Whatever you did to the least of these, you did also to me

In last week’s blog we began looking at the steps of salvation and the reasons why the Gospel is the Good News we are called to share. This week, we review the Biblical context for why we need a Savior and why our response to grace is an active doing.

 

In Christianity, the definition of salvation is “to be delivered from sin and its consequences”. We also know from the scriptures that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

 

Sin is anything we do outside of God’s Law:  It separates us from God, and it always requires a sacrifice. Sin is sin — ALL sin is the same — and all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

 

The reason we need to be saved from our sin is that God is so perfect, righteous and holy that there is nothing we could ever do to meet the standard of God’s Law. In the Old Testament, burnt offerings were required to absolve the Israelites of their sins. Only priests could conduct the sacrificial rituals in the tent of meeting- in special garments (Leviticus 8:5-9). Animals were sacrificed as sin and guilt offerings. The animal’s blood was splashed around the altar and poured out at the base of the altar, before the offering (usually a ram, sheep, goat or dove) was burned at the altar (Leviticus 4:27-31).

 

The rituals in Leviticus establish that, for sin to be atoned, something of value must die or be given up in our place for each sin. The Israelites were cleansed of sin by the blood of their burnt offerings. This is the Old Covenant.

 

Now, could one sacrifice cover all sin? Enter Jesus. Jesus is God’s perfect son given up for all of our sins so that we could spend eternity in heaven with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (John 3:16). Jesus is referred to as the sacrificial lamb symbolically (John 1:29) to represent the animal sacrifices that were required in the Old Covenant and are no longer required in the New Covenant. Once we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, we are saved and covered by the blood of Jesus, the blood of the New Covenant (Luke 22:20).

 

Before Jesus, the Israelites could only access God through a priest; however, when Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple was split (Matthew 27:51), giving us direct access to the Father through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence and clear of sin. Christians can live under a banner of peace in Christ in the knowledge that we are truly saved by his blood. Yet, God does call us to more.

 

Let’s build from the WHY behind salvation and take a look at some verses that illustrate what a righteous life within God’s Law looks like — because Jesus says that not one part of the Law will pass away until heaven and earth pass away (Matthew 5:18). While we are liberated from the Law through Jesus’ sacrifice, we are still held accountable to the Law and to the Gospel of love. 

 

In Matthew 7:21-23, we see that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will be saved. To some who prophesy in Jesus name and cast out demons in his name, and do many mighty works in his name, Jesus will say, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

 

How could Jesus say “I never knew you” to those who follow him? We read in Matthew 25:41-46, in reference to the workers of lawlessness, that they didn’t give Jesus something to drink when he was thirsty or to eat when he was hungry. To ignore the Law is lawlessness, and in its most distilled form, the Law is to love God with everything that we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

 

In both Matthew 7:21-23 and 25:41-46, Jesus is illustrating some core principles for salvation:

Lawlessness is living in defiance of the two greatest commandments above, and at the end of our lives, these verses in Matthew clearly state that we will be held accountable to the Gospel of love and for our actions and inactions. We can live our lives doing many mighty works, but the works must be done from a right heart posture. Our many mighty works without faith, without truly loving and knowing God intimately, fall upon dry ground. Actions mean nothing without love (James 2:21-24, 1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

 

In the same way, our faith without works is dead (James 2:14-17), because the Gospel is an active doing. The Gospel is Jesus’ open arms and hands and feet working on earth today — to help the unloved, unseen, desperate, sick, hungry, thirsty, lost, and broken. To care for the least of these.

 

Today, it is so easy to overlook the poverty that is all around us. Christians can fall into the pitfall of blaming poverty on the person when it’s the system or the trauma or the medical issue that actually caused the poverty. Whereas some may feel it is acceptable to turn a blind eye, this is simply not Biblical. Some of our neighbors, just miles from our homes, are stuck in generational and systemic cycles of poverty and suffer greatly. It doesn’t have to be this way, and we are called to more. Jesus looks for us to care for our neighbors as we care for our own selves, just as he was first gracious to us.