The Mercy of The Judge...

I heard a sermon a few days ago from a well-known pastor at a big conference. The gist of it was the question of who is at the bottom of your faith, you or God? Do we live to glorify God or do we love him because he loves us so much? Those are good questions...certainly worth thinking about. However, then he trotted out Matthew 25 - the Sheep and the Goats - making the age-old claim that some (presumably those who love God because he loves them so much) would not inherit the Kingdom of God even though they themselves were sure that they would. I'm not saying that this won't be a reality; it will. I hate it, but it will.

Here's the thing: I found myself, over the next day or so, pondering my behavior as a Christian. My anxiety rose as a tried to determine whether I was in category one or category two. Was my response to God correct? Was it adequate? Was it the specific response that he was looking for or would I find myself standing before Jesus on Judgement Day condemned, realizing that I'd been utterly deluded the whole time, that I'd walked through the green door when true justification was actually behind the blue door?

This morning I read Luke 18.9-14...the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. As the story goes, the Pharisee is absolutely sure that he's "in". He holds all the right values, does all the right things and has the identity badge of Torah - his get-out-of-jail-free card - to rely on. His prayer reveals as much. After all, who else would God be glorified through other than his covenant people? On the other hand you have the Tax Collector, hated by his people and excluded from the promises of God by his betrayal of the deepest Jewish values. He knows his condition and throws himself on the mercy of God. That is his only hope. Jesus points out that he goes home justified while the Pharisee does not.

The bottom line is this: after responding to the saving work of Christ in repentance and faith comes only one thing: continued response in repentance and faith. Loving God is about total reliance on what he's accomplished, not about searching for the "correct" or "adequate" behavior, the activity that makes me feel the most justified. In the end we will all throw ourselves on the mercy of the perfectly just judge, who will know perfectly that he himself has done everything necessary to secure our salvation not because we loved him but because he loved us (John 4.9-10).

In this and this alone is God glorified: our total reliance on the fact that he has done what only he could do. Lord, make me like this Tax Collector...