Not Far From The Kingdom of God
Blue v13-34 Ch 12 Markv13 Some Pharisees were sent to catch Jesus in His words, and as they approached Him they pretended to be on His side, pretending to be in support of Him... v14 "Teacher, we know that You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth..." they acted nice but really were just wolves in sheep's clothing (Matt 7:15) "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"
Jesus, knowing their hypocrisy said, "Why do you test Me?" v15 (These people were skilled in law so should have known what to look for since even the law talks about being moral, obedient, faithful to God... all of which Jesus was doing). When you get used to a certain way of doing something it is hard to change by doing something another way... People of today will test Jesus (Who is flowing out from His people through His Holy Spirit) by using 1 Jn 4:1 when they are unsure if it's really Him at work-
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Now the difference between being ignorant and not knowing what spirit it is, yet truly wanting to know while holding the belief that you will accept it if it is the truth, is a good reason or motive to test the spirit because indeed you want the truth. But here, these leaders tested because they thought they knew the truth so sought to expose what they thought was a lie, so only wanted Him