Tag: law

The Big Secret about Super Religious People

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

Mark 7:1-13

The Pharisees turned God into a checklist of traditions people could accomplish, making their faith superficial and their hearts far from God.  The Pharisees were the elite religious leaders during the time of Jesus and they looked down their long noses at Jesus and his disciples.  Verse 1 says they had “come from Jerusalem,” indicating to us right away that they were coming from a place of authority and tradition.  The Pharisees, “saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed” (2).  The disciples didn’t do the proper ceremonial washing like they were supposed to do, they didn’t follow the rituals of the Pharisees, but just dug in!

We are also told the Pharisees never ate without washing; in fact, it says they washed not just their hands, but also their cups, pots, copper vessels, and dining couches (4).  That’s quite a list!  So they asked Jesus about his renegade group of followers, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” (5).  They were trying to catch Jesus and his followers doing something wrong, so they could accuse and condemn them.  

I’ve got a big secret to share about overly religious people like the Pharisees, wanna hear it?  We look at all their hundreds of traditions and rituals and think, ‘Wow!  They must really be serious about their faith!  I could never keep all those commandments!’  We tend to think the more rules and regulations there are, the harder the religion is.  (Let me put on all caps for a moment.)  BUT THAT IS COMPLETELY FALSE!  That’s where they are tricking you.  They are not serious about their faith, but they are serious about looking good in front of others.  They want you to think more highly of them; they want you to think they are super-spiritual; they want you to believe their way is the hardest and most godly one, but it’s not!  Allow me to explain…

Have you ever had a huge project to do?  Have you ever had an enormous goal to reach?  As you sat there overwhelmed by it all, what did people encourage you to do?  Take it one step at a time, right?  All the experts agree on this: if you have a huge task, break it down into small, accomplishable chunks.  Take one baby step.  Then take another.  After 15,000 small steps, you’ll eventually arrive.  

The way to accomplish big goals is to break them down into small pieces.

This is exactly what the Pharisees were doing in Jesus’s day.  They knew God had told them to “Be holy” (Leviticus 19:2).  But how could anyone reach this enormous goal?  So the Pharisees got an idea: they would break it down into small, manageable steps.  Wash your hands.  That’s easy enough to do.  Wash your cups.  Again, any idiot can do that.  Clean your couch.  Done, I’ll even clean my pillows.  Scrub your copper vessel.  My what??  Nevermind.

Do you see how it worked?  In order to accomplish the huge goal of “be holy,” the religious leaders broke it down into small steps that anyone could do.  But let me ask you, if your life depended on it (and it does!), which commandment would you rather have to do today: ‘be holy’ or ‘wash your hands before dinner.’  Do you see the difference?  The first is impossible, but the second is doable.  Here’s the principle: the Pharisees made the commandments easier, not harder.  They made the law doable, at least, according to them.

And by refusing to wash their hands before dinner, the disciples were protesting against the artificial religious traditions of the Pharisees.

Jesus called them out on another commandment they were trying to make “more doable” with their religious traditions, which was the fifth commandment, “honor your father and mother” (10).  Since that true commandment from God seemed impossible to accomplish, once again, the Pharisees broke it down into manageable steps.  So they created a new tradition called “Corban” (11).  According to Corban, you simply had to give a few bucks to the religious leaders.  Easy enough, right?  You didn’t have to take care of your parents when they got old, honor them when you were a child, respect their wishes when you were a young adult, and so forth.  According to the Pharisees, you only had to hand over some dough to the religious leaders (not your parents, notice, but to the religious leaders!).  

Jesus denounces their tradition of Corban, letting the Pharisees know it actually did the opposite of honoring your parents (12).  Then he added, “Thus making void the word of God by your traditions that you have handed down” (13).  

But the center of Jesus’s critique of the Pharisees is found in verses 6-7, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”  Jesus called them hypocrites, for they pretended like they were religious, but they were actually doing more harm than good.  Do you know any religious people like this?  I do, and just to be honest, there are times when I act like the Pharisees, too.

What can we learn from this?  First, understand the difference between human religious traditions and God’s Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-17).  The Ten Commandments are from God and we are meant to keep them; the religious traditions are from humans and they are an attempt to make the Ten Commandments doable, easier.

