In the parable of the soils, Jesus talks about the good news being cast far and wide, and in some circumstances it takes root and multiplies. But in other cases it is short lived. The soil is too rocky. The soil is too littered with competing weeds. Before you could grow a crop, the soil had to become ready to receive it.
As the farmer walks in the field, every step compacts the soil. Those who hear the message but have no part in Christ will find their malady deepened. But those who accept the plowing of the soil of their hearts will see their love for Jesus magnified. So while these may be chapters of misery, don’t let them be chapters of hopelessness. The Bible is full of occasions where a prophet was in despair over the impossible situation before him. These accounts are shared with us to remind us that it is God who raises up those who have come to the end of themselves. That’s what this section is all about.
Q & A 3
Q. How do you come to know your misery?
A. The law of God tells me.1
It doesn’t get much simpler than this. The Bible tells us about our plight. If the Bible informs us of something, it is best that we heed what it says. The Bible is the word of God, which is the same title given to Jesus in the book of John, “In the beginning was the word.” But do not take this metaphor too far, for Jesus also said that the scriptures do not accomplish eternal life for anyone, rather they point them to the one who can save, namely Jesus. We ought to believe and obey everything we find in the scriptures, while looking to the only author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus, as we see the misery of our failures.
JOHN 5:39-40 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
Like I’ve said before, we want to own our salvation. We want to earn it and take credit for it. We want to be “like God” to use the phrase the serpent used with Eve in the garden. We cannot point to our adherence to the law for our satisfaction with God. If we could, why would it be necessary for Jesus to bear our sins on the cross?
ROMANS 3:20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Rather, we look to the law as something that is good, but it does not justify us. It opens our eyes to our shortcomings, and it does so in degrees as we mature in Christ. We never graduate beyond our need to discover deeper depths of our lack of unity with our creator. The law continuously reminds us of our need for someone to atone for our lack of fealty to God. This is not a curse so much as it is a blessing. A curse would be evidenced by God condemning us without explanation. Informing us of His standard and pointing us to His anointed one is the blessing.
Q & A 4
Q. What does God’s law require of us?
A. Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22:37-40:
“‘You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your mind.’1
This is the greatest and first commandment.
“And a second is like it:
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’2
“On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets.”
I have spent a few years pondering these very statements. The religious leaders asked Jesus to summarize the law, and in so doing He stated that the law is condensed into love. First love for God, and then love for those made in the image of God. This is our greatest task, but do not misinterpret it. This task is law. The law was given to expose our shortcomings and to drive us into the comforting arms of the savior. The remedy for law is gospel.
Jesus came to die for our sins, namely those times when our love for God and our love for neighbor do not measure up to the expectations that God created us with. Adam and Eve were to raise descendants as they expanded the garden to cover the entire world, all to the glory of God. This would be accomplished through their love for God and their love for neighbor, their offspring. As we know, they did not love God with their entire heart, soul, mind and strength, so it was God who provided a covering for them. The gospel of Jesus is made available only to those who have failed in the two summaries of the law.
Christ came to save sinners. And only sinners. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. If you refuse to acknowledge your shortcoming, you have no part in the solution freely provided to you. Ouch, right?
Q & A 5
Q. Can you live up to all this perfectly?
A. No.1
I have a natural tendency
to hate God and my neighbor.2
1 Rom. 3:9-20, 23; 1 John 1:8, 10
2 Gen. 6:5; Jer. 17:9; Rom. 7:23-24; 8:7; Eph. 2:1-3; Titus 3:3
Try as I might, I continuously fall short. There’s a certain balance that a Christian should seek. Yes, you want to put an end to sin in your life. But at the same time you ought to recognize that every advancement in your sanctification will also reveal recesses in your testimony of further sin that you had overlooked before. That is what it means to be totally depraved. Your life is not as sinful as it could be. But at the same time, every aspect of your being is affected by sin. There is no component of who you are that is untouched.
1 JOHN 1:8-10 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Adam was created without sin, then plunged himself and all of his progeny into sin. But God, as the creator, has no obligation to accept us just as we are. We can point to human frailties with a sense of dismissal, but God looks to any nonconformity to His standard as cosmic treason. And who do we think we are if we decide this to be unfair? What is unfair is that Jesus was given to us that we might look upon His death, burial and resurrection as the satisfaction for our sins. The gospel is scandalous in this way! We don’t deserve it, which is what makes grace… grace.
ROMANS 8:7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
It is worth stating that there is no neutrality in this matter. Neutrality is a myth. There is nobody who is agnostic and is just looking for some sort of information or evidence to be presented to them so that they might turn to Jesus. They are not impartial judges in the matter. Rather, they are hostile to God. It is God who they believe owes them a measure of evidence that they can consider, as the presiding judge in this matter, to declare whether God’s claim on them is legitimate.
Do you hear the arrogance in that statement? Fallen humans demanding that God provide them with anything at all so that they might bestow on Him the rights that He already holds? We are haters of God because we are sinners. And we sin because we are sinners. It is not our sin that makes us hate God. Our hatred for God causes us to sin and our hatred for others made in the image of God cause us to hate our neighbor. Sin does lead to a debased mind, and perhaps another day I will expand upon that.
JAMES 4:4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
I suppose that’s enough misery for one post. We’ll pick up on this topic next time. Just remember that misery is never the ending of the story in the Bible. And it isn’t the primary focus of the Heidelberg Catechism either.
