Life in God’s Family: The Basis and Nature of the Ten Commandments

How would you describe an ideal family?

Is it a family in which the children always obey every rule the parents make?

We know that is not the case. Indeed, outward obedience to parents can co-exist with deep anger and resentment, as displayed by the older son in Luke 15.

Instead, love and trust characterize the ideal family. There is obedience to parents, yes – but that obedience flows out of love, out of trust, out of a feeling of security and acceptance.

Just so in the family of God. God’s family members surely obey – but not with the outward, formal obedience of the Pharisees. Their obedience instead is joyful and willing, flowing from confidence in the loving character of God.

Consider the Ten Commandments in this regard. These commandments summarize God’s torah, His instructions to His people. Many misunderstand both the nature and implications of these commandments. So let’s examine, first of all, the basis and nature of the Ten Commandments. From these we’ll draw out four implications for all the Commandments. In future devotions we’ll consider the Commandments one by one.

The Basis of the Ten Commandments: Relationship with God

The people of Israel do not come into a relationship with God by obeying the Ten Commandments; they are already in a relationship with Him when He speaks the Commandments.

  • When Moses first approaches Pharaoh, God says, “Israel is my firstborn son” (Exodus 4:22).
  • God told Moses at the burning bush that the people would worship Him at Sinai (Exodus 3:12).
  • God reiterates that plan multiple times in words spoken to Pharaoh (Exodus 4:23, 5:1, 5:3, 8:1, 8:20, 9:1, 9:13, 10:3).
  • When they first arrive at Sinai, God says, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19:4, emphasis added).
  • Immediately prior to speaking the Commandments, God says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2, emphasis added).

So the Israelites’ relationship with God precedes the giving of the Law. They enter into a relationship with God through His love, by His grace (Deuteronomy 7:6-8).

Furthermore, they do not remain in relationship with God through keeping the Law. In Exodus 32, they explicitly break the Commandments. God’s judgment falls on a small percentage, but He reveals Himself as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, … forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7).

Now, He goes on to say He “will by no means leave the guilty unpunished” (Exodus 34:7 NIV) – He is the God of both grace and justice. We only understand fully how God’s grace and justice both hold when we see Jesus’ death on the cross.

But our point for today is this: Neither the Israelites nor we today enter into a relationship with God through obedience to the Law. Neither the Israelites nor we today remain in a relationship with God through obedience to the Law. We enter into a relationship with Him by grace through faith. We remain in that relationship by grace through faith.

 

The Nature of the Ten Commandments: Life in God’s Family

When we hear the word “law,” we normally think of some set of restrictions on our behavior. A sign on I-485 says that there is a law prohibiting you from driving faster than 70mph. If you see a police car in your rearview mirror, you will restrict your driving speed. You will not drive 80mph.

But God’s Law is not fundamentally a set of restrictions on our behavior. Instead, God’s Law fundamentally is a revelation of His character. Through the Law, He tells us what He loves and what He hates: “I the LORD love justice; I hate robbery and wrong” (Isaiah 61:8). God in His holy essence hates and despises sin, He despises evil; in His essence, he loves righteousness and justice.

 

Now, connect this with the idea of God’s people being His family. When we had six little children running around the house needing correction, we would sometimes say, “We’re Pinckneys – we don’t act that way.” We then explained how we behave.

That’s similar to what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

Thus, when God tells us to obey His Law, He is saying, “Become like Me! I have brought you to Myself! You are part of my intimate family! This is your identity; this is who you are. So act like it’s true! Act like Me!”

So God does not give us the Ten Commandments, saying, “Obey these and you will be in My family.” Nor does He say, “Obey these in order to remain in My family.” Instead, He says to the Israelites – and to us! – “You are in the family. And this is how those in my family live. This is how they reflect my character.”

 

Four Implications for Understanding the Ten Commandments

a) The Ten Commandments are positive, not only negative

We don’t become like God simply by avoiding certain actions – we must change positively!