Second, however, no matter how hard we try, nobody can keep the Ten Commandments.  Nobody, except for Jesus, can keep God’s law.  God’s law condemns us all, which is what it’s supposed to do.  We are not supposed to keep God’s law, but it is supposed to keep us in line.  God’s law shows us how sinful we are, so we do not rely on ourselves, but on Christ, to save us.  The Pharisees want us to think we can keep the law, so we rely on them and on ourselves.  

Third, we must put our faith in Jesus, not in ourselves and our efforts to keep the law (or any other religious tradition).  When others point their accusing fingers at us and say, ‘You’re not clean enough’ or ‘You’re not good enough,’ we don’t then have to try to get clean or get good; rather, we have to trust Jesus to save us.  He makes us clean.  The real question is not ‘Am I clean enough,’ but ‘Where is my heart?’  

We all give God quite a bit of lip service.  We also give the world quite a bit of lip service, too.  We pretend to be more than we really are.  But Jesus doesn’t care what you can accomplish, he only cares about your heart.  He doesn’t care if you’re clean, but if you’re truthful and sincere.  

The law will condemn you, but Jesus won’t.  He wants your heart, not your good works, so can you give your heart to him?  He traded his perfect life for your imperfect life by dying on the cross in your place.  

He loves you just as you are, dirty hands and all.  

The Breakdown

  1. What are some religious traditions we get caught up with today?  
  2. What is the purpose of the law?  It’s very important to know the answer. 
  3. In what areas of your life are you giving God lip service?  How can you give him your heart?

Love Contagion

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

Mark 6:53-56

Has anyone yet told you they loved you today?  We thought so.  Maybe you just got done looking at porn, maybe you just got done looking at divorce papers.  Maybe you just got off a double shift, maybe you just got off a bar stool.  Whether you’re beginning your day or wishing it all would end, before you close your eyes, we want you to know we love you.  

It’s crazy to think God would love any of us, if you don’t think it’s crazy, then you’re probably out of touch with yourself.  Most people don’t realize how much God loves them, just as they are.  They think God could love, would love, might possibly love, a certain version of themselves, but that’s where most get it wrong.  God doesn’t love the good you, he loves the awful you. 

Stick that in your Twitter feed and smoke it.

It’s easy to read a passage of the Bible like this and think Jesus just healed a bunch of people.  He didn’t just heal a bunch of people, he loved a bunch of people, who didn’t deserve it, who woke up that morning in the arms of another lover or hungover with a headache or wallowing in their own sickness and self-pity or still wrecked by the words a parent shouted at them two days before.  In their wildest dreams they never thought that day they’d meet a God who loved them.

Do you?

Words are more powerful than sight, just in case you think words are cheap.  They aren’t.  If my son came to me covered in mud and filth, because he wrecked his life, the sight of him wouldn’t decrease my love for him, because I love him from my heart, not from my pupils.  If anything, the more needy he becomes, the more I love him!  When God tells you he loves you, his words aren’t cheap.  He sees you in your desperate state and runs to you with a love song in his heart.

You could be going through hell, but when someone tells you they love you, it fortifies you, doesn’t it?  When they look at you, knowing full well what you are and what you’ve done and yet still say, “I love you,” it makes you stand up just a little taller, because you know you can get through it.

We live in a time when there’s not a whole lot of lovin’ going on.  We’re a far cry from loving the people around us like they did on the shores of Gennesaret.  “And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was” (Mark 6:54-55).  They physically picked up the outcast and marginalized and diseased and carried them to Jesus.  What a beautiful picture of love!

Who can you carry to the love of Jesus today?  And I mean today.  You are surrounded by many people who didn’t get to hear, “I love you” from anyone yet today, or maybe in a long time.  If you recognize Jesus, can you bring someone to his love?  

Maybe it’s someone who is from a different political party.  Maybe it’s someone who’s been sick.  Maybe it’s someone of a different race.  Maybe it’s someone who’s been making your life hard.  Maybe it’s someone you’ve been taking for granted.  Who can you carry to Jesus today?

How?  Tell them you love them.  That’s all you need to do, because if the love of Christ lives in you, then you share it by opening your heart (and mouth) to someone in need.

In his new book Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortland points to a wonderful truth about Jesus Christ.  It helps to understand the Old Testament background of clean and unclean.  All life was divided up into these two categories and if you came into contact with something unclean, then you would become unclean, too.  You would be morally impure, cut off from God and other people.  That’s why this story is so shocking, because people are running around recklessly, touching the unclean sick and bringing them to Jesus, so he can lay his hands on them.  

