But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:34-40
This wasn’t the first time Jesus battled the great legal minds of his day, but it would be the last. In the week leading up to his crucifixion, the Pharisees and Sadducees had asked Jesus one of the most important questions of all – “what is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Ironically, these Pharisees who had studied God’s law their entire lives were now conversing with the great Lawgiver himself. They didn’t realize that God in the flesh was standing directly in front of them. Who could better interpret God’s law than the very God who had originally composed them and had etched them on stone with his finger (Exodus 31:18)? And who was better qualified to answer their question than the only human being that perfectly kept God’s law from cradle to grave?
But they weren’t interested in learning from the Teacher. They wanted to stump Jesus, and find some way to publicly discredit him, to showcase their intellectual and religious prowess. They believed that they had arrived at righteousness and godliness. And by all outward appearances, they looked the part. With their tight web of rituals and religious rhetoric, they had convinced the people of Israel that they had mastered God’s law. But in reality, they were peddling their own brand of man-made religion. As Jesus said, they had long rejected the commandment of God in order to establish their own tradition (Mark 7:9).
What these religious zealous didn’t realize was that they were no different than the Gentile heathens that they detested. These religious lawyers were thoroughly incompetent law-abiders. And that’s what Jesus was targeting in his answer. Keeping the law meant thoroughly loving God – you must love the Lord God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind – always.
And this is impossible both for the religious and the irreligious. Why? Because by nature, every person’s heart is corrupted by sin. There is no way that we can ignite your hearts to love God. The truth is, left to ourselves we don’t want to love God. Neither can we deflect God’s wrath toward our sin and woo God into loving us. The truth is, we don’t want God to love us.
Instead, we are content to love ourselves and love our sin. And the system of rules that we adopt is simply a way to justify ourselves and create an arbitrary standard to judge others by. Maybe that standard even comes from the Bible. But it’s not because we love God and are committed to glorifying Him. It’s so that at the end of the day we can feel like a “good person.” All the while, we reject the one, true, Triune God in favor of a false god of our imagination. A god (or many gods) that will justify my choices and endorse my sinful lifestyle. The religious are just as much children of God’s wrath as the irreligious. They are simply two different strains of the same virus – sin. Ultimately both parties live according to the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind (Ephesians 2:3). And the consequence is hell.
But there’s good news. We can be cured of our sin and saved from God’s wrath by faith alone in Christ alone. Passion Week reminds us that the eternal Son of God left the glories of heaven, put on human flesh, and vicariously lived in perfect obedience to God’s law. He suffered at the hands of wicked sinners, died on the cross in our place, and rose triumphantly from the dead. He, thereby, removed the barrier of our sin and lawlessness and imputed us with his righteousness so that we could freely and forever enjoy his love and presence. “Therefore, since we have been justified [declared righteous] by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Have you trusted Christ? If so, are you living your life in obedience to God’s law as an expression of gratitude and loving devotion to the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you (Galatians 2:20)?
Join us for our Passion Week Livestream Services.
Good Friday service April 10th at 7:00 pm & Easter service on Sunday, April 12 at 10:00 am.