Free to Live: The Utter Relief of Holiness (4 page)
Read Free to Live: The Utter Relief of Holiness Online
Authors: John Eldredge
Tags: #Religion - Christian Life
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:13–20)
Well, now—that’s pretty straightforward. And unnerving. The Master of all Goodness is making a few things absolutely clear in his famous lecture from the mountainside. First off, that goodness
matters
. Immensely. Far more than you think it does. In fact, he goes on to connect your personal holiness with your entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Uh-oh.
Now, I know my fellow evangelicals will rush to protest that it is the cross of Jesus Christ alone that opens the way to heaven for any person. No amount of personal righteousness could ever suffice. I believe this. It is grace alone—the unmerited and undeserved forgiveness of God—that opens the way for any of us to know God, let alone come into his kingdom. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). Thank God for that.
However, you also find in Jesus and throughout the scriptures a pretty serious call to a holy life.
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)
For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. (1 Thessalonians 4:7)
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14–16)
In fact, one of the most stunning things about Jesus is how such a gracious, kind, patient, and forgiving man holds—without so much as wavering—such a high standard of holiness. On the one hand, we have the beautiful story of a woman caught in the act of adultery—and how horrifying and humiliating would that be? The mob drags her before Jesus, ready to stone her (they actually did this sort of thing, and not that long ago; it still happens in some Muslim countries today). Jesus disarms the violence in a most cunning way:
The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt. Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?” “No one, Master.” “Neither do I,” said Jesus. (John 8:3–10
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)
It is brilliant, and poignant. The town square is now deserted; only the woman and Jesus remain. She is probably wrapped in nothing but a bed sheet and her shame. He rescues her from a terrible death, and then forgives her. It feels as if the scene could not be more powerfully reported. What more could be said? But wait, Jesus has one last word for her:
“Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”
Yes, grace reigns in the Kingdom of God. But right there alongside it is an unflinching call to holiness. Go and sin no more. You see something equally startling (and much less anticipated) at the end of a story I recounted earlier, where Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath and told him to take up his mat. The rest of the story reads like this:
The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off. The Jews stopped the healed man and said, “It’s the Sabbath. You can’t carry your bedroll around. It’s against the rules.” But he told them, “The man who made me well told me to. He said, ‘Take your bedroll and start walking.’” They asked, “Who gave you the order to take it up and start walking?” But the healed man didn’t know, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd. A little later Jesus found him in the Temple and said, “You look wonderful! You’re well! Don’t return to a sinning life or something worse might happen.” (John 5:9–14
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It is nearly comical in its extreme juxtaposition. “I’m so glad you are well! Now stop sinning, or something really bad is going to come down on you!”
Imagine the family gathered by grandfather’s bedside. The old man is dying. The neighborhood priest steps quietly into the room. But instead of administering last rites, he prays for grandpa—and lo and behold! The cantankerous old coot is healed! The family is stunned; then follows the rejoicing and glad tears. The priest simply smiles and slips out, leaving them to their incredulity and joy. Later that evening he comes back to the bedside; Grandfather is up and having a robust meal. He looks splendid. The priest smiles. “I’m so happy God did this for you, Roger. What a wonderful thing—you have your life back!” And then: “Now, listen, you old grouch—the heavy drinking has got to stop; so does your abusive language toward your wife; and the way you use guilt to manipulate your children. You’d better clean up your act or one morning you’ll step out of bed and drop straight into hell. Have a nice evening.”
That’s pretty much the effect of Jesus’ warnings at the end of such marvelous stories. Actually, he does this sort of thing frequently. And yet I can’t think of anyone else remotely like this man.
Most Christians desire very deeply to be known as gracious, kind, patient, and forgiving. We feel we “owe” it to Jesus to be seen on our best behavior. This is even truer for those of us in “the ministry,” whose lives are publicly attached to Jesus. Now, some of the motivation behind this is beautiful (we’ll look at the rest in a moment). We know how horribly religion has distorted the world’s view of God, and we want very much to gain a hearing for Jesus, so we go to great lengths to reassure the wary that those aligned with Jesus are really great people. In fact, nowadays most Christian leaders bend over backward to come across as very cool and hip and in no way whatsoever judgmental or condemning. It’s the new PR campaign for Jesus.