But instead of furthering the spread of uncleanness, there’s healing!  “And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment.  And as many as touched it were made well.” (Mark 6:56).  You see, Jesus had his own contagion to spread, a love contagion.  Whoever touched him became holy.  Whoever touched him received love.  Whoever touched him received healing.  

“But I can’t heal anyone!” you say.  I disagree, for you can love them!  You can help spread the contagion of love, which will free the oppressed, bring hope to the despairing, and lift the burden of those heavy with life.  

“There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18).  This does NOT mean that fear will kill love; rather, it means love will kill fear.  So you can’t wait for fear to leave before you love someone, you have to love them first.  The only way to eradicate fear is with love, and that puts all of us on the hook, for where else does love come from?  You have the contagion in your heart and it is yours to spread.  If you don’t love those around you, then no one else will.

Our world today is filled with uncertainty and fear.  Perhaps some politicians are using this to their advantage to get you to vote for them.  But politicians do not drive out fear, love does.  

Your love does.

Beloved, the world needs your love.  People on bar stools, people going through a divorce, people struggling with addiction, people wrecked by dysfunction.  

So we implore you, go spread the love contagion today. 

 The Breakdown

  1. What version of you do you think God loves most?  Do you know he loves the true you?
  2. Did you think of anyone you can “carry” to Jesus today?  
  3. How can you spread the love contagion this week?

Job Remix

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Ghost Writer

The book of Job in the Bible is one of the most outstanding works in all literature.  But what if Job lived in the United States today?  And what if Satan’s greatest strategy for attacking our faith were to make us rich, rather than poor?  To give wealth, not take away.  Before you wish you had more money, consider this remix of Job.

Chapter 1

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.  There was born to him no children, but he adopted two sons and one daughter.  He had a flip phone and had never Tweeted.  He possessed a small apartment and a Geo Tracker and he used food stamps, so that this man was among the poorest of all his people of the West. 

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.  The LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?”  Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”  And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”  Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?  Have you not made his life hard for him and his whole house?  You have cursed the work of his hands, and he has barely been able to eke out an existence, so that he lives in desperation, depending on you for even his daily bread.  You shout to him through his pain. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, multiplying the work of his hands, getting him to forget that he is an undeserving sinner, and he will curse you to your face.”  And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand.  Only don’t stretch out your hand to increase his health or abilities.”  So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were starving together, praying for help in their oldest brother’s house, and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The old John Deere tractor was plowing and people from Caterpillar suddenly showed up with new combines and plows and millions of dollars of other farm equipment.  They started giving gifts to anyone they laid eyes on, including all your children, and I alone have escaped without a gift to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were fasting and praying in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, the people from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition showed up and began to build them a mansion.  They were just finishing up the home theater, when I alone managed to escape the blessing to tell you.

Then Job arose and tore his t-shirt and shaved his beard and fell on the ground and worshipped.  And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return.  The LORD took away, and the LORD has given; blessed be the name of the LORD.”

In all this Job did not sin or forget about God.

Chapter 2

Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD.  And the LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?”  Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”  And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?  He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to bless him without reason.”  Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Grace for grace!  All that makes a man miserable he will take for his faith!  But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh with kindness, and he will practically forget you altogether.  Give him education, entertainment, equality, and fast food, and he will forget your grace. Show him how good and naturally talented he is, and he will not depend on you anymore, but take the credit for himself.”  And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only don’t make him a billionaire.”  

So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with health, wealth, and prosperity, from the sole of his foot to the crown on his head (and he did indeed give Job a dazzling crown).  And he took a bottle of oil and shampoo with which to groom himself while he sat in his jacuzzi.  

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity and belief in God?  Forget the Almighty!  It’s obvious you don’t need him anymore!  Lose God and live it up!”  But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak.  Shall we receive evil from God, and shall we not receive good?”  In all this Job did not sin with his lips.  

Chapters 3-37

Job’s three friends show up, take one look at him in all his blessedness, and say he must have done something right to deserve all this grace.  One says it was Job’s talent that provoked the grace; another says it was his godliness; and another says it was his poverty that untethered the Almighty’s mercy. All conclude that he has a ton of talent and that God wants to use him to change the world.

But Job argues with them; he can’t believe that God would actually bless him because he is such a sinner.

