Geeky Bob | March 2024

One Of My Favorite Easter Stories

Several years ago I discovered the following excerpt from a sermon by Alistair Begg, and the parable that is contained within this short snippet has become one of my favorite Easter stories.

Giving full credit to its original author, I would like to include this short apologue for your benefit on this Easter.

Without the preaching of the cross, without preaching the cross to ourselves, all day and every day, we will very, very quickly revert to "faith plus works" as the ground of our salvation.

So that to go to the old Fort Lauderdale question: "If you were to die tonight and you were getting entry into heaven, what would you say?"

If you answer that - and if I answer that - in the first person, we've immediately gone wrong:

"Because I..."
"Because I believed..."
"Because I have faith..."
"Because I am this..."
"Because I am continuing..."

Loved ones, the only proper answer is in the third person: "Because He! Because He!"

Think about the thief on the cross. I can't wait to find that fellow one day to ask him, "How did that shake out for you? Because you were cussing the guy out with your friend. You've never been in a Bible study. You never got baptized. You didn't know a thing about church membership, and yet... you made it! You made it! How did you make it?"

That's what the angel must have said, you know...

"What are you doing here?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Well, 'cause I don't know."

"Well, you know... (Mumbles)... Excuse me, let me get my supervisor."

[They go get their supervisor angel.]

"So, we have just a few questions for you. First of all, are you clear on the Doctrine of Justification by Faith?"

The guy said, "I've never heard of it in my life."

"And what about... let's just go to the Doctrine of Scripture immediately."

This guy's just staring - and eventually, in frustration, he [the supervisor] says, "On what basis are you here?"

And he said, "The Man on the middle cross said I can come."

Now that is the ONLY answer. That is the only answer. And if I don't preach the gospel to myself all day and every day, then I will find myself beginning to trust myself, trust my experience, which is part of my fallenness as a man. If I take my eyes off the cross, I can, then, give only lip service to its efficacy, while at the same time living as if my salvation depends upon me. And as soon as you go there, it will lead you either to abject despair or a horrible kind of arrogance.

And it is only the Cross of Christ that deals both with the dreadful depths of despair and the pretentious arrogance of the pride of man that says, "You know, I can figure this out and I'm doing wonderfully well." No.

Because the Sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

That's why Luther says most of your Christian life is outside of you, in this sense that we know that we're not saved by good works. We're not saved as a result of our professions, but we're saved as a result of what Christ has achieved.

Deliberately Misquoting Jesus

Someone whom I've known for decades and greatly admire recently posted the following series of statements from Reverend James Martin, SJ:

What Jesus never said:
"Feed the hungry only if they have papers."
"Clothe the naked only if they're from your country."
"Welcome the stranger only if there's zero risk."
"Help the poor only if it's convenient."
"Love your neighbor only if they look like you."

Every statement that Mr. Martin makes is factually correct, however, I typically do not like comments like these nor the memes they become because they are abusing the love of Christ in a not-so-cleverly veiled way that implies Jesus said something that He did not. I will expound on that concept in a moment, but first I'd like to share a recent experience from one of my neighbors.

This is a true story: a couple weeks ago, one of my neighbors awoke shortly past midnight and walked downstairs to find a complete stranger sitting on his couch in his living room and eating his food. Think about that for a moment: a person whom you do not know has broken into your house while you were sleeping. You don't know whether they're dangerous, and yet this person is making themselves at home and helping themselves to your possessions. Imagine how terrified and how violated you would feel.

Now let's re-examine Mr. Martin's statements within the context that I have just shared: it was not my neighbor's responsibility to feed/clothe/house this intruder, regardless of whether she was legally in the country (which she was), or whether she was poor (which she probably was), or whether she looked like my neighbor (which isn't remotely relevant). In the end, all that matters is that the burglar was trespassing - she had no right to be in my neighbor's house, sitting on his couch, and eating his food. Despite Mr. Martin's specious pontifications, if he had been in my neighbor's shoes he would have done the same thing my neighbor did - he would have called the police.

Bringing this back to my opening statement, that is why I don't like it when people like Mr. Martin arrogantly twist the words of Christ to make a cheap political statement, and I don't believe that Jesus would like being misquoted, either. What Mr. Martin is attempting to do is to cram his political views about immigration and other subjects down others' throats by hiding behind a series of grandiose proclamations that he's disguising as our Savior's intentions, which - quite literally - makes Mr. Martin a false prophet.