For example, consider the seventh commandment: “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). Many never commit the physical act of adultery, but lust after others. Jesus tells us these too break the commandment (Matthew 5:28). But we can’t just modify the commandment to include a prohibition of lust! Rather, the Commandment exhorts us to take on the character of God. We positively are to honor marriage, to build up own, to assist others to strengthen their marriages, all to the glory of God.

So, in general, each commandment forbids some attitudes and behaviors while commending others.

b) No one will succeed in fully taking on the character of God

Those at the moment outside God’s family are “dead in trespasses and sin” (Ephesians 2:1). God graciously brings the redeemed into His family, making us “alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5). He grants us His Spirit, enabling us to “put to death the deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13), providing a way of escape from temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13) and producing in us Christlike character (Galatians 5:22-23). Yet we all fail; “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

The Day is coming after Jesus returns when He does away with sin forever. We will be like Him, seeing Him as He is (1 John 3:2). But until that Day, we will stumble and fall. However much we grow – and we should grow! – we will never be perfect as our heavenly Father.

c) Jesus fully displayed the character of God

Jesus said He came to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17) – and He did. He showed us what God is like: “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). He loved God with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength every minute of every day. He loved every person He encountered as He loved Himself.

d) How then can we be like God? Though union with Jesus!

When we come to God by grace through faith in Jesus, God not only saves us from our sins, wiping out the negatives from our accounts; He also credits us with the righteousness of Jesus – in Him we become “the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). His active obedience to the entirety of the Law is credited to us.

 

Thus, the Ten Commandments do not constitute a law code for ancient Israel (in our contemporary sense of law code). Rather they are a revelation of the character of God, so that those in His family might know Him better and become like Him by His grace. And that happens only via Jesus.

So salvation is not primarily about saving us from hell – it is that, but also much more. Salvation is primarily about being in God’s family, credited with Jesus’ righteousness, transformed to become like Him – partially in this life, completely in the next.

(This devotion is based on the first half of a sermon on Exodus 20:1-3 preached May 9, 2010, “Having Been Saved By Grace, Do You Put God First?” The audio is available here. An earlier blog post covering some of the same material is here.)

Jesus, The Only Lord and Savior: Follow Him or Head to Destruction

[This is a shortened, edited version of a sermon on Matthew 7:13-29 preached May 5, 2013. You can listen to the audio of that sermon here.]

When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, what was His main point?

Certain phrases from the Sermon on the Mount are well-known:

  • Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth
  • Judge not
  • Blessed are the peacemakers
  • Blessed are the merciful
  • Let your light shine
  • Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven
  • Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart
  • If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also
  • Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you
  • When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing
  • Do not be anxious about your life
  • Consider the lilies of the field
  • Take the log out of your own eye
  • The wise man built his house upon the rock, the foolish man built his house upon the sand

Every one of those phrases is true, important, and vital for us to hear.

Yet if you focus on those phrases as you reflect on the Sermon on the Mount you may well miss the main point. For not one of the those phrases encapsulates the main point of the Sermon; indeed, all of them together don’t come close to summarizing the Sermon.

Considered on their own, those phrases seem to imply that the Christian life consists of obeying a set of moral exhortations. Our right response would then be, “Ok, I must be like this! With sufficient self-discipline, with enough accountability partners, I can!”

That is not the point of the Sermon.

In the closing verses of the Sermon, Jesus helps His listeners to focus in on the main point: Jesus is the only Lord and Savior; unless we turn to God through Him, we are headed to destruction.

We’ll consider Jesus’s conclusion under three headings:

Three Dangers

Three Signposts

One Lord

Three Dangers:

1) A wide and easy road leads to destruction

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

Remember: Jesus is speaking – not some preacher or prophet who delights in telling people they’re going to hell. Indeed, Jesus has said earlier that if you’re just angry with your brother you are liable to judgment.

So Jesus is not speaking out of vindictiveness. He’s simply speaking truth.