So Job challenges God’s graciousness, demanding God to justify himself for giving all this stuff to him.  After all, Job knows he is a poor, miserable sinner who does not deserve grace or any good thing from God. 

Chapters 38-41

Then God shows up and basically says, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”  God first displays his unmerited graciousness to Job in all his creation, before taking Job to the cross of Jesus Christ, where the full fury and majesty of his love for poor, miserable sinners was poured out.  Job is left speechless.   

Chapter 42

Job finally answers the LORD, the LORD rebukes the friends, and the LORD restores Job’s former miseries.

THE END

The Real Meaning of Jesus Walking on Water

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

Mark 6:45-52

The story of Jesus walking on water is not a story to show you he can do miracles, it’s not even a story to show you he’s God, but it’s a story to show you he is undoing the old law and putting the gospel in its place.  

In order to help us see the connection to the law, there are four references to the law of Moses in Mark 6:45-52.  The first reference is in verse 46, “And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.”  Just as Moses went up on a mountain by himself to pray and left the people, so did Jesus.  The second reference is in verse 50, “for they all saw him and were terrified.”  Just as the disciples were terrified of Jesus, the people were terrified of Moses, because the glowing, holy presence of God was upon him when he came down from the mountain.  Next, also in verse 50, Jesus referred to himself by the exact name God used when talking with Moses, “I am.”  When Jesus said, “It is I,” you could also translate it, “I am,” which is the name the Lord told to Moses.  The fourth reference to the Moses story is in verse 52, “for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.”  Just like God hardened the hearts of Pharaoh and others who didn’t believe him, so were the hearts of the disciples hardened.

Why these four references to Moses and the law?  Because God wants you to see he is going to defy the reign and terror of the old law in your life.  He accomplishes this by strutting out on the water in bold defiance of the laws of nature.  When you see Jesus walking on the water, you’re not meant to think, “Cool trick!” but, rather, “Who is this God who defies the law in order to come to me in my helplessness?” 

The story of Jesus walking on the water is meant to show us just as Jesus defies physical laws, so does he defy moral and spiritual laws to be with us. 

The laws of religion have always gone something like this: I must give to God, then he will give to me.  In other words, I must live a good life, make sacrifices, and do certain rituals or behaviors to manipulate God and get him to accept me.  I must give to God in order to make God happy.

But Jesus breaks that law just as much as he breaks the law that says he’ll sink in the water if he steps on it.

In its place, Jesus boldly brings an un-law, which says, God will give to me, even when I don’t deserve it: I do not have to live a good life, because he will live a good life for me; I do not have to make a sacrifice, because he will sacrifice himself for me; I do not have to do a ritual to earn his favor, because he has brought all rituals to an end.  This is the un-law of Jesus who walks on water.

The disciples didn’t understand the new message Jesus was bringing to them, probably because they were so used to the old law, “For they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened” (52).  Do you remember the lesson of the loaves from the last section?  It was this, When you finally realize you’re not enough, that’s when you become more than enough.  That’s the lesson Jesus was trying to teach his disciples when he fed 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread.  But the hearts of the disciples were still hardened by law mentality, which taught them you have to have in order to have: you have to have enough food in order to feed a lot of people; you have to have a sufficient amount of good works in order to make a good impression on God; and you have to have a good moral record in order to be rewarded for a good life. 

But the un-law of Jesus was teaching them to walk on water, not good works.  You do not have to have a solid standing on good works in order to stand before God.  As it turns out, the good news of the gospel teaches we don’t have to have in order to have.  You don’t have to have good works and a perfect life in order to have blessing, honor, righteousness, and peace with God. 

Jesus walking on water was not meant to be proof that he is God, but it’s meant to be proof that we are righteous, no matter what the devil whispers in your ear at 3 A.M., the hour of the wolf.  

It’s not meant to show that Jesus must be all powerful, because only an all powerful person could walk on water; rather, it’s meant to show you that God is doing away with the old law and instituting an un-law in your life, which makes you free from the law. 

I want you to picture Jesus walking on the water to you when you’re at your weariest.  Every time you imagine this, I want you to realize you are clean, forgiven, and righteous before God.  When you finally realize you don’t have enough, that’s when you become more than enough.  When you go to God and say, “I don’t have,” that’s when you’ll receive.  When you come to him with your faults and sins, he’ll give you his grace and love.

