In Acts 1:8, Jesus orders his followers, “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalemand in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  The job of Jesus’ followers was to be flatbed truck drivers.  They were to bring the wrecked people to God.  That’s what the Father commanded them to do, after he made his purchase.  To be a witness is to tell the world about the God who was slain for the sins of the world.  It’s to transport totaled people to the Master Mechanic, so that he might fix them.

Our heavenly Father deserves the reward of his purchase.  He deserves to have people from every nation on earth surrounding him in glory.  He loved them enough to give his Son up to death for them.  No one has ever made a purchase like that before.  Nobody has ever loved you or me like that before, either.

God went shopping.  You were on his list.  He paid for your ticket home.

© Samuel Kee

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Two Common Mistakes

samuel kee —  March 19, 2012 — 2 Comments
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Jesus is our life.

There are two common spiritual mistakes when it comes to Jesus.  And both involve where you put Jesus.  By dealing with these two common mistakes, you’ll be able to solve a lot of your own spiritual struggles.

The first mistake happens when we do not make Jesus the goal of our life.  We put him somewhere in the middle of our life’s trajectory, rather than at the end of it.  We fail to recognize him as the only God.  This is not good.  We place something else at the end of our life; we make something/one else the goal of our lives.  This confusion causes us to live for something other than Jesus.  He is not the goal of our life/he is not the God of our life.  What are examples of these other goals?  Comfort, control, significance, pleasures, and possessions.  Think about your own life, your goals and desires.  What are you truly living for?  Are you living for Jesus?  Is he the goal of your life, what you most want to get out of it?

Here’s one way I’ve seen this mistake work out.  Sometimes, well meaning Christians assume that they can continue to sin, because Jesus will just forgive them.  Those who have this deadly mentality are confused.  They are not really living for Jesus.  Instead, they are living for the sin they love to commit and merely using Jesus’ grace as a means to get it.  Jesus becomes the means to another end, not the end, himself.  Jesus is trampled on while in hot pursuit of something else.

Seriously, so many of our problems, issues, and struggles would be solved if we kept Jesus as the goal of our life.  Were I to keep Jesus in his rightful place on the throne of my life, then I would not have the opportunity to place myself on the throne and mess things up.

The second mistake is more subtle, but just as deadly.  In this second mistake, we rightly put Jesus as the goal of our life and make him our purpose; however, we use some other means to get to him.  For instance, we might use religious regulations or laws to get to him.  “If I do _________________ (fill in the blank), then I’ll gain Jesus.”  If I pray, then I will get Jesus.  If I avoid this sin, then I will get Jesus.  If I repent, then I will get Jesus.  If I take communion, then I will get Jesus.  If I read Scripture, then I will get Jesus.  If I serve the poor, then I will get Jesus.  Do you get the idea?  Sure, you’ve made Jesus the goal of your life, but, you are attempting to earn your salvation.  Jesus doesn’t want to be just the goal of your life, he wants to be the means, as well.

My friend Colin Smith gives a helpful illustration.  He says it’s like telling a drowning man “If you swim to shore, I will send you a lifeboat.”  Do you see the trouble?  A drowning man cannot swim to shore.  He does not need a lifeboat when he gets to the shore, he needs the lifeboat as he’s struggling in the water.  In the same way, you do not need Jesus just at the end of your life, but in the middle, when you’re desperate and drowning.  Jesus is our lifeboat.  He is the one who saves us and then carries us to the shore.  We cannot save ourselves by keeping religious rules.  We cannot get to Jesus by our own moral/religious efforts.  We will perish.

Do you see?  Jesus must be both the goal of our life and the means of our life.  He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.  Jesus is our life.  Before trying to solve your problems, come to Jesus.  Before trying to get rid of a bad habit, come to Jesus.  Before trying to repent, come to Jesus.  Then after you go to Jesus, keep going to him.  Don’t run to pleasures, run to Jesus.  Don’t run to more possessions, run to Jesus.  Don’t run to power, run to Jesus.  Don’t run to comfort, run to Jesus.

You will be utterly astounded at what Jesus can do with a person that entrusts herself to him.  He will change you and you will forever, never be the same.