Many, He says, are headed to destruction. If you follow the crowd, if you do what many others do, if you think the way many others think, you will drift down the road to destruction.

That’s the first, great danger.

2) False prophets point you to that road

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)

Jesus builds on the verses 13 and 14. He says false prophets will tell you the road to destruction is the road to life. These false prophets look good – they are dressed like sheep, thus looking like those in Jesus’ flock. But in truth they are wolves.

Remember, throughout the first section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that the Law of God requires conformity between our inner lives and are outward actions. False teachers display no such conformity. So watch out for them.

So the first danger is: If you drift along, you will end up destroyed. The second danger is: If you follow a seemingly good teacher who is actually a wolf, you will end up destroyed.

3) Many who think they are on the right road are headed to destruction

Last two images:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

Consider these folks: They seem very good:

  • They call Jesus “Lord”
  • They call Jesus “Lord, Lord” – indicating some degree of fervency
  • They prophesy
  • They cast out demons
  • They do mighty works, miracles
  • They do many such mighty works
  • They do all this in Jesus’ name – thus claiming to do this for His glory and by His power

Also, note that they are surprised at Jesus’ condemnation of them. They thought the Kingdom of heaven was theirs.

Why did they think that? Three reasons:

First, because they called Him Lord.

Second, because of their fervency.

Third, because of how they have ministered, on their ministry success.

So these folks think they are blessed, think they are saved, because of what they say, how they say it, and what they’ve done.

But is that what Jesus said at the beginning of this sermon?

Jesus said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

He did not say, “Blessed are those who say to me Lord, Lord, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”

Ministry success, fervency of speech, and mouthing the words “Jesus is lord” will never save us.

We see the second image in Jesus’ final story:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

Imagine these two houses are near each other in your town. Both are lovely. Both appear well-built. Both owners feel secure. When you walk by, you admire both houses.

But when the storm comes, one house will stand. The other owner will head to destruction. Even though he thinks he is secure.

So, three dangers: A wide and easy road leads to destruction. Many false teachers will happily point you and guide you in that direction. And many people think they are on the right road, but are self-deceived.

 

Three Signposts

Jesus doesn’t only warn us of dangers, however. He also gives us three signposts, three directions to the narrow road that leads to life.

1) Fruit identifies false prophets

Though the false prophets deceive via disguising themselves like sheep, Jesus says you can figure out what they really are:

“You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.  A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16-20)

What fruit is Jesus talking about?

We easily lapse into thinking that the fruit is some kind of ministry success: People coming to faith, big churches being built, people healed. But Jesus’ next statements rule out that interpretation; these folks who prophesied and cast out demons and did miracles are workers of lawlessness!

So the fruit is not any type of ministry success. What is it?

Jesus has been talking about such fruit throughout the Sermon: Those who recognize that there is no way they can make themselves perfect like God, and so become:

  • Poor in spirit
  • Mourning
  • Meek
  • Hungering and thirsting for righteousness
  • Not longing for recognition for their giving, for their prayers, for their fasting
  • But longing for God’s Kingdom, for His Will to be done, for His Name to be hallowed
  • Not being enslaved to money or anything in this world
  • But gladly submitting themselves to God as His slaves.

That’s the fruit.

Now, that fruit is not as obvious as ministry success. You must observe a teacher for a while to know if he bears such fruit. You must look beyond the teacher’s words, beyond what’s happened in his ministry, asking: What is his character? What are his deep desires? Who is he? How does that come out in the way he spends money, in the way he interacts with people?

In November of 2000, I had quit my job and was getting ready to uproot my family and take them more than a thousand miles away in the middle of winter to spend several month in Minneapolis to learn from John Piper and Bethlehem Baptist Church. The night before I was to leave, I awoke at 2am wondering: What if he’s just a fake? What if Bethlehem is all a show? What if he’s just a false teacher, building a ministry to massage his own ego?

Those are good questions.  We should always ask such questions.

