Luke 10:25-28 (3)

********** Start Timer **********

-Let me invite you to turn back to Luke 10.

We’ve come down to a new section...

…that begins in Verse 25...

…and goes all the way through Verse 37...

…and it centers around a pretty familiar parable that Jesus taught...

…that we usually refer to as...

The Parable of the Good Samaritan.

And, I think that most of us...

…are fairly acquainted with the parable itself...

…but I also think that we (myself included) tend to...

…overlook the circumstances that lead up to it...

…and how they connect to...

…that long section that we’ve been...

…going over for the last several weeks.

It seems to me as though this event...

…is being set before us...

…as a sort of case study...

…to prove the assertions...

…that Jesus had just been making...

Namely, that the Father has…

Luke 10:21 (ESV)

21 ...hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children...

Click Off

And, I’ll show you what I mean by that...

…in just a moment.

-Also, by way of introduction…

…You need to be aware that...

...Verses 25-28 (which serve as the preface to the parable)...

…deal with, what (in my opinion)...

…is one of the most important and most debated...

...theological questions of all time.

What is the relationship between the Law and the Gospel?

And I would submit to you, that...

…the gospel reductionism that has taken place...

…in the last 150 years or so...

…has left many unable to answer it.

But, it’s important that we recover that ability...

…and I think that these first four Verses...

…are going to help us to do that.

-Alright, let’s read our text...

…and for the sake of time...

…We’re only going to read Verses 25-28 this morning

Luke 10:25–37 (ESV)

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

Click Off

Pray

-Luke begins Verse 25...

…with the introduction of...

…a new character into the narrative:

He says… first of all...

Luke 10:25 (ESV)

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up...

-Now, we need to be careful with this title.

In this First-Century Jewish context...

…to be “a lawyer” . . .

…meant that you were an expert...

…in the Law of Moses.

It was more akin to our...

Bible Scholars

Theologians...

…than to what we think of as “lawyers” today.

You might say, that this man...

…was an Old Testament Scholar.

Why is that important?

Well, because of what Jesus had said in Verse 21:

Luke 10:21 (ESV)

21 . . . “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children...

You see, this man was the very picture...

...of one who was considered...

Wise and Understanding (Has it all put together)

And he is the very antithesis of...

...those who would have been seen as...

Little Children

-And in keeping with the harmony...

…that we often see between...

God’s Sovereignty

Man’s Responsibility...

...Luke tells us the motivations of the man’s own heart:

Luke 10:25 (ESV)

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test...

-Now, some commentators say...

…that Luke isn’t meaning to convey anything...

…negative about the man, here.

They say that since it was expected...

…for rabbis to discuss theological matters in public (and it was)...

…that we should take this a sincere question...

…coming from a well-intended man...

…who simply wanted to vet Jesus as an itinerant Rabbi...

…for the sake of the people...

…to whom he was preaching.

-But, I don’t think Luke leaves us that option.

Rather, I think the man was laying a trap for Jesus...

…in the hopes of having an occasion to publicly discredit him.

Verse 29 would seem to indicate an unrighteous motive...

…in and of itself...

...But, the word Luke uses (in the original)....

…to describe this “testing” . . .

…is even more persuasive than that.

It’s only used 3 other times in the NT (in this form)...

…and all 3 have the same negative connotation.

We first saw it back in Chapter 4...

…during Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness.

Both Matthew and Luke used it there...

…to record Jesus’ rebuttal to Satan...

…as he was tempting Him to put...

The Audible word of God at Jesus’ baptism

The Written word of God in Psalm 91...

…to the test...

…to see if it held true.

Remember Jesus’ response?

Luke 4:12 (ESV)

12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

-The only other usage (in this form)...

...is in 1 Corinthians 10, where Paul warned...

1 Corinthians 10:9–10 (ESV)

9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,

10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

I’d say that given all of this...

…it’s safe for us to assume...

…that when he’s asking the question...

…he’s not genuinely seeking for its answer.

-But, in spite of his illicit motives...

…he actually asks a really important question...

One that we all desperately need to know the answer to.

He asks him:

Luke 10:25 (ESV)

25 . . . “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

Now, before we read any further...

…ask yourself how most people today would respond to this?

Ask Jesus to come into your heart!

Pray the Sinner’s Prayer

Go up front at the altar call, etc.

Guys, I just want to point it out at the outset...

…that Jesus doesn’t say any of those things.

Nothing even close.

He takes this man down a very different road.

And there’s good reason for it (I think).

-But, before we look at Jesus’ response...

...notice a few things...

…that are sort of presupposed within question:

The concept of an inheritance from the Lord for His people...

That that inheritance is one that can/must be earned.

He said:

Luke 10:25 (ESV)

25 . . . “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit . . .”

3. He goes beyond...

…the place that many of his time...

…would go:

Luke 10:25 (ESV)

25 . . . “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

And, it may surprise us to realize...

…that this wasn’t a concept that was...

…unique to the New Testament!

We see other Jewish men asking Jesus similar questions.

For example:

Luke 18:18 (ESV)

18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

And Paul made this statement in his letter to Titus:

Titus 1:1–3 (ESV)

1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth...

2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

-So, in a very real sense (as we saw in Hebrews 11)...

…the faithful of every generation...

…have had some hope of...

An imperishable inheritance

Life beyond the grave.

-Now, look at the way Matthew records Jesus’ response...

…to the question that we read before:

Matthew 19:16–17 (ESV)

16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”

Is that first statement completely random?

Or is there a connection between the two?

There’s a HUGE connection...

And a very IMPORTANT connection:

The Moral Law...

…is based upon God’s moral perfections.

It is an outworking of it.

Ergo, if you’re going to live with God...