© Samuel Kee, 2012

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John 3:16 Day

samuel kee —  March 16, 2012 — Leave a comment

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God chose to sacrifice his Son Jesus rather than sacrifice the world.

Star Wars fans have May the 4th day.  Pot heads have cannabis day on April 20th.  God might as well have 3-16 day, as in John 3:16, the most famous of the Christian Scriptures.  Here it is: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

This verse gives us some astounding distinctions of the Christian faith.  First, Christianity puts “acceptance” before “works.”  In other world religions and in society in general, it’s the other way around.  We’re swimming in a culture that puts works before acceptance.  If you do the right things, you’ll get the right rewards.  That’s the gist.  Be a good student, get a good grade.  Be a good worker, get good pay.  Be a good athlete, get a starting position.  Have the right looks, get the affirmation.  Have the right friends, get the attention.  Keep the right commandments, get salvation.  That’s how it typically works in both the world and religion.  The way of Jesus, however, thunders onto the scene, flipping our comfortable system on its head.  Jesus puts acceptance before works, smashing our efforts with his grace.  God gives us acceptance first and only then does he tell us how to follow him (works).  Good works are not the requirement for his acceptance; good works are what we can do to draw nearer to the wonderful God who first accepted us.   

Second, God’s stance toward you is love.  He is not angry and unloving toward you.  He is love toward you; he is “good” toward you.  Until you know that God is good toward you, then you won’t approach him.  Let’s say that in the other room there was either a hungry lion or a pot of gold.  Before you opened the door, you would need to know which one it was.  If it was a hungry lion, you would not go in.  But if it were a pot of gold, then you would go in.  God is not a hungry lion, God is a pot of gold.  In Jesus Christ, there’s a storehouse full of treasure, waiting for you.  God is love toward you.  He wants to have a relationship with you.  He wants you to know how deeply he loves you.  He doesn’t want your good works, he wants you.  He doesn’t want to know what you can do for him; he wants you to know what he has done (and can do) for you. 

Third, he defines the word “love” for us.  The best definition of love comes from God, who gave his only Son in order to save his enemies.  Love is sacrifice, in other words.  God does not make the world pay for its sins, he made his Son pay for the world’s sins.  God chose to sacrifice his Son Jesus rather than sacrifice the world. 

Fourth, God’s grace is offensive.  Can you believe that God would let sinners off the hook?  He does.  What if a serial killer, at the end of his life, turned to God in faith and received his gift of salvation.  Would God forgive him?  Yes, though we might not forgive him, God would.  To be frank, that’s offensive to us.  We demand that people pay for their wrongs, but God demanded that his Son Jesus pay for our wrongs.  We can’t fathom loving like God loves.  God so loved the world that he gave his perfect Son for sinners, so that the world might not be destroyed.  Our sense of justice, which is not a bad thing, wants sinners to be destroyed.  Out of love for you, he doesn’t destroy you, but destroys his Son instead.  Jesus got justice; we got grace.  No matter what you do, God will love you; in other words, there is no sin that causes him to walk out the door.

Fifth, our faith glues us to God’s gift of grace.  Our good works don’t give us God’s grace, our faith does.  To “believe,” as the verse says, means to point your life toward God and head his direction.  God becomes the new goal of your life.  You no longer operate according to works-before-acceptance.  Instead, you operate out of acceptance-before-works, and that makes all the difference in the world.  You let God save you and you trust him to do so.  You stop killing yourself to gain acceptance in this world, and trust that the acceptance that God has for you in Jesus is all that you’ll ever need.

To believe is to set your course on “eternal life.”  All trials end in triumph.  All suffering ends in salvation.  Life will not overcome you, but you will overcome death.  The one who believes, walks boldly toward the eternal city of God.

© Samuel Kee, 2012    

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Hands

samuel kee —  January 31, 2012 — 1 Comment

In the grip of Christ, we have no need.

My dad drew up my hand and placed it next to my grandfather’s, who was in the casket.  He then placed his next to mine, so that all three were in a row, saying, “You see, Sammy, where you get your hands?”  My young eyes noticed the similarities between my grandpa’s hands, my dad’s, and my own.  Each had the same wrinkly skin and stubby strength, passed on from generation to generation.  In that moment, as a little boy, I learned more than just genetics; I learned that everyone you love, will leave you, no matter how strong his hands.