I arrived in Minneapolis and found abundant evidence of John’s fruit – in his personal life, in his character. Whew!

By their fruit – the right kind of fruit – you will know them. False prophets identify themselves by their fruit. Genuine prophets identify themselves by their fruit. That’s the first signpost.

2) There is a road that leads to life

Verses 13 and 14 can sound purely negative: Many enter by the wide gate to an easy road that leads to destruction.

But there is also a note of hope in these verses: There is a road that leads to life! While the gate is narrow and the road is hard, it does exist – and anyone can enter by it! This is not a limited access highway with signs saying, “Pedestrians and Cyclists prohibited!” This is not a road in a gated community with a sign saying, “Only Mercedes and Lexus cars may enter!” The road is hard – but all may travel by it.

3) Hearing and Obeying Jesus is that road

Who is like the man who built his house on the rock?

Everyone who hears these words of Jesus and does them!

You’ve got to hear! Others must hear! The truth must be proclaimed, understood, and applied! You can’t build your house on the rock unless you hear.

But you can’t stop at hearing! You must obey!

As Jesus says so often: “He who has ears – he must hear.” Meaning: Not just that sound waves must make our eardrums vibrate, but that we must take these words to heart and follow them.

This is the narrow gate. This is the hard way. This is the road to life: Hearing Jesus, and obeying Him.

But remember the thrust of Jesus’ entire Sermon: We must obey Him not only in actions – such as avoiding murder, adultery, revenge, and hatred – but by our inner being and outer actions into conformity with one another:

  • Becoming sons of your Father who is in heaven
  • Being perfect like your Father is perfect
  • Hungering and thirsting to shine with the light of the image of God into the world around you
  • Having a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, because your righteousness is more than outer conformity to a set of rules.

Jesus promises that when you do: The storms of life will come your way – the road is hard, as Jesus says. The rain will come, the floods will come, the wind will blow and beat against your house. But it will stand, whatever the storm may be: Illness, death of loved ones, poverty, loss, pain, rejection. Amidst the real pain, your house will stand. For it is founded on the rock.

We’ve seen 3 signposts that point to the road that leads to life:

  • Know false prophets by their fruit
  • Don’t despair of finding the road to life: it’s there
  • Hearing and obeying Jesus is that road

But how are you going to obey Him?

How are you going to be perfect like your heavenly Father? That’s not going to come through self-discipline. How does that happen?

That question takes us to our final heading:

 

One Lord

Why is hearing and obeying Jesus so important?

The central message of the Sermon on the Mount is not a set of ethical rules, like “Love your enemies” or “Be peacemakers.” The central message is: Jesus is Lord. And there is none like Him.

Listen to what Jesus says:

  • “I tell you who is truly happy – Not those who you think are happy, but the poor in spirit. Indeed, if you are persecuted on my account you are truly happy, and you will have a great reward in heaven.” Who can say such things?
  • “I have come to fulfill the Law and the prophets.” Who can say such things?
  • “You have heard that it was said . . . but I say to you…” Jesus claims to be the sole right interpreter of Scripture. Who can say such things?
  • “I never knew you; depart from me your workers of lawlessness.” He claims to be the final Judge who will declare who is in the Kingdom and who is left outside. Who can say such things?
  • “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.” He claims His words are the difference between the Kingdom and destruction. Who can say such things?

No one can say such things. Except the Messiah. The Promised One. The One who from the beginning was promised to Eve, was promised to Abraham, was promised to David, was promised through Isaiah.

Anyone who says such things is a crazy fool – unless He is the culmination of all the promises of the Old Testament. Unless He is the One who lived the life you and I should have lived and died so that we might live in Him. Unless He is risen from the dead, seated at the right hand of God the Father, where He ever lives to make intercession for us.

He has said: “You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

How much chance do you have of perfection?

You cannot fulfill the exhortations of the Sermon on the Mount. You must recognize that – and so turn to the one with all authority, turn to the Promised One, and recognize Him as Lord. Seeing your lostness, you will be poor in spirit, you will mourn, you will be meek, you will hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will be merciful. And you will throw yourself on the mercy of Your heavenly Father.