…you must conform perfectly...

…to His nature...

…and the Moral Law...

…tells us how to do that.

-Look at what Jesus asks the man in our text, in...

Luke 10:26 (ESV)

26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

Remember that the man is an expert in the Law.

He asks Jesus what must be done...

…to gain the eternal favor of God...

…and Jesus points Him to what God has already commanded of men.

And he says (essentially)...

…You’re an OT Scholar...

…You tell me what you think it says!

-Now, as good Evangelical Christians...

If someone asks us what they have to do...

…to gain eternal life...

Are we going to tell them...

…to look to the Law of Moses for answers?

Should that cause us to (potentially)...

…rethink our own methods?

That’s a possibility!

Brethren, we have bought into a false-notion...

…that says that the New Testament stands alone...

…and we have no further need of the Old...

…except to make fancy End-Times Charts!

Nothing could be further from the truth!

The law is still very useful...

…provided it is used appropriately.

Paul said that the Jews had...

Romans 2:20 (ESV)

20 ...in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—

Jesus said:

Matthew 5:19 (ESV)

19 ...whoever relaxes 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 does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

And then he said:

Matthew 5:20 (ESV)

20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

i.e., inherit eternal life!

And Paul says:

Romans 2:13 (ESV)

13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

i.e., inherit eternal life!

But, let me be clear:

Paul also says:

Romans 3:20 (ESV)

20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Do you see the dilemma?

-So, how do we resolve it?

Well, we first need to remember...

…that the Covenant through which the Law came...

…showed, simultaneously, the pathway...

To Blessing

To Being Cursed.

It was, as they say...

…a Covenant of Works:

For example:

Deuteronomy 11:26–28 (ESV)

26 “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:

27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today,

28 and the curse, if you do not obey...

This was the basic charter of the Law of Moses.

Here is what a holy God requires of those who bear his sacred image

Conform to it and be blessed

Rebel against it and be damned

-So then, given that context...

…it makes perfect sense...

…that Jesus would point the man back to the Law...

…back to the Code that said...

…here’s what you must do to be blessed of God!

-Now, watch how the Jewish Lawyer answers:

Luke 10:27 (ESV)

27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Do you see what the man did here?

It’s actually a great response (in a sense).

He summed up the entire duty...

…placed upon men by the Moral Law...

…into two over-arching commands.

We know this is the case...

…because Jesus did the same thing himself:

Do you remember...

Matthew 22:35–40 (ESV)

35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

38 This is the great and first commandment.

39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The first tablet: Our duty to God

The second tablet: Our duty to our fellow man

-So, given this...

…what’s the man really saying?

He’s saying that it’s actually really simple:

If you want to live forever...

…just obey the law of God perfectly...

From the moment of natural birth

To the moment of natural death

This may sound heretical to us...

…but it is a claim that the Law itself made:

Leviticus 18:5 (ESV)

5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.

Later, the LORD would tell Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 20:11 (ESV)

11 I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live.

And Paul would later go on to say:

Romans 10:5 (ESV)

5 ...Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.

But what’s more convincing than even these...

…is how Jesus responds to the Jewish Lawyer in Verse 28.

We would have expected Jesus to rebuke him...

…for his legalism...

Instead, Luke tells us:

Luke 10:28 (ESV)

28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly...

You got it right!

Then he says:

Luke 10:28 (ESV)

28 . . . “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

Sounds just like what the Law said, doesn’t it?

Now, what’s the problem with this for us?

Romans 7:10–13 (ESV)

10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good...

Ryken says this:

Jesus was answering the lawyer on his own terms, giving a legal answer to a legal question.

Is there anything we can do to gain eternal life? Yes, the law of God offers salvation to anyone who fully satisfies its demands.

“Do this,” Jesus said, “and you will live.” But who is able to do it?

No one, except the sinless Son of God. — Philip Ryken

You see… you and I ARE saved by works!

But not our own works!

Those can only condemn us

But we ARE saved through Christ’s works...

As a man

In our place.

He obeyed the Law perfectly...

From the time of His birth

To the point of His death

He did that FOR US.

That’s what Paul meant when he said:

Romans 8:3–4 (ESV)

3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Ryken again says:

…The Scripture says, “by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20; cf. Gal. 3:10).

In other words, we can never be saved by keeping the law—not because there is anything wrong with the law, but because there is something wrong with us.

This was the obvious implication of what Jesus said to the lawyer.

He was laying down an impossible challenge designed to drive sinners to seek a Savior. — Ryken

This is what the Law was ALWAYS meant to do...

And, if we use it properly...

…this is what the Law will still do today!

It shows us the way of righteousness...

And leaves us looking outside of ourselves for the satisfaction of it.

Paul says:

Romans 10:4 (ESV)

4...Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Click Off

-Now, I want to finish with...

…this treatise on Justification by Faith in Galatians 3...

…So that there’s no confusion here...

…and you don’t walk away thinking...

…that you can earn heaven...

…by YOUR OWN keeping of the Law.

The Scripture is emphatically clear on this...

…and when it’s properly understood...

…it doesn’t contradict our text in the slightest.

Galatians 3:10–14 (ESV)

10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”

12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…

Galatians 3:14 (ESV)

14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come...

Click Off

-Christ has done what you and I will never do.

He has fulfilled the perfect obedience that the Law demands.

And...

He has borne its righteous punishments upon himself.

If his “doing” of it, is not your confidence...

If his “doing” is not your only hope...

Then you will NOT inherit eternal life.

Please…

Don’t set aside the Moral Law of God

Consider its holy demands...

...And then, look away from yourself.

Look to Christ in faith!

Look to him to provide for you..

…what you are incapable of providing for yourself.

Let’s Pray