Our safety in life is not found in all the trivial and temporary things that can be stripped away in a second.  Our comfort in life is not found in plans, pleasures, power, or people, for all will vanish.  If we place ourselves into their greasy hands, we will slip right out.  These things will always let you down.  People will always let you down, your possessions will always let you down, pleasures will always let you down.  None of these have hands that are fit to hold the human soul.

So what should you give yourself to and where is your solace found?  Recently, some have said that religion is not the answer.  They are quick to point out that Religion will let us down, too—that religion hurts, drops, kills.  It is graspless.

When your friends fail, when your money disappears, when your reputation is tattered, where is your comfort to be found?  Even more, when your life itself refuses to breathe again, what is your comfort in death?  What will hold you then?

It seems that we need hands that have been both to heaven and earth.  We need hands that hold the power of the cosmos and that hold the palm of the child.  We need hands that have thrust the stars into their orbits and that have thrust the heart into the human.  We need hands that have both the power to heal and the tenderness to hold.

The hands of Jesus Christ are the hands for us.  Not only did they spin the world into motion, but also they touched the oozing sores of a leper and dried the tears of a prostitute.  They wakened the universe with power and they writhed in pain from mortal nails.  His hands were both divine and dead, miraculous and mortal.

The holes in his hands are a portal through which heaven and earth touch.  And that is where he holds us.  That is our solace and comfort.  That is where we will never be shaken, the spot from which we will never be let go.  In the grip of Christ, we have no need.  In the grip of Christ, we can let go of our troubles, our idols, and our self-definitions.

What is truly, deeply, our only comfort?  Even the most non-religious person can see that our comfort is not in what we can hold onto, for our grasp is so weak and the natural course of this life rips everything out of our grip.  My solace and comfort come not from what I can hold onto, but from Whom is holding onto me.

So reads the Heidelberg Catechism, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?”  The answer: “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”

You belong to Jesus Christ and he will never let go of you.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.[1]

© Samuel Kee, 2012

[1] Colossians 1:15-17, ESV.

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Scripted

samuel kee —  September 3, 2011 — 2 Comments

We cry out for a savior to pull us out of the script

I’ve been thinking about behavioral scripts a lot lately, probably because I just got the new album by Icon For Hire called Scripted.  Icon For Hire is a metal band from Decatur, IL, who is now on tour with Brian “Head” Welch.  I had the opportunity to meet Icon For Hire—Shawn, Ariel, Josh, and Adam—they are top-notch individuals and incredibly nice.  I’ll get back to Scripted in a minute.

Behavioral psychology (I was a psych major) teaches us that people use hundreds of scripts each day.  Scripts are routines that we memorize when we’re in familiar situations.  When seeing someone in the morning at work, we know exactly what to say and do.  We simply follow the “script.”  When checking out at the grocery store, we follow a script.  When talking with a friend, we follow a script.  When meeting someone new, we follow a script.  We not only follow verbal scripts, but also we apply scripts to people, in order to stereotype them, and easily brush our hands of them.  If we see a certain ethnicity, for example, we follow a script in our interactions with him or her.

By following scripts, we are mentally able to “check-out” and exert the least amount of physical, emotional, and intellectual energy.  In any given situation, a script tells us what kind of behavior to do or expect.  Thus, scripts put distance between people; we no longer engage another, but merely act out a memorized script.

Here are some lyrics from Icon for Hire’s song Scripted:

I know they’ll come with what I’m owed; My enemies belittle me reminding me the penalty of all my deeds despite my plea is death; Don’t let go cause; Don’t wanna be this; Don’t wanna be this; Death is mine I know.

In this song, it’s recognized that humans are bound by scripts.  We know that we’re sinners and we deserve death.  That’s where we’re headed and we cannot get out of the script no matter how hard we try.  So we cry out for a savior to pull us out of the script, “Don’t let go!”  When it comes to spirituality, we need a script-breaker.  We cannot operate on how things have always been, for that would spell tragedy for us.