There is a way that leads to death – and that way includes determining to live up to the exhortations of the Sermon on the Mount on their own. Any way that does not recognize Jesus as the sole Lord and Savior leads to death. And many enter that easy road.

But you need not go that way.

Don’t you see His power? His majesty? His authority? Don’t you see that He lived and died – for you?

Come to Him on that narrow road! Say: “I want to live out this Sermon on the Mount – and I can’t on my own. I want Your righteousness. I acknowledge the literal dead end of all my striving for attention and recognition and success and happiness on earth. I want to be like You – I want to shine with Your light, to live for Your glory. I want to be part of Your Body, to do Your work.”

Jesus is Lord. He is the only Savior. Apart from Him – we are headed to destruction. United with Him, forgiven by His blood, raised to walk in newness of life through Him: We are sons of our heavenly Father.

The Promised One welcomes you. So come to Him.

Will You Love Jahar Tsarnaev?

On Monday, they were just terrorists.

I ran Boston in 1979. I lived in Massachusetts for 12 years. For me, Boston, rather than the Masters, is “a tradition like no other.”

Monday I watched the last hour of the elite race online. I enjoyed it, but turned off the computer after the top 10 finished.

So when a friend called me at 4 and said, offhandedly, “I guess you know about the bombs in Boston,” I was floored. Bombs? At the marathon? Who would do something like this?

Terrorists. Only terrorists.

Friday morning, I wrote about the bombing for the blog. By that time, we knew something about the terrorists. They now had names. A nationality. They were brothers. They were athletes. The younger brother was an excellent student.

We also got a glimpse of the alienation of the older brother, Tamerlan. Several years ago, he wrote: “I don’t have a single American friend, I don’t understand them.”

That resonated with me. Three weeks ago, the Saturday before Easter, I met a Nepali man who had been in the US for almost four years. During that time he had only cursory interactions with Americans. He had never been in an American’s home. I asked him if he knew why he had Good Friday off of work. He said, “I think it has something to do with eggs and rabbits.” The name “Jesus” was vaguely familiar, but he didn’t know who He was. He had no inkling about the Gospel – until that day.

It sounds like Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s experience was similar.

At lunchtime on Friday I turned on the radio, and heard program host and Boston resident Robin Young say, “Some of us have found out that we know these boys.” I was intrigued, and kept listening. It turns out the younger brother, called Jahar by his friends, wrestled on a high school team with Robin Young’s nephew. They were good friends. Jahar had been the life of a party that Robin held for her nephew in her home.

As information streamed in over the internet, I noticed their birthdays. Jahar is 11 months younger than my son Matthew. Sixteen months older than Joel. Tamerlan was a few months younger than my son Jonathan.

That Friday afternoon something clicked in my head. These two were no longer defined by the word “terrorist.” They were no longer abstractions. They were people. They were individuals. They were persons with birthdays and high school friends. They were the life of the party or the quiet kid in the corner.

All that – yet of greater importance:

Tamerlan and Jahar Tsarnaev were made in the image of God.

And: they murdered and maimed others made in the image of God. They committed an act of terrorism. By so doing they had made themselves my enemies, your enemies, our country’s enemies.

Enemies, yes.

And Jesus said:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.  (Matthew 5:43-45)

Yesterday evening, I was praying about whether to preach this sermon or the one I had planned. Driving home from a meeting about 8, flipping through radio stations, I heard a host reading emails from listeners. Each was suggesting what should be done to Jahar when he is convicted. One wrote: “Remember the end of Braveheart, when Mel Gibson is disemboweled?” I can’t even repeat some of the others.

We need to hear God’s Word on this issue.

How do we wrap our minds around this?

How do we love those who have committed such heinous acts?

What is the relationship between such love and love for the victims of their crimes?

What is the relationship between such love and a longing for justice?