Satan will continue to throw the old law in your face to get you to despair of your life and God’s love for you, but let your mind go back to the moment when Jesus did the impossible and walked on the water, defying the law in order to come to your rescue. 

Jesus has to defy the law in order to rescue you from your plight.  He came down from the mountain not to tell you your damned, but to say to you, “Take heart; it is I.  Do not be afraid” (50).

Repeat Jesus’s words to yourself, over and over; see him walking on the water, trampling on your expectations of what you deserve because of your sins, and welcome him into the boat.  Just as Jesus will not sink in the water, you will not sink in your sin.  

One more thing, sometimes we think that when bad things happen to us, it’s because we broke the law and God is punishing us, but this cannot be, because it’s using the logic of the law.  Remember, Jesus defies our law thinking and gives us the un-law of grace.  So when bad things happen to you, don’t think God is punishing you for breaking the law, but instead realize Jesus will do whatever it takes to come to you on your scary voyage.  The law asks the question, “Why?” but Jesus’s new and better question is “What?”  

What will Jesus do?  He will comfort you.  What will Jesus do?  He will die on the cross for all sin.  What will Jesus do?  He will stand by your side though all hell break out against you, and will not leave you.  What will Jesus do?  He will love you more than you love your sin and even when you doubt him.  

Sound impossible?  Well, he can walk on water.  

The Breakdown

  1. In what areas do you keep sinking in sin?
  2. What do you think of the last sentence, “Just as Jesus will not sink in the water, you will not sink in your sin”?  How does this buoy (no pun intended) your faith?
  3. The last verse says, “For they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.”  What’s the connection between Jesus walking on the water and the feeding of the 5,000?  Hint: the connection is NOT that Jesus demonstrates his power as God, think deeper than that!

You Are More Than Enough

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

Mark 6:30-44

You want us to do what?

Feed them.

But they’re like 5,000 people here!

So.

And we’re in the middle of nowhere…

So.

And none of us have jobs, because we left them to follow You, in case You forgot.

And your point is?

It would take a year’s salary to feed all these people, where do You expect us to get that kind of money?

Then what do you have?  Anything?

We don’t have anything.

Are you sure?  Look around you.

It looks like this kid over here has five loaves of bread and a pair of fish, but that’s only enough for a few children, not 5,000 grown men! 

That’ll be more than enough.

Then Jesus told the crowd to sit in groups so the disciples could pass out dinner.  Jesus took the five loaves and two fish and said a blessing over them.  Then he broke the bread and gave the meal to the disciples to set before the people.  Everyone ate and was satisfied, and there were some leftovers, twelve baskets full of bread and fish.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve faced some pretty challenging circumstances in my life.  There have been many times when my back was against the wall, when I ran out of resources, when I didn’t know where my help would come from.  Like the disciples, I looked at what I had and it didn’t look like much.

You’ve probably looked at yourself in the mirror and thought, That doesn’t look like much.  You’ve probably looked at your talents or opportunities and said, That doesn’t look like much.  You’ve probably looked at the enormous task before you and what you had to work with and sighed, That doesn’t look like much.

Do you know the lesson God loves to teach us, over and over again?  It’s the same lesson we’ve been encountering throughout Mark’s gospel in every chapter so far, when you finally realize you’re not enough, that’s when you become more than enough.

By contrast, the Pharisees and other religious leaders thought they were more than enough to begin with, so Jesus had to show them they were not.  Jesus constantly cried out against the religious leaders who trusted in themselves and believed they were better than others and thought they deserved God’s favor. 

But then there were others, the demon-possessed, the prostitutes, the tax-collectors, the sick, the sinful, who looked at themselves and realized they were not enough.  They could never earn God’s favor, they would never be like the Pharisees.  They were broken, unacceptable, and full of failure.  They were poor in spirit and knew they fell short of the glory of God.  In a word, they realized they were sick.

They felt like the spiritual equivalent of a couple of dried fish and five loaves of crusty, moldy bread.

As this passage of Scripture teaches us, God loves to work with nothing.  After all, God created the world out of nothing, so he has done it before!

When you finally realize you’re not enough, that’s when you become more than enough.  God wants us to realize salvation is impossible for us, but possible for him.  So he’ll put us in impossible situations and pin us down by our limitations, just to get us to trust in him. 

Think about it this way, God is constantly looking for a window to come into your life, and whatever you lack IS that window.  Our limitations are a portal through which God enters our circumstances. 