We follow scripts when it comes to God, if you haven’t figured that out yet.  Even if we aren’t surrounded by enemies, as in the song, but friends, we follow scripts.  Even those in church could need a script-breaker.

I’m thinking of John 2:13-22, that part about the temple worship.  It was just another day in the life of the typical Jewish worshipper.  They were offering sacrifices in the temple.  They were bringing their tithes and their offerings.  They were exchanging their foreign currency for the native stuff.  It was just a typical scripted day in the life of these good religious people.

Then along comes the Script-Breaker, Jesus himself, who storms the temple with a whip and a war cry.  Jesus knows no script.  He rushes the temple and tosses over all of the tables.  He frees the animals and flails his whip like a madman, no doubt piercing skin along the way.  All the while he’s shouting out Bible verses.

The Script-Breaker knew that religious scripts needed to be crushed.  There were things that were getting in the way of our relationship with God, scripts that put a convenient distance between us and the Almighty.

What scripts do you follow with God?  Maybe you don’t believe in God, and that’s your script.  You follow the script of disbelief so you don’t have to deal with God.  Or maybe you have a religious script; you know what routine to follow to keep others happy, hoping that it will keep God happy, too.  Or you might have a prayer script; you say what you need to say to “get through it” and keep God at a distance.  Perhaps you have a cultural-script; you follow what the culture says about God rather than investigating him for yourself.  If the culture says that there are many ways to God or that God is whatever you want him/her/it to be, then that’s what you’ll believe, just so you won’t rock the boat.

Maybe your script has to do with money.  You do whatever is financially reasonable rather than whatever is divinely commanded.

The truth is that Jesus hates our religious scripts, for they put a wall up between us and God.  When a wall is up, we cannot experience his healing and life-saving presence.  We forget that we are loved by God himself, despite who we are.  We are left to face our enemies and death alone.

Icon for Hire is challenging our scripts; we don’t have to follow them and they don’t have to destroy us.  There is a way out—for he broke his way in.

© Samuel Kee, 2011

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Tents and Distractions

samuel kee —  June 28, 2011 — Leave a comment

Now is your time.

I can usually work through distractions pretty well.  You can put me in a cabin full of juiced-up junior high boys and I have no problem sleeping like a baby.  Naturally, I threaten them and often resort to violence, but at some point there’s peace!  When I worked at a nursing home, I used to give Bible studies to a group of about 15 advanced-stage Alzheimer’s residents, who would do just about everything under the sun during my lessons.  You name it and they probably did it: argue, fist fight, strip, vomit (on purpose), yell, spin in circles, etc.  But rarely did these behaviors ever throw me off track.

Nonetheless, there is a time in each person’s life when it’s necessary to get away from the raucus.  Part of being truly human is getting alone with your Maker.  Until you spend intentional time with God, you’ll never figure out your purpose or identity.

After the Israelites did an incredibly foolish thing in the wilderness, God was ready to wipe them out.  Right after the greatest display of power that they’d ever seen, the parting of the Red Sea, they decided to worship a false god.  They made a cow out of gold and called it their “new god.”  Not a good idea.

God was mad, and rightly so.  Moses was mad, but was trying to mediate between his people and their Maker.  It was a mess, to say the least.  There was grumbling in the camp and severe warnings from God.

Moses just needed to get away.

So he took a small tent and went outside of the camp where all the people stayed.  He called it his “tent of meeting.”  In Exodus 33:7, we learn that it was “outside of the camp” and “far” from everyone else.  Moses would go to this quiet place to hear from God.  It even says that Moses spoke “face to face” with God, as friends speak.

In these moments away from the demanding crowd, Moses would gain clarity on what was truly important in life.  He had to go outside of the camp in order to get away from all the distractions, so that he could hear God’s voice over the people’s voice.  Only then could he fulfill his God-given mission.

We each need a tent of meeting, a place to go to hear from God.  Most often, we hear only from the crowd.  Theirs is the loudest voice in our life.  And when you listen to the crowd, you get torn apart, for there are dozens of voices who clamor for your attention, affection, and allegiance.  The crowd will consume you if you don’t know who you are.  By getting away to be with God, you find out not only who he is, but also who you were created to be.

