To Live is Christ — without showy externals

Jesus had His priorities right. Even though it is good to be generous, give to those in need, and do my part toward the ministries of the church, He puts greater value on how I treat people and what I do about my own spiritual condition and the spiritual condition of those around me.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. (Matthew 23:23)

Those who have money to give away find that generosity provides great satisfaction and even alleviates some of those pangs of conscience when “the world isn’t right but what can I do about it?”

Perhaps it is the North American way, but the tendency at many levels of society is to throw money at problems. From athletics to potholes in the streets, we tend to think that if we just put more cash into it, all the problems will be fixed.

However, as Jesus says, money seldom has any effect on injustice. In fact, the love of money (or power) is often at the root of it, or at least blinds and distorts the minds of people who are involved.

Jesus also puts mercy and faith at the top of the “important” list. Mercy is doing good to those who have done little or nothing to deserve it. Mercy and justice are strong relatives because justice isn’t about earning fair treatment, but making sure everyone gets fair treatment, period.

Why did Jesus include faith as a “weightier matter of the law”? It would seem that Law of God is about rules and obeying them. That is how the Pharisees saw it. They prided themselves in keeping the Law, or at least the parts they were able to keep.

Yet the Law of God was not given that God’s people would blindly or pridefully obey it. It is a Law based on faith. Did they trust that God had reasons for these laws? Some of them didn’t seem to make sense, like “Do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”

Also, the Law revolved around sacrifices. Anyone reading the Old Testament is appalled at the amount of blood and the frequency it was shed. Could a nation continue to make these offerings without wondering a thing or two about God? It seems to me that faith had to be a large part of their way of life and their attitude toward God’s laws.

And for the faithful, it was. God had promised a Redeemer, an ultimate sacrifice that would “take away the sin of the world” but they had little idea of who or what that meant. God wanted His people to obey Him in faith, wait for the Promise, and trust Him regarding all the laws and commandments.

But the Pharisees put their own spin on the Law of God — and Jesus told them they were neglecting faith. Because they did put their focus on doing instead of believing, they missed the most important reality. He, Jesus Christ, was the Promised final and full sacrifice, the Lamb that their faithful ancestors had looked forward to, the One that would fulfill all the promises of God. And they missed it.

They also didn’t realize that without faith their law-keeping efforts were futile. They could do some externals and look “religious” but their hearts were not right. They needed new hearts, just as God promised many years prior. 

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Jeremiah 31:33)

In “those days” Jesus came to change lives, to cause people to be reborn and have a new spiritual awareness. He would live in them and change them from the inside out. As Chinese martyr Watchman Nee once said, “The Lawgiver on the throne would become the Law-keeper in their hearts.”

How is this practical for me? For one thing, I can be a Pharisee. I can start thinking that it is my goodness and my obedience that make me right with God. Spiritual pride is a focus on what I can do, rather than on what God does, or even what He tells me to do. Spiritual pride avoids those specific commands that are too difficult for me to do myself. Of course spiritual pride must be abandoned if I am going to truly obey God each day.

Also, this shows me that the “pretty stuff” is easy. Giving sweet-smelling herbs is far more pleasant than stepping up to the plate to address injustice. Dropping money in the offering is easier than getting my hands dirty. Not only that, mercy requires getting off my high horse to help others, no matter what it does to my “religious” reputation. I also cannot be a Christian without faith because I cannot trust God if I am trusting me.

To live is Christ is having the attitude of Jesus. He “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:6–8).

Jesus could confront these religious hypocrites because He embodied what God intended in the Law, and because the only pedestal that He allowed anyone to put Him on had a cross on the top.