SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/7/2016 11:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Be Self-Righteous
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 8:22
Message of the verse: “22 So the Jews were saying, "Surely He
will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ’Where I am going, you cannot
come’?’”
For some
reason the sermon that I downloaded from John MacArthur’s website is not on the
website at this time and there was a portion that I wanted to quote from
it. What I remember that he said was
that as we look at this section we will see four ways here that if a person has
one of them they will not enter into the kingdom of God, now that does not mean
that if a person has one now and they realize it and repent and then receive
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior that they will not be saved, for they
will. However as we look at this section
the people whom Jesus was speaking to had one or more of the problems we will
see here, and the first one is that they are self-righteous. You may not understand that from looking at
this one verse, but hopefully you will after we talk about it.
First we
want to go back to John 8:21 “21 Then He said again to them, "I go away,
and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot
come.’” This verse surely ties into what
the Jews responded to as seen in verse 22.
We see that Jesus’ statement in verse 21 tells us and them that He has
given up on them as He tells them that they cannot go where He is going, and
that means that He is going back to His Father in heaven. Why could they not go? Well the answer to that is given as we look
at these four reasons that people can ensure that they will have a tragic and
eternal death.
The answer
to what Jesus told them in verse 21 by these Jews is actually a question “Is He
going to kill Himself? Now it may not
look like a question in the text but it was a question in the hearts of the
Jews who spoke it, and that is actually the key to their self-righteousness. First century Jewish historian Josephus wrote
“The souls of those whose hands have acted madly against themselves are
received by the darkest place in Hades.”
MacArthur adds “Since they assumed that they were going to heaven, the
Jews mockingly suggested that Jesus must be speaking of killing Himself, in
which case He would go to hell.
“Smugly
confident in their self-righteousness, they were not just deaf to Jesus’ words,
but they mockingly, blasphemously twisted their meaning. It is true that Jesus, though not committing
suicide, would give up His life voluntarily.
In John 10:17-18 He said, ‘17 “For this reason the Father loves Me,
because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 “No one has taken it
away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay
it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received
from My Father." But He would not
die by His own hand, but rather at the hands of those very men who now mocked
Him (Acts 2:23). And the place to which
He was referring—where He would go but they could not follow—was not hell, but
heaven.”
John 15:13
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” This verse also speaks of Jesus laying down
His life for his friends, and as mentioned that was truly not suicide, and I
was thinking about perhaps someone in the armed forces who would do something
like falling down on a hand grenade to save the lives of those around him, by
dying in the process. This too would not
be suicide, but he would be dying for his friends. Now back to our topic of self-righteousness.
I think that it is important for us
to better understand more about self-righteousness and why no one can be saved
by having self-righteousness like the Jews in Jesus’ day had, thinking that
they could be saved on their own good works and then looking down their noses
to those who in their self-righteous opinions did not measure up. Paul tells the Ephesians that we are saved by
grace through faith and then goes on to say it is not of our own, but a gift of
God, and then says “not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” It seems to me that those in the audience of
Jesus were doing a lot of boasting. Tragically,
today we have cults and “religions” who are similar to those of the Jews in
Jesus’ day.
We will
look at some more Scriptures on self-righteousness in our next SD, both from
the Old and New Testaments.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I would suppose that a synonym of self-righteousness
is pride and pride is a problem for all people, including believers. There are times when the Lord has to put me
in my place because of pride and my prayer each day is that the Lord, through
His Holy Spirit would keep me from the sins and not allow me to fall into the
temptations of lust, anger, selfishness, and pride.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to give me
victory over the temptations that are mentioned above, and not fall into those
sins.
Memory verses for the week:
2 Corinthians 12:7-9 “7. Because of the surpassing greatness of the
revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given
me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from
exalting myself. 8. Concerning this I
implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient
for you, for power is perfected in weakness,’ most gladly, therefore, I will rather
boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Obadiah” (2 Kings 18:13).
Today’s Bible question:
“Where was Og king?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/7/2016 12:46 PM
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