Announcing a trip to the grocery store begins a negotiation process. Going to the grocery store will require your kids, spouse or friend to give up some of their time while you check off everything on your list. For the time someone else gives up for you to be pleasant, often you negotiate a deal to give candy, a nice dinner or an item of their choosing to them after the shopping trip has ended. And this arrangement may produce a pleasant experience, but it was pleasant for a price. These types of negotiations do not fill our hearts with joy. Rather, a pleasant trip based on love and respect fills our hearts with joy.
What comes out of the heart makes or breaks a situation. Sin poured out of the Israelites’ hearts after they were freed from captivity in Egypt. Thanks to God for his deliverance quickly turned to sinfully thanking a shiny metal cow, so God caused a generation to die off while wandering for forty years in the wilderness. After those forty years, God shared his command to Israel through Moses as we read in our Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy 4, 1 Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
At first glance, this looks like a negotiation between God and Israel as if doing good would result in the blessing of taking possession of the promised land, but God was more concerned about the hearts of his people. Without love for God in their hearts, Israel’s outward following of God’s laws did not last. So, the promised land flowing with milk and honey was never fully enjoyed by Israel because they often turned away from God.
The land of milk and honey we look forward to is not in this world. As with the Israelites who lived thousands of years before us, there is a greater paradise than what can be found in this world. The path to that paradise is not found through the wilderness, across the Jordan River or in the city of Jerusalem. Instead, God allows those who are good to enter his heavenly kingdom. And as Christians, we know the answer to being good is not found in ourselves, but in Jesus. The classic line, “I am a good person,” does not stand up in God’s court.
We know this, hear this and say this often, but if we asked those who know us where our confidence lies, a different story is often told. We are a Bible for many people, whether fellow Christians or those who put there hope in something else. And when what others see and hear from us is not Jesus, but rather how good we are, it reveals something about our hearts. This is the issue Paul wrote about in our New Testament reading from Romans 9, 30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal.
From the outside, it would seem counterintuitive that God would count pagan Gentiles righteous and not the God’s law abiding people of Israel, but the issue was the heart. Paul exposed the people of Israel who looked to themselves as fallen short of their goal to be good enough, while Gentiles had attained the goal of righteousness. Paul’s point was the heart that holds onto Jesus is righteous, while the heart that pursues the law is not.
When we leave Jesus behind, nothing we do is good. We can be kind, successful, popular, respected, promoted, etc. and give the glory to God in how we post or in talk, but God knows our hearts. In our Gospel reading from Mark 7, Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law when his disciples did not wash their hands according to the tradition of the elders, to which 6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
Knowing the hearts of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, Jesus basically says, “Fine, you wash your hands. That is great for hygiene, but you will die from your sins. Whatever antimicrobial achievement washing has done and whatever artificial righteousness your fathers told you washing will attain counts for nothing because you do not have faith in me.” Jesus has the same response for us when our answer for how good we are is not, “Jesus’ righteousness.” Jesus does not want us comfortable in ourselves even for a moment, so he exposes what comes out of our hearts in Mark 7, 21 “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” When we leave Jesus behind, God will not be pleased with what is left in our hearts and the evils that have poured out of them.
Comparing ourselves to Jesus is not the point of the Bible. God is not concerned about washing hands and keeping commands to be as good as Jesus. God is concerned about saving sinful hearts. God gave you a new heart by piercing his own. God’s heart is love, and his response to our sin soiled, dirty deed filled hearts is deliverance through Jesus. It is the righteousness from God given to us that delivers us from our sinful hearts. Jesus did not fulfill the laws and traditions of men who are inherently sinful.
Instead, Jesus came to do the will of his Father in heaven as we read in John 6, 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And the will of God is summarized in all its grace, mercy and peace in Paul’s first letter to 1 Timothy 2, 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people.
It was not the ceremonial washings or animal sacrifices that saved Israel, nor do our morals or politics save us, but hope in Jesus. Jesus’ good, righteous, perfect, sinless heart hung on the cross and died for us. So, the one who kept the law saved the law breakers. And the resurrected Jesus stands in heaven as our mediator constantly pleading our case pointing to his own God level righteousness as the reason that we are found good and not guilty. Jesus is who we are linked to in our baptism making us his washed clean people, who gives us his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins in the Lord’s Supper and who works in us to live for him.
And for all the good Christ does work through us, we continue to point to his righteousness, not our own as Paul wrote in our New Testament reading from Romans 10, 4 Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. We will always be sure that we are good people because Christ fulfilled the law in our place so that the righteousness we claim is not our own, but the righteousness of God.
Jesus was righteousness for us. Reliance on Jesus’ righteousness gives us a confidence and joy that cannot change as Paul affirmed in his quote from Isaiah in Romans 9, 33 As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.” Christ is the rock of righteousness for us. Christ is unmovable in what he accomplished for us. As we hold onto Christ, the description from our Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy 4 continues to apply to us, 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?
God is near to us, hears us and his command to love others is good. And we continue to read, 9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Israel saw the miraculous deliverance of God and received his good laws. We know the miraculous resurrection of Christ that saved the world. Living as his people, we are Christians or ‘little Christs’, who show God’s love to others creating opportunities to teach what Jesus has done to the next generation.
Teaching the next generation whether children or new believers in Chris is not first and foremost about how to act. Teach them what Jesus has done for them, his love for them, his forgiveness and that they will always find him in the Word of God. In this way, the next generation will be righteous. And in this way, they will not follow God out of fear of failing to please him. Instead, out of joy and thanks for Christ’s righteousness, their hearts will follow God’s commands. Any fear about what is influencing your children, and this generation is best fought against by telling them about Jesus. Rules and lessons, “Please,” and “Thank you,” are good to teach your children, but above all prioritize their hearts. With faith in Jesus, we will not be put to shame because he is our righteous rock.
Announcing a trip to the grocery store begins a negotiation process. We often negotiate a deal with those shopping with us, so that the shopping experience is pleasant. And this arrangement may produce a pleasant experience, but it was for a price. Negotiations do not fill our hearts with joy. Rather, a pleasant trip based on love and respect fills our hearts with joy. We cannot negotiate with God when it comes to how good we are. We are sinful, but Jesus was good. Jesus was good or righteous for us, so that God now sees us as good. May our lives be a joyful “thank you” to Christ the rock of God’s righteousness who was a good person for me. Amen.
Gunnar Ledermann, Pastor Divine Peace Church
Gunnar Ledermann
I’m passionate about Rockwall’s vibrant community and actively engage with local non-profits and community organizations, including the Rockwall Chamber of Commerce, the City of Rockwall, and the Downtown Rockwall Association. My background includes a bachelor’s degree in Classical Languages and a master’s degree in divinity. Currently serving as a pastor at Divine Peace Church in Rockwall, I also enjoy spending time with my wife, Marinda, and our three children.
