umm...

First, read:

The Sheep and the Goats

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Matthew 25:31-46

Now, answer:

Is it possible to be righteous through Christ, without helping "the least of these"?

Comments

[Loren Eaton]

Short answer: One is declared righteous before God based solely on his volitional belief in the atoning work of Christ (Romans 4:1-4), and that justification is displayed through righteous works (James 2:22). Helping "the least of these brothers of mine" is an outworking of being righteous through Christ.

[Just Matt]

Having just sat through the lecture on this - Yes you can. For we are made righteous by grace through Christ's work on the cross - NOT by what we do (even helping the least of these). HOWEVER as James says "Faith without deeds/works is dead" - which leads to the fact that a person who is truly "saved" cannot help himself but to take care of the "least of these" in some form or fashion. The Holy Spirit within a believer drives them to this. There was a phrase used last night that summed this up nicely...however I cannot remember it now...Grab my notebook from my bag and look at the last page from last night...you will see it there....

[amy]

Okay - so then what's with the ending here - those who help the poor go to heaven, those who don't - thrown into the weeping and gnashing of teeth? It sure would seem like we are not truly righteous without these works...

[Just Matt]

I think it is, as I said earlier, that if you are truly saved then you will do these things - you can not, not do these things. There is an inner drive that makes you uneasy at the sights and sounds of hunger, injustice, thirst, etc. Think about it - does seeing hungry kids in Africa make you want to do something about it? Does hearing of the social injustices in Darfur make you want to do something about it? I would say if you ask any true Christian the answer would be a big Yes followed by: ...and here are my Compassion Kids, and here is how we are supporting Blood:Water Mission, etc. etc. Where as if you ask someone who claims to be a Christian and they say yeah I want to do something but I really need to take care of this or that in my own life first - then maybe Christ is in their head and not in their heart. It is like that list Brant gave in his blog yesterday. You can believe all those things and do all those things but it doesn't mean you are saved. You can tie this parable to the previous one about the 10 virgins. People can think that they are ready to meet the bridegroom (Christ) because they have their lamps (Bible knowledge, church membership, etc) but they have no oil (Holy Spirit) and thus no relationship. No relationship means no deeds. Kinda wordy - hopefully my point gets across.

[amy]

So then you're saying No, you can't be righteous in Christ without doing what this teaching says. It is Christ who saves us, but our works that identify us?

[Just Matt]

To the last part of your statement - Yes - It is Christ who saves us, but our works that identify us. I think it is our righteousness that makes us do these things not vice versa.

[Brant]

For my two cents: I think it's fascinating that it's Paul, not Jesus, who gets to provide the answer. Jesus's answers don't work with our well-developed theology.

In Luke 11, Jesus is straightforward about this. But it doesn't fit what we already thought, so we move right along.

Matthew 25 fits beautifully with Jesus's answer in Luke 11 to the "How do I get eternal life?" question. He even spells it out, to an audience what would get it: Loving these people and loving God are one and the same.

Is "love" a "work"? The only reason I'd care, I think, is if I was trying to fit something into my theology. Otherwise, I'd think it was a pretty simple issue. If you love God wholeheartedly, you will find Him, and you will enjoy His Kingdom-in-full. If you don't, you wouldn't like it, anyway. Otherwise you'd be enjoying Him, now.

Does that make any sense...?

[amy]

As The Porch can attest, I keep getting caught between the Jesus who finished the work on the cross, and the Jesus who chews us up for shirking our responsibilities. Just when I get comfortable (again) with the idea that I am not the source of my salvation and start feeling like I can get rid of my lists, I come across something like this (again), that (seemingly) piles on the responsibility. I like to put (things) in parentheses.

But what I always forget about - and Brad is probably waiting to smack me on the head - is that I am not even "responsible" for the "responsibilities." I am only capable of doing anything through Christ and the Holy Spirit working in my life, so as Matt is pointing out right now while I'm typing - the Holy Spirit will make it impossible for the Christian (who has had the love of God and faith placed in his heart) to "shirk his responsibility" to love the least of these. I "also" like to put things in "quotes."

And Brant, the "is Love a work?" question was kind of an "aha!" moment for me. Being a "get it done" kind of girl, it is so easy for me to separate love from "works" in the interest of efficiency. But He doesn't want my efficiency, He wants my love. I wish he wanted my efficiency. I could knock that one out of the park.

[Just Matt]

This verse popped in my head as I drove to work this morning and I think it is very applicable here. We all know the first half of 1 Cor. 13 - but the second half sheds some light on this conversation:

10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Before we received the Holy Spirit we acted like children - everything was 'me' focused. But when we by grace come to Christ and receive His gift we put childish (self-focused) ways behind us and notice all of the other people around who need our love.

Also, as I listened to a Joel Hunter sermon this morning the first 5 mins (that is all I listened to) covered this exact topic (this was not planned by me) - He pointed out three things about our role as Christians:
1. Head - we need to have Bible knowledge and know about God.
2. Heart - Personal Relationship with Jesus that is more than head knowledge.
3. Hands - Our Behavior - living out what we believe.

Good stuff...If you'd like to listen to Joel Hunter - and you should - go to iTunes and search for Northland in the Podcast section. The lesson I listened to today was from 12/18/06 titled: The Kingdom Comes to...the Activist.

[Loren Eaton]

Are we still debating this? I think the Reformers answered it pretty well ...

A slightly longer answer: Justified has at least two senses in Scripture. One of them is "judicially declaring a person or thing to be righteous." The other is "demonstrating that a person or thing is righteous." Thus Luke 7:29, which reads, "When all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John." Obviously, God doesn't need to be made righteous (by tax collectors, of all people!), but He can be shown to be righteous. Same with us and the needy.

Interestingly, a close reading of the text shows that Jesus isn't talking about poor in general, but poor believers ("the least of these brothers of mine"). Other passages, such as Galatians 6:10, expand it, though.

[Just Matt]

Loren - I don't believe it is a debate but more of a talking through. The "issue" here is the wording. Why is it worded:
"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment"

Just this wording makes it sound like if you don't DO something then you cannot be righteous. Of Course we know this is NOT the case as discussed above - but it can cause a bit of a hang up b/c it is in there. Just trying to wrap our human minds around kingdom thoughts.

[berry]

something tells me it won't be this complicated on that day. but that there will definitely be some surprises.

[Loren Eaton]

Ah, got it. Looking back at my last post, I see it came of a little more snarky than I intended. Guess I need to work on my own wording. Discuss on!

[Vanessa]

good word...snarky

[John Thompson]

Funny how yesterday I was approached by a homeless man in a Publix parking lot. He said he and his wife just moved here in a van and needed money for food. All I had was my debit card. So, I really had nothing to do, and I offered to buy him some food. I asked him could he cook it in his van? He said no. He said his wife liked Wendy's. So I offered to walk with him over to the Burger King or the Wendy's and buy him a sandwich or two. He then refused... Wha??? I offered again, and the same thing. Then he walked away. Sheesh I can't even help the least of these...