The problem is, in our efforts to be good poster children for Christianity, we have sort of hidden or left off this other side of Jesus’ personality. The man is dead serious about holiness.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (Matthew 23:25–28)
I would love to have heard his tone of voice, seen the expression on his face. I think we can be fairly confident that when Jesus thundered, “Woe to you,” everyone just about peed their pants. And what is the issue here? Shallow holiness. Faking it. Ignoring the deeper issues of the soul. As far as Jesus is concerned, holiness is a matter of the heart. “Clean the inside of the cup and dish, and the outside will be clean as well.” The model of personal transformation that Christianity offers is internal to external. It’s a transformation of the heart, the mind, the will, the soul—which then begins to express itself externally in our actions. This is absolutely critical in order to understand Jesus and his genuine goodness.
Which, I feel I need to remind you, was utterly captivating. Let’s not lose hold of that as we press a bit deeper.
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment…
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart…
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you…
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 5:21–22, 27–28; 6:1–6)
The Sermon on the Mount is a revolution in holiness. Jesus takes all the external issues and makes them first and foremost
internal
. He begins with a few examples of the most egregious sins: murder and adultery. This is a crowd that congratulates itself on staying far from such obvious crimes. But then Jesus says, “Oh—don’t think you’ve kept the command simply because you haven’t pulled the trigger. If you hate someone, you’ve murdered them in your heart. And as for sexual integrity—just because you haven’t actually ‘done it’ doesn’t mean you’re clean—have you
wanted
to, in your heart? Have you desired someone who wasn’t your spouse?”
Gulp.
This way of looking at goodness is mighty exposing. As it should be. Holiness, he is driving at, is a matter of the heart.
To make it practical, Jesus gives us the category of motive. Whatever else the sermon is about, whatever goodness is truly about, motive will get you there. Motives are essential, and taking this path will open up fields of goodness for you.
I’ve noticed at the retreats we do, I am very careful to be kind and attentive to people. Though I am often tired, and spent, I try my best to treat every question with respect. But what is my motive? It could be love. But it also could be that I want to be
seen as
kind and attentive. Same action, different motives. You can’t really tell from the outside; what matters is what’s going on
inside
. I spent a lot of time working on this book. Why? Well, it could be because I want to try to present these things to you as helpfully as I can; it could also be that I want to impress you, or be thought well of, or simply avoid embarrassment. One motive is loving; the others are self-serving.
This is why Jesus pushed into the issue of our motives; genuine goodness isn’t skin deep. Motive is a
very
essential category.
Mary is a woman who loves to help people. She’s always the one to stay and clean up after a party; she’ll make copies for the meeting; she’s always happy to take your call. In fact, she loves to be asked. But over time I noticed something: Mary will serve long and hard, as long as Mary is in the center of the action. If someone else is telling a story, she doesn’t really pay attention; if someone else is doing the serving, she sort of wanders around on the sidelines with a bit of a hurt expression. The truth is, Mary is good so long as she’s needed, even needed to carry heavy burdens. But it’s still about Mary; when it’s about someone else, she isn’t present at all. What looks like service is really her way of getting herself needed and noticed. That’s not goodness at all.
Think about how you operate in social settings—why don’t you want to be seen talking to Fred? Is it because Fred is unpopular and laughed at by the “in” crowd. Why do you move directly toward Joan and Harold? Is it because they are part of the “in” crowd? You flatter your boss—is it because you really like what he’s said, or because next week is your performance review? Why do you use such highly technical language in a business meeting? Is it truly helpful to your listeners—or does it give you the aura of being the “expert,” allow you to throw some terms around to impress others? Maybe you don’t speak up in a meeting at all—why is that? Is it humility, or is it simply fear?