Loving Your Enemy: Eight Propositions

1) If we are to love our enemies, surely we are to love those who are NOT our enemies but resemble our enemies.

In this case: Who resembles Tamerlan and Jahar?

The foreigners around us. International students. Refugees. Especially: The Muslims around us.

  • No one is your enemy BECAUSE HE IS A MUSLIM
  • No one is your enemy BECAUSE HE IS A FOREIGNER
  • No one is your enemy because of language or ethnicity or dress or skin color

We must never treat anyone as an enemy because he looks like or talks like someone who is our enemy.

Rather: Can we love and care for and show hospitality to those who resemble our enemies?

Scripture is quite clear on this:

You must regard the foreigner who lives with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.  (Leviticus 19:34)

Love those who resemble your enemies.

2) To love your enemies is not to deny that they are your enemies

Jesus does NOT say: “No one is your enemy. We’re all just one big happy family.”

Jesus had enemies. They tortured Him. They killed Him.

We have enemies. Indeed, Jesus prophesied:

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. (Matthew 24:9)

Once Tamerlan and Jahar decided to commit an act of terror, they became our enemies. Nothing is accomplished by denying that.

More broadly: A small number of Muslims from around the world has become radicalized. These few want to do all they can to wreak murder and mayhem. Those who are taking steps in this direction are our enemies.

Government is charged with helping us to live peaceful and quiet lives, and thus to protect us from enemies. We are charged to pray for government leaders and officials as they take on this difficult task.

We do have enemies.

3) To love your enemies is not to hope against justice

We must long for justice. We must long for every sin to be paid for, for every wrong to be righted.

God is a just God. He is the moral authority in the universe. He guarantees that the right punishment will be rendered for every sin.

In Revelation 6:9-10, John sees “under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.  They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

God doesn’t tell them: “O, don’t long for justice; love your enemies!”

They are right to long for justice – EVEN as they love their enemies.

So in Jahar’s case, love does not imply that we must hope for a lenient sentence, or no sentence at all. We hope for justice – not against it.

4) To love your enemies is perfectly consistent with loving your enemies’ victims

Sometimes in our politics we become advocates, on the one hand, of victims rights, and advocates, on the other hand, of rights of the accused.

Jesus tells us to be advocates for both.

We are to love our enemies AND we are to love EVERY neighbor as we love ourselves. That surely includes our neighbors who are victims.

And so: pray for the families and friends of Lu Lingzi, Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, Sean Collier. Pray for the seriously wounded, including Richard Donohue, the officer critically injured in the Thursday night shootout.

Love the victims.

In propositions five to eight, we turn to how we should see our enemies – in particular, how we see Jahar Tsarnaev today.

5) To love your enemies is to see them as fundamentally like yourself.

What is true of you fundamentally?

What is true of Jahar Tsarnaev fundamentally?

What does Scripture say?

  • You and Jahar are made in the image of God
  • You and Jahar are made to glorify Him
  • You and Jahar have rebelled against God
  • You and Jahar deserve His judgment
  • You and Jahar can do NOTHING to make up for your sins, to pay the penalty for your sins
  • And God so loved you and Jahar – that He sent His one and only Son to die so that you might be forgiven by grace through faith

If you have not turned to God in repentance, with faith in Christ, you stand before God in exactly the same way as Jahar Tsarnaev. For as James tells us, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it” (James 2:10).

Should Jahar turn to Christ, he will stand before God FULLY cleansed – just as clean as anyone in this room, despite the enormity of His sins. For the blood of Jesus is able to wash clean even the vilest of sins.

And if that should happen – JUSTICE WILL HAVE BEEN DONE. For the penalty that Jesus paid – the beatings and whippings and overwhelming flood of God’s wrath that Jesus endured on the cross – is sufficient to satisfy the requirements of justice.

