Literally Speaking
When I was at study on thursday my bible teacher taught us briefly about a doctrine common among churches today called Theistic Evolution.
Theistic Evolution is the belief that God created the world but that the process which he used to create humans was evolution itself.
Rosemary warned against the perils of believing this based on what Genesis says about the post fall events.
The Bible teaches that death entered the world AFTER and as a consequence of sin, therefore if we believe Genesis 1 we need to reject the notion that over thousands or millions of years amoebas or whatever died thousands of times.
Causatively we come to the point where one being is made in the image of God and another is not and therefore not accountable to God morally.
Believing in any form of evolution eases the burden of death to a process rather than the result of sin and ultimately leads us to form a lower view of Christ’s sacrificial death.
Matt 25:31-46 Parable of Sheep & Goats
What is the context of this parable?
Jesus is responding to the disciples question about when the temple will be destroyed. What follows is a string of teachings and parables about the end times. Notice how Jesus does not answer their question but rather looks forward to a more important reality, his return and judgement of the world.
He goes on to teach:
- Signs of his return
- Peril of the times preceding his return
- Jesus will return in glory
- Believers should desire and be ready for his return
Draw us a picture
- God coming in great Glory with his Angels (he is accompanied)
- All nations are gathered before him
- He Separates them (Judgement starts) into sheep and goats
- He pronounces blessing on the sheep
- Jesus tells about a group of people in need
- Thereafter we see that the sheep and the goats respond differently to the needs of others.
- The way they responded to the needs of the others / the Lord is related to their destiny
- The ‘Goats’ go away into enteral punishment, Righteous into eternal life
Who is Jesus speaking to?
From the context we learn that Jesus is talking to the disciples (believers) however the values are universally applicable.
What is the central message?
In the passage the Lord mentions the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, prisoners and says “And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
The Lord equates mercy to this brothers to mercy to the Lord himself. This is very close to the Lord’s heart and purposes.
Jesus identifies the conscious suffering of believers and that those who are believers are set apart by their response to their suffering.
Who are the Lord’s brothers?
Matthew 12:49-50, “And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’”
We see that the term “Brothers” refers to believers.
Does this mean that we should only show mercy to believers? No! In Luke 6:27-36 Jesus explicitly tells us that we should love our enemies and that if we only love those who love us then we are no better than unbelievers.
What does mercy mean?
We see in the passage that the response of the believers to the needs of the Lord’s brothers is practical and relieves the suffering identified.
Is the mercy limited to meeting physical / practical needs? If we look deeper to the Lord’s command to “love your neighbor as you love yourself” we know that there are virtually no limits to the ways in which we can show love to others.
Is this a salvation topic?
This parable mirrors the principle found in the preceding parables of the Talents (Matt 25:14-29), the parable of the Marriage feast (Matt 22:1-14) , the parable of the landowner (Matt 21:33-43) as well as in James 2:17 “faith without works is dead”
All of these passages teach that if we have genuine faith in Christ as the Son of God that acts will accompany our faith.
Note how in v46 the Lord calls the sheep “the righteous”
If we persist in acts of unrighteousness or fail to show forgiveness or mercy we can’t claim to have genuine faith in Christ and are not saved as we are ultimately persisting in unbelief (this theme runs throughout the old and new testaments).
How does this passage apply to us today?
Where do we see mercy demonstrated in the church today? We see Churches sending teams to Victoria to assist with bush fire victims, we send missionaries to Asia to help those in prostitution and we give of our finances. We don’t all need to be the one who hands the bread to the hungry BUT we should endeavor to help those in need in any way we can. If you can’t go then give. If you don’t have money give your time or pray. Pray that God would grant your heart empathy. Sit next to someone you don’t know at church. Our church needs people to step out and do these things.
We know that one day the Lord will return in Glory and will judge the world. There is a time of reckoning. Whenever we show mercy to believers or unbelievers we should be quick to mention the mercy that Christ has already shown us as believers. We should take every opportunity to urge others to find ultimate mercy, enjoyment and fulfillment in Christ.
If we confess Christ is Lord then we should labour to show mercy, not to achieve salvation but out of confidence that we are saved through our belief in Christ, desiring to honour and love the one to whom it is due, Jesus Christ.
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