So embrace them!

Embrace your weaknesses and limitations, do not try to hide them or pretend they are not there.  What does it look like to embrace your limitations?  Give yourself to Jesus, because he wants to do four things with you.  As Henri Nouwen pointed out in his book Life of the Beloved, Jesus takes the bread, blesses the bread, breaks the bread, and then gives the bread (Mark 6:41).

Take, bless, break, give.

God takes you to himself, blesses you in Christ, breaks you in life’s circumstances, and then gives you out to the world to fulfill your mission.  We are simply five loaves of bread and a couple of fish, but we are more than enough in the hands of Jesus.

The Breakdown

  1.  What are your limitations right now?  What obstacles are you facing?  Be honest, share from the heart, no matter how scary it might be to admit.
  2. This passage teaches us that God can use limited resources and have leftovers!  What are the limited resources you can place in Jesus’s hands today?  Most of us wait until we have more to offer, but God wants only what we have to offer today. 
  3. How have you been taken by God?  How has God blessed you?  How have you been broken?  How have you been given to the world?  If you don’t know yet, then start at the beginning and ask God to take you for himself.  Make this your prayer.

From Prison to Platter

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

Our Scripture passage today, Mark 6:14-29, tells us what happened to John the Baptist.  King Herod put John in prison because John kept telling Herod he was abusing his power by taking his brother’s wife, Herodias.  One day, during a party, Herodias’s daughter danced so well for King Herod that Herod promised to give her anything she asked.  Upon consulting her mother, the girl asked King Herod for the head of John the Baptist on a platter.  Even though Herod really didn’t want to kill John, because he was quite fond of him, he did anyway, because his guests heard him give an oath.  So John’s head was removed from him and served up on a platter for King Herod and all his guests.  

I want to talk about the law today, and I promise you, it won’t be too boring.  If you can begin to grasp these fundamental truths about the law, you will grow in your understanding of God’s love.

John the Baptist Represents the Law

John the Baptist represents the law.  It was his role to show people their sins, tell them to turn from them, and urge them to flee to Jesus for help.  This is exactly what we see John doing in this passage, “For John had been saying to Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife’” (Mark 6:18).  As a representative of the law, John pointed out sins.

What is NOT the purpose of the Law?

What is the purpose of the Law?  Have you ever thought about that?  Most of us have a dysfunctional relationship with the law, much like an alcoholic has a dysfunctional relationship with booze.  And if this is the case, we’d better pay attention to what this passage of Scripture can teach us about the law.

Let’s answer the question from the negative first or What is NOT the purpose of the law?  Here are four answers from the negative.

First, the purpose of the law is NOT to save you.  

Some people think God expects them to keep his rules, to behave, and if not, he’ll send them to hell.  Likewise, some think if they can keep God’s law, do what is right, then they will be saved.  This is wrong, for the purpose of the law is not to save you.  Even if you kept the law perfectly, which you can’t, it could not save you.  We fall into a trap when we think we just need to be better to merit salvation.      

Second, the purpose of the law is NOT to give you power to fight sin.  

We are surrounded by laws from humans and laws from God, telling us what we should and should not do.  We think that if we can follow the rules, then we’d get the upper hand on sin.  Don’t look at porn.  Don’t eat too much.  Don’t lie.  Don’t complain.  Don’t get drunk.  

While it is true these laws can benefit your life, they will not help you to fight sin.  On the one hand, if you’re an alcoholic, “Don’t drink” is probably the best rule for you, but on the other hand, the rule itself will not help you fight the urge to drink.  Again, the law only can point out sin, but the law cannot give you the power to fight sin.  Why?  As soon as I tell you, “Don’t do that sin,” then you either think one of two things: one, I can do it; or two, I cannot do it.  In other words, you either fall into the state of pride (I can do it) or despair (I cannot do it).  

In both of these conditions (pride or despair), you are powerless and ineffective.  Why?  Because you’re looking to yourself for the answer, either the self who can or the self who can’t.  That’s why the Twelve Steps programs for alcoholics teach us to look to a Higher Power for help, because the answer is not within us.  All sinners are addicted to their sin and keeping the law will not give you the power to get free.   

Third, the purpose of the law is not to help you impress God or win his favor by keeping it.  

