Lessons From the LORD - The Tension We Live In
“Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
Matthew 9:13 NLT
Jesus directed these words to Pharisees who spoke out against Him having dinner with “many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners” (Matthew 9:10, NLT) including the Apostle Matthew. Instead of offering a defense of His actions, Jesus exposes the true heart of the Pharisees. They thought themselves to be above others and believed that because they had upheld the letter of the Law throughout their lives, they had become righteous in the eyes of the LORD. In other words, they had deceived themselves into believing that they were not sinners themselves. This is what Jesus calls out and invites them to examine in themselves.
When reading and interpreting the Bible, I believe that too often Christians identify themselves with the “good guys” of the story. We are the disciples of Jesus, not the Pharisees. We are the remnant of Israel that has remained faithful to the LORD, not the rest of the nation that has turned away. We are Moses, not those worshiping the Golden Calf. I have to confess, I am consistently guilty of this myself. My initial reaction is often something along the lines of, “How could these people have so little faith!?" It’s just human nature to visualize ourselves as the hero of the story. The problem with this style of interpretation is that Jesus is the real hero of Scripture, and without Him we would still be enemies of the LORD.
Just like the Pharisees, us Christians often refuse to see our own sin. Well to be fair most of us will acknowledge we are not perfect, but we are often still guilty of looking down on those around us, thanking the LORD that at least we are not as sinful as they are. If we are being honest with ourselves, we more often embody the Pharisees over those who Jesus calls, those who know they are sinners. As followers of Jesus, we must live in a more humble state of acknowledgment of our sin, and more importantly dependence on Jesus for our righteousness.
On the other hand, those who believe with their heart and confess with their mouths that Jesus is their Lord and Savior have been covered by His blood. As a result, we are indeed righteous, but only because Jesus has made us so. As followers of Christ, we have been called to live in this tension between knowing we are sinners and boldly approaching the throne of God as righteous. The difference between us and the Pharisees is that we know it wasn’t us or anything we did that made us righteous. It is Jesus alone.
This knowledge, then, must spur us on to live differently. We must find a balance between calling out sin and evil, while offering grace and forgiveness as it has been given to us by God. We must not join or affirm the sins of those around us, while also not looking down on them, instead finding ways to encourage and lift them up to Jesus. It is much easier to set up camp in one extreme or the other, and much more difficult to walk the narrow road that Christ has called us to.
My encouragement to you, Christian, is to find your identity within this tension. Know that you are a sinner, desperately in need of God’s grace and Jesus’ blood shed for you. Know that you are now righteous in the LORD’s eyes because of Jesus’ love for you. Live in this tension, daily abiding in Christ and leaning on the LORD. And as you go and act in this world, let this tension drive you to love and to serve others with grace and truth. May our Lord and Savior meet you and keep you.
