Faith That Lives
Faith That Lives
Pastor Barry Kerner
In my family we constantly seem to be separating things and placing them into categories. When the mail comes in, I separate it into three piles. One pile for pieces I need to open and address, one pile for my wife, and one pile destined for the recycling bin. Every spring and fall we drag totes of past seasons’ clothing down from the attic and separate them into a pile which we’ll keep and hopefully wear or into a pile of things that are no longer fashionable or will no longer fit and which will be donated to the thrift store.
When I was much younger my dad, needing more room for a growing family, built an addition on the back of our brick house outside of Pittsburgh. Being as he called himself, “A Jack-Of-All-Trades but Master-Of-None,” he did most of the work himself with the help of some friends and my two brothers and me. One of the first things he did was to remove two stories of orange bricks from the back of the house so that he would be able to attach the new beams and trusses to the existing house. It fell to my brothers and I to sort the bricks into a pile of ones which were in “good” enough shape to reuse or bricks that were broken or damaged and were to be discarded into the “bad” pile. Because chiseling the old mortar off to clean the good bricks was next on the chore list for my brothers and me, it seemed that our criteria for a brick being worthless was low and the discarded pile grew tall.
The Bible shows us that we serve a God who separate things. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Genesis 1:1-2) Scripture tells us that God then said, “Let there be light“, (1:3) and, “God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.” (1:4)
As that this light was separated from the darkness prior to the creation of the sun, stars and moon on the fourth day some hold that the light of the first day was the manifestation of Jesus: “The true light, which enlightens everyone” John 1:9, “The light of the world” John 8:12; 9:5 or of God’s Shekinah Glory which is often said to shine and equated with light (see Exodus 40:34; 2 Chronicles 7:1-2; Ezekiel 43:2; Psalm 27:1; 1 John 1:5)
Seeing the light was good and separating it from the darkness God set up the concept of dualism wherein light is equated with goodness and darkness is equated with evil. That these two are opposed is evident in Christ, “The light of the world” (John 8:12) and Satan, who rules the domain of darkness (Ephesians 6:12; Acts 26:18, Colossians 1:13)
God advances this concept of dualism when He separates Israel, His chosen people (Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 14:2; Psalm 135:4; Hebrews 8:8-13) from the other nations of the world. Scripture equates believers, those called out of the world, with righteousness and opposed to those still living in darkness, unbelievers, with unrighteousness. This contrast of the righteous and unrighteous is brought to the forefront in the Psalms, Proverbs and several of Jesus Kingdom Parables (Wheat and Tares; Dragnet; Sheep and Goats.) The final judgment will mark the time when the two, good and evil, are finally separated.
In the three Kingdom Parables the separate destinies of the righteous and the unrighteous, at the end of the age judgment, is distinct. In the Parable of the Wheat and Tares (Matthew 13:24-30) , at the harvest (End of the Age) the two are judged. The tares (Unrighteous) being found lacking are bundled and burned destined for Hell while the Wheat (Righteous) are destined to be brought into the barn (Heaven). Likewise in the Parable of the Dragnet (Matthew 13:47-50), the fish that are caught when the net is drawn in (End of the Age) are judged and separated. The good fish (Righteous) are kept and placed into containers (Heaven) and the bad fish (Unrighteous) are discarded (Hell). And, in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats (Matthew 25:31-46) , “when the Son of Man” (Jesus) “comes in his glory” (End of the Age) the sheep and the goats are judged and separated. Those who, by virtue of their righteousness, were compassionate and caring, loved their neighbor, and so loved Jesus. These of “his sheep” inherit, “the kingdom prepared for them since the creation of the world.” Contrasting these are those whose character was unrighteous. They lacked the compassion towards their neighbor and failed to exhibit the care and love commanded for their neighbor. Their lack of love for their neighbor is considered as a lack of love for Jesus. Jesus was clear as to their destiny, “Depart from me,you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:41) In verse 46, Jesus reinforces this stark degree of separation destined for the two groups, “Then they [ the unrighteous] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
As a result of their love for their neighbor, the righteous of the parable, “his sheep”, showed their love for Christ. “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.” (Matthew 25:36-36)
Although, God’s gift of eternal life is obtained not by works but, “that we are saved by grace through faith alone,” (Ephesians 2:8-9) James makes it clear that, like the unrighteous goats of the Parable, a faith that does not exhibit good works (love for our neighbors)) is dead. (James 2:17) We would do well to do as Paul wrote the Corinthians, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Corinthians 13:5) Though these three Kingdom Parables paint a bleak picture for the unrighteous, the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats gives us a standard by which to “test ourselves.” Through God;’s Word, we can gauge whether ours is a dead faith void of love for our neighbors or if Christ’s love is indeed within us and our faith is alive.
Although we live in a world of darkness the redeemed of the Lord have been called out to be separate from the world. Our calling is to be a light to that would. The way for believers to illuminate the world of darkness is to love our God, whom we cannot see, by loving our neighbors, whom we can see, through a faith that lives. (1 John 4 20)