We often think God smiles when we manage not to sin and frowns when we fall into sin.  This is wrong.  So long as I am trying to keep the law in effort to win God’s favor or impress him, then God is frowning.  

God frowns at us when we try to live life on our own, apart from his help.  God frowns when we think he will not love us when we sin.  God frowns when we think we’ve lost his favor when we fail to keep the law.  Can you see why?  The law is getting in the way of my relationship with God.  Some of us are more in love with keeping the law (being good, impressing God) than we are in love with God.  Again, the law can only drive us to pride or despair, not to the love of God.  As we’ve seen so far in the book of Mark, because the Pharisees kept the law and thought they were “healthy,” they did not seek the Great Physician Jesus for a remedy.      

Fourth, the purpose of the law is not to improve your life.  

Rather, those who try their hardest to keep the law will only make their lives worse.  I know this sounds counterintuitive, but it’s something we need to come to terms with.  If you’ve ever said to yourself, “I will never do that,” then watch out, because saying such things is how you bind your will and inflame the desire of sin within you (see Romans 7:9).  The presence of the law causes sin to come alive in prideful hearts.      

Consider King Herod.  He first put John the Baptist in prison, which was terrible to do, but it only got worse.  Because Herod refused to listen to John, greater sin came alive in him, for soon he murdered John!  Can you see how Herod’s sin grew worse?  We’re told Herod respected John and didn’t want to harm him, but he ended up killing him!  So what happened?  Wasn’t Herod in control of his own will?  This is the power of the law to inflame our sin nature and get us to become worse, rather than better.  

For us today, if we think we do not need God’s help, thinking we can just live the best lives we can and everything will be fine, then we had better watch out. 

Sin Is Like Mold

Sin is like mold, so long as it’s kept undisturbed in the dark, it’s going to grow and get much worse.  You need to expose sin, shine light on it, and vigorously disturb it.  You need to open yourself up to someone about it, because if you can’t, then it will grow in power.  When it comes to dealing with sin, we cannot rely on ourselves, but we must rely on sources external to ourselves, such as God and other people.  

The law is a mirror that will show us the mold in the basement of our souls, but it does not have the power to improve the condition. 

What IS the Purpose of the Law?

So what is the purpose of the law?  The purpose of the law is to show us our sins.  The purpose of the law is to attack our confidence and trust in ourselves, in order to get us to trust in Jesus.  When the law is attacking you, causing you to throw up your hands in despair, then turn to Jesus.  Go to God.  Tell another person and stop trusting in yourself.  The whole purpose of the law is to expose our sins, not remedy them, and to cause us to run to Christ for help, not whiteknuckle it and keep trying harder.  

We’re not suggesting that you should go on sinning without a care in the world.  We’re not encouraging you to break God’s law and do whatever you wish.  We’re assuming you want help fighting sin.  We are urging you to stop looking to the law for help, for it has been beheaded.  Instead, look outside of yourself for help.  Depend on God in prayer, engage in honest confession to other people, and repent, returning to your loving heavenly Father for rest.

You Don’t Need to Fail Less

Both John the Baptist and Jesus were killed, John was beheaded and Jesus was crucified, but only one of them resurrected from the dead, demonstrating the power of Jesus over the power of the law.  You don’t need a better ability to keep the law, you need Jesus.  You don’t need to fail less, but you need to flee to Jesus more.  

Fail into his arms.

And think about it, it may not be good for you to have “victory” over a particular sin, so long as having victory would keep you from resting in Jesus Christ.  As a parent, I would rather my child come to me with a problem than keep his distance because he doesn’t need me.  To have a relationship with God does not mean to keep rules, but to come to him with our heavy burdens.  

I once had the opportunity to hear Korn founder and band member Brian “Head” Welch share his story.  Speaking of addiction, he struggled a great deal with drugs and alcohol.  In all his struggles, he did not find freedom by cleaning up his life, but by coming to Jesus as he was.  The Bible verse he got tattooed on the right side of his neck is the perfect summary: 

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).  

Keeping the law will not give you rest, only Jesus will.  

The Breakdown

  1. Are you a perfectionist?  How might a perfectionist struggle with this teaching about the law?
  2. Are you NOT a perfectionist?  How might you struggle with this teaching?
  3. How does the law inflame sin in us?  
  4. How are you doing with prayer, honest confession, and repentance?  Grade yourself on a scale of 1 to 10.  Now come up with a way to improve your score by just 1 percent this week.