At root, Jahar and you stand before God in exactly the same way:

  • Apart from the blood of Christ: Without hope
  • Covered with the blood of Christ: Completely forgiven

6) To love your enemies is to be like God in showing mercy and kindness to the undeserving, because God showed mercy and kindness to you, the undeserving

Jahar does not deserve mercy. He certainly showed no mercy to his victims.

And our government, our court system, is under no obligation to show mercy. Rather, government is set up by God as His “servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4).

But what about you and me?

Acts like the bombing can lead to righteous anger on our part: An anger at the undermining of what is right and good; a steady, certain, deliberate intention to exercise justice. Such anger is consistent with loving our enemies.

But when that anger morphs into hatred, into a desire for personal vengeance, into the sorts of expressions I heard on the radio last night, we have sinned. We are not loving our enemies.

To love is to desire what is good AND TO DO GOOD for our enemies.

Remember what Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:45, immediately after telling us to love our enemies, and thus to be sons of our heavenly Father:  “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Consider: God gives sun and rain and life and breath every minute of every day to people who hate Him!

God gave YOU sun and rain and life and breath every minute of every day to YOU WHILE you were under His condemnation – when you deserved death!

We are to be LIKE GOD in DOING AND DESIRING GOOD for our enemies.

Specifically, we are to desire the good Paul speaks of in 2 Timothy 2:25-26: We are to pray that God might “grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,  and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”

You have received God’s undeserved mercy and kindness when you were His enemy.

Be like Him!

Show undeserved mercy and kindness to your enemies

We’ll consider the last two propositions together:

7) To love your enemies is to see them as potential kings, potential heirs of the earth

8) To love your enemies is to see them as a potential part of the bride of Christ

Jahar Tsarnaev is made in the image of God. He has polluted that image by his sin and rebellion. By God’s grace, that image can shine forth in majesty and beauty.

Jahar Tsarnaev is potentially an heir of the earth (Matthew 5:5).

Jahar Tsarnaev is potentially part of the Bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-27), dearly loved by Him, indeed, dearly loved by YOU.  As John Newton writes, those who are our enemies now who truly follow Christ will one day be, “Dearer to you than the nearest friend you have upon earth is to you now.”

Could that be true of Jahar?

Love Your enemies.

Pray for Those Who Persecute You

As we’ve said, we must pray for justice.

But also: Pray for Jahar.

  • Pray that God would grant him repentance
  • Pray that God would shatter the walls he has built to shield himself from the Gospel
  • Pray that God would protect him from the even greater hardening that could easily occur in custody
  • Pray that our Lord might open His eyes

And who else hates you? Who persecutes you? “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.”

Remember our text Matthew 5:43-48: If we claim to be followers of Christ, if we say to Him “Lord, Lord,” we are to be different. We are to do more than others. We are to take on a family resemblance to Christ. Indeed, we are to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. We are to be agents of God’s mercy.

So: List your enemies.

Some might be abstractions, anonymous groups. But be sure to include individuals: Those who would do you harm if they could. List them. Pray for them.

As for the Boston Bombings:

  • Pray for justice. By all means.
  • Pray for information about contacts with foreign terrorists, if any.
  • Pray for those whom they so cruelly injured.
  • Pray for the families who have lost loved ones
  • And pray for Jahar.

That You May Be Sons of Your Father

God in His mercy has invited you to be His child

  • He has covered your guilt with the blood of Jesus
  • He has invited you into His Family
  • He will wipe every tear from your eyes
  • He will love you with an everlasting love
  • You can call Him Daddy
  • He will never leave you nor forsake you

And He enables you to look like Him. He empowers you to display His image. Indeed, He commands you by His power to treat your enemies as He treated you when you were His enemy.

He loved you when you were His enemy.

Will you love your enemies?

Will you love Jahar Tsarnaev?

By a process that we do not yet understand, he became your enemy. He became our enemy.

By a process that God has revealed to us, he can become your brother. May he become our brother.

Love Jahar. Love Your enemy. Pray for those who persecute you.

So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

(This is a shortened version of a sermon preached 4/21/13. The audio of the sermon is available here.)