The most human thing you can do is spend time with God.  He is the one who crafted you and has set a purpose on your head.  The crowd doesn’t care about you, it will devour you.

If you’ve never taken a moment to seek God away from all the distractions, now is your time.  You need to find out who you are by discovering whose you are.  God has his fingerprints all over your life.  And if you already know God, but are flagging in your relationship with him, now is your time.  Do whatever it takes to re-discover your Friend.  His is the face that you long for, that you were meant for, that you’re lonely for.  Christ and his cross will not keep your sin from separating you from God.  Your sin is dealt with once and for all and nothing will separate you from the love of Christ.

© Ssmuel Kee, 2011

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Spotlight

samuel kee —  June 27, 2011 — 3 Comments

Make him the most noticeable thing in the room.

After praying together before bed, one of my kids asked me, “What does ‘hallowed be your name’ mean?”  I took one of his stuffed animals and put it on the floor.  Then I turned off the light and asked for a flashlight.  Shinning the light on the stuffed sheep, I said, “Let’s pretend that the sheep is God.  ‘Hallowed be your name’ means to put a spot light on God.”

It’s to draw attention to God and to make him the most noticeable thing in the room.  “Sometimes” I told him, “we like to put the spotlight on other things and make other things the most noticeable in our lives.  We don’t make God our focus.”

The first part of the Lord’s Prayer teaches us to make God the most important thing in our lives: to put the spotlight on him.  When the spotlight is not on God, then we see other things more than we see God.  We end up giving our hearts away to artificial gods, which is stuff in our lives that crush our spirits rather than mend them.

Artificial gods ball us up and kick us to the corner; they don’t care for us.  In fact, they absorb our lives from us.  Instead of helping us, they hurt us.  False gods take every last drop of our lives, for they depend on our meager offerings to keep them going.  They are like leaches, who suck the life blood right from under our skin.

But the true God doesn’t take our life, he gives us his life.  He does not take our blood, but gives us his blood.  He does not depend on our offerings, but he keeps us going with his.  When we shine the light on God, we’re better able to see where our help comes from.

God does not demand that we glorify him because he’s arrogant; rather, God demands that we glorify him so that everyone might know where to run for living water.  Just as a lighthouse wants to be noticed, in the same way does God want to be noticed: to prevent us from crashing our lives on the rocks.

“Our Father, in Heaven, hallowed be your name.”  To pray this is like asking for more air, more water, and more food—for we’re asking for more of God in our lives and less of the things that often take his place.  And nothing can take his place.

© Samuel Kee, 2011

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Misconception

samuel kee —  May 26, 2011 — Leave a comment

God is not going to bash us, but bless us.

There’s a huge misconception out there about God.  I hear this misconception repeated over and over again from the people I talk to.  It’s said in so many ways; but the same misunderstanding is threaded throughout.  What is it?

I have to be better before God accepts me.

That’s the misconception.  It’s handed to us from our families, our culture, and even our religious institutions.  We firmly believe that God is against us until we get our act together.  Then we use this as an excuse for not pursuing God, which is completely understandable: why would you want to turn toward someone who is going to bash you?

God doesn’t want us to be better, but broken.  God doesn’t measure the amount of my righteousness, but the amount of my repentance.  The thing that matters most to God is not how good I am, but how sick and tired of myself I am.

And if you think about it, those two are radically different.

The great churchman and scholar John Calvin said that people will not turn toward God until they understand how beneficent God is toward them.  Until we realize that God is not going to bash us, but bless us, we’ll keep running the other way.

God is good toward you, full of mercy and grace, and ready to embrace you and love you, just how you are.  God knows that we cannot do anything about our sins; that’s why he did something about them.  He bore them on a cross and buried them in a cave.  There’s nothing that stands in the way of us now, the field is open and the Father is ready.  He is ready to receive the one who is broken.

And then he will make you better.  Sanctification flows from justification, but justification never flows from sanctification.

God put his Son Jesus through way too much for us to get this wrong.

© Samuel Kee, 2011

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The Carriage and the Car: Jesus and the Law

samuel kee —  May 19, 2011 — Leave a comment

What is the purpose of the law?

