3am
Despite my best efforts, I seem to always end up awake late at night with some existential rhetorical question stuck in my head. We had the School of Theology at Vintage earlier tonight and we were talking about what the costs of being a Christian are. Obviously, here in America at least, modern day Christians don’t have to fear Roman soldiers breaking down their doors and feeding them to the lions, but that doesn’t mean our lives are all honey and lattes. One of the main things we talked about is how crazy it seems when you start looking at what Jesus said it takes to get into heaven. Time and again you read of Him giving people tasks that are impossible. For a person to enter Heaven based on their own merits requires them to be absolutely perfect and blameless. Since this is impossible in a post-fall world, it is by the grace of Jesus we are able to cross that hurdle and gain entry. Now, think about this for a second, what if Jesus ministry had been based around the idea that if you just tried hard enough or had good enough intentions you could gain entry to Heaven? Suddenly there is no need for the cross, no need for grace, no need to be compassionate and love your neighbor. The fact perfect adhearance to the law (ie the Old Covenant) is the only way a person can gain entrance to Heaven is one of the things that makes what Jesus says make any sense at all. Jesus doesn’t so much tell us to ignore Rabbinic law as He provides an end around for post-fall creation to be reconciled on the cross. By becoming the final ultimate sacrifice under the old covenant, He broke down the barriers and made it possible for us to attain the impossible.
