Meditations on Christ, the
Believer’s Example (Part VII)
Christ’s Responses to Man’s
Sinful Behavior
He rebuked those with wrong
thoughts about Himself. "From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His
disciples how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the
elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the
third day. Then Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from
Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee. But He turned and said unto Peter, Get
thee behind me, Satan; you are an offense unto Me, for you savor not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men" (Matt. 16:21-23).
It is true that these words of
the Lord Jesus took Peter off guard. Peter may have thought that Jesus was just
feeling depressed over the mounting opposition to Him and was trying to cheer
Him up. But if Peter really regarded Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the
living God" (verse 16) and as "Lord" (verse 22), he should have
been listening carefully and asking clarifying questions rather than rebuking
his Lord and Master.
Do we ever question God? Do we
ever get angry and resentful toward God because we don’t understand why He
allows certain things to happen in our lives or in the world at large? If so,
we need to reexamine our basic relationship with Christ:is He really our Lord
and Master, or is He just a convenient tool to satisfy those wants and needs
that we are unable to meet by ourselves?
The Lord Jesus, upon hearing
Peter’s rebuke, didn’t just shrug His shoulders and mutter that Peter would
learn some day. No, He spoke very strongly to Peter. He told Peter that he was
an offense to Him and that he was allowing himself to be a tool of Satan.
Another occasion when Jesus had
to rebuke His disciples was when they were rebuffed by the Samaritans and asked
the Lord for permission to "command fire to come down from heaven and
consume them." Jesus "rebuked them and said, You know not what manner
of spirit you are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives,
but to save them" (Luke 9:52-56). The grace of God is such an exceedingly
strange concept to the natural man that it often takes a long time even for
believers to appreciate this grace and act upon it in our relationships with
others.
The Lord faithfully rebuked His
disciples for not entering into His thoughts, for not appreciating His spirit
of grace toward sinners. Christ is our example. If one who professes to be a
Christian ex-presses a warped, unbalanced view of God and His attributes, or
questions His goodness or His fairness or His authority—His lordship— over him,
such a one may very well need to be rebuked. And the Holy Spirit may direct you
or me to administer such a rebuke.
Does one believer have authority
from God to rebuke another believer? Yes:"If your brother trespass
against you, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him" (Luke 173). The
Apostle Paul encouraged His son in the faith, Timothy, to "reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" (2 Tim. 4:2). Of
course, the administering of a rebuke should be done "in the spirit of
meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted" (Gal. 6:1).
He patiently instructed those who
were self-centered. "Then there arose a reasoning among them which of them
should be greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a
child and set him by Him, and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this
child in My Name receives Me…. He who is least among you all, the same shall
be great" (Luke 9:46-48).
Later on, just after eating the
"Last Supper” with their Lord, the twelve disciples expressed the same
selfish attitude:"And there was also a strife among them, which of them
should be accounted the greatest. And He said unto them,… He that is greatest
among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief, as he who
serves…. I am among you as He who serves" (Luke 22:24-27).
Do you see how Jesus responds to
the sin of selfishness and pride displayed by His own disciples? He doesn’t
take their heads off but rather gently instructs them as to the way to true
greatness—taking a lowly place, the place of a servant.
We don’t like to see self-centeredness
and pride in other people. But often, I believe, it is the pride lurking deep
in our own hearts, that we have been trying to sugar-coat with a
spiritually-correct exterior, that takes offense at other people’s
less-well-masked expressions of pride and selfishness. If we had a greater
self-awareness of the pride that so thoroughly infects our entire being, we
would first judge ourselves and then—as Christ did—gently instruct our fellow
believers when they manifest pride.
He showed anger toward hypocrites
and those who dishonored His Father. "The Jews’ passover was at hand, and
Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those who sold oxen and
sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting; and when He had made a
scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple.. .and poured out
the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto those who sold
doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house a house of
merchandise" (John 2:13-16).
In the last issue, we noticed
that Christ consistently responded with patience, calmness, gentleness, and
forgiveness toward those who opposed and mistreated Him personally. He never
became angry because He was not being treated right or receiving the respect He
deserved. But in the passage just cited the Lord shows strong anger directed
toward those who were dishonoring His Father. They were enriching themselves by
selling sacrificial animals at exorbitant prices to people whose hearts were
still sensitive to the Old Testament law. The Lord also expressed strong
reaction to the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees:"You pay tithe of
mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,
judgment, mercy, and faith; these you ought to have done, and not to leave the
other undone…. You are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear
beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all
uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within
you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity" (Matt. 23:23,27,28). One more
example of the Lord expressing anger was when the Pharisees were hoping to
catch Him healing on the Sabbath so "that they might accuse him"
(Mark 3:1-5). Here again was hypocrisy:they pretended to be guarding the
sanctity of the Sabbath day, that day of physical and spiritual renewal given
to Israel, but blindly and hardheartedly condemned One who came to bring far
greater renewal of body (through physical healing) and of soul and spirit (through
His redemptive work on the cross).
Jesus did not make a habit of
confronting and condemning out-and-out sinners—adulterers, murderers, thieves,
and the like. Rather (as was noted in Part III of this series), He lovingly
reached out to the publicans and sinners, the social outcasts, and gently drew
them to Himself and His Father. Those He did condemn, however, were those who
made a pretense of religiousness and spirituality while not having the love of
God in them (John 5:42).
Christ is our example. We find in
these illustrations from the life of Christ guidelines as to how we ought to
respond to the unbelievers around us. I see some Christians intent on getting
their neighbors to break off their adulterous relationships or to stop using
God’s name in vain. They seem to think that if they can get their neighbors to
"dean up their act" they are more likely to be saved. Christ did not
do this. He met people just where they were. In fact He took advantage of
people’s besetting sins to show them their need for salvation (John 4:18, for
example).
If Christ were living in America today, I suspect He would not be spending His time picketing abortion clinics or
trying to get pornographic TV shows off the air or getting taverns closed down.
Would He not, rather, be exposing the apostasy of so-called Christian leaders
who no longer teach the precious truths of the Word of God? And would He not
also, perhaps, be exposing some fundamentalist preachers and writers whose
private lives bear little or no resemblance to the Christ whom they preach? And
is it possible that He might even spend a bit of time uncovering your and my
own inconsistencies, insincerities, or even hypocrisies?
Knowing Christ’s hatred of
hypocrisy, let us stir up one another, as "members one of another"
(Rom. 12:5) as to this matter of being sincere. "Let us keep the
feast…with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. 5:8).
"Our rejoicing is this.. .that in simplicity and godly sincerity… we
have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly toward you" (2
Cor. 1:12; 2:17). "I pray…that you maybe sincere and without offense
till the day of Christ" (Phil. 1:10).
The English word
"sincere" is derived from two Latin words, sine ("without")
and cera ("wax"). It was the custom of some pottery makers of old to
use a certain kind of wax to cover up hairline cracks and minor imperfections
in their creations. But if the piece were held up to the light, the cracks and
imperfections would be immediately obvious. So the best pottery was "sincere-ware"
which had no need for wax to cover the imperfections. The Greek word used in
the four passages mentioned above carries similar implications. It is
eilikrines or literally "sun-judged." If you and I were to be held up
before the all-penetrating rays of God’s light, would our insides match our
outsides? Would the "thoughts and intents of the heart" match our
words and deeds? Would the things we do in private condemn or shame us any more
than the things we do in public? God wants us so to grow and develop in our
Christian lives that we are totally sincere—without hypocrisy, without wax,
sun-judged.
In the next issue, Lord willing,
we shall complete this section on Christ’s responses to man’s sinful behavior,
and then go on to consider Christ’s work and ministry.