Nothing was as important as one’s interpretation of the law, so believed the religious leaders of Jesus’ day.  They had their interpretation of the law, relying mainly on tradition.  Tradition explicated the law best, so they thought.

Then Jesus arrived with his own illumination of the law, one that flew in the face of their beloved tradition.  Jesus never wanted to do away with the law, but to clarify it and, even more so, to complete it (Matthew 5:17).  His is the best explication of the law, not theirs.  Their teaching led to slavery, bondage, and ruin; but his led to freedom and life.

It’s crucial to understand what Jesus meant when he said, “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.” (Matthew 5:17).  As I said, Jesus came to clarify and to complete.

The word “fulfill” means something like: to bring to its goal, keeping its purpose in mind.  It’s most helpful to use the analogy of a carriage and a car.  A carriage is a “vehicle” used long ago, having four wheels and usually pulled by horses.  If I were to ask, “What is the fulfillment of a carriage?” you could not answer my question without keeping the purpose of the carriage in mind.  The purpose of the carriage is to transport people (or goods) from one place to another.

Thus the fulfillment of the carriage is the car, for the purpose of the carriage and the car is the same: to transport people (or goods) from one place to another.  Even though the car is radically different than the horse-drawn carriage, it is its proper fulfillment.  The car brings the carriage to its goal, keeping its purpose in mind.

Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.  Catching on?

The religious leaders’ explication of the law was not the car, but more of the carriage.  In fact, they just swapped out the horses and inserted humans.  By piling on extra laws via the accepted tradition, they forced people into the harness and expected human righteousness to pull the load of the law.  The human yoke became hard, not easy, and heavy, not light.

But humans, no matter how spiritually strong, cannot pull the load of the law.  This was not the proper fulfillment of the law.

So Jesus comes zooming up in his 425 hp Corvette and declares, “This is the fulfillment of the law!”  Jesus replaces the horses and humans with an engine.  He does not destroy the law, or the carriage, but he fulfills it.  The car is the proper fulfillment of the carriage.

Jesus’ illumination of the law makes us want to stand up and cheer; for he releases humans from the harness of the law.  Even better, he gives them cars, which are auto-mobiles.  These are carriages that drive themselves, because they are powered by an engine.  And the best news of all is that Jesus is the engine; his righteousness is the power that pulls the law.  That’s all the horsepower we’ll ever need.

Humans cannot pull the law by the power of their own righteousness: no matter how hard I try and no matter how well I behave, I will fall short.  The law only keeps me enslaved like and animal in a harness.  When Jesus fulfills the law, he gives us a car that is powered by the gospel, which is the righteousness of Christ given to us.

Jesus is the power that pulls the law for us.  Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but to bring it to its goal, all the while maintaining its purpose.  Again, what is the purpose of the carriage and car?  To transport us from one place to another.  What is the purpose of the law?  To transport us from one place to another: god-forsakenness to God-with-us.  Namely, the purpose of the law and the purpose of Jesus is the same, to get sinners back into a relationship with a holy God.

The religious leaders thought that humans could make that journey, but Jesus knew better: only he could.  That is why he came to fulfill the law with his own power, extended on our behalf, that we might be restored to our Heavenly Father.

No human can pull the weight of the law on his or her own.  It is utterly foolish for us to place that expectation on anyone.  Yet Christians are notorious for “putting the cart before the horse” so to speak.  We condemn non-Christians first, for their behavior, as if somehow they should have the ability that no one else has ever had: to pull the law.  We judge them for their cursing, sexuality, beliefs, and raw behavior.  We criticize their morals and get angry at their actions.

But if we truly believe what Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, we should realize that nobody can pull the law apart from Jesus.  Nobody can do what the law says without an Engine.  This means that rather than judging or getting angry, we need to introduce them to the Car, first.  We need to tell them about Jesus and how he fulfills the desires of our hearts and satisfies the demands of the law.  Once they come to know Jesus, he will come into their lives with his Corvette and begin to pull the law for them, just like he does with us.

Jesus is the engine that pulls us from slavery to freedom, from being lonely to having a Lord.  Jesus brings us back to God by pulling the law with his own righteousness.  Our job is to get into the car and let him drive us where we could never have gone on our own.

© Samuel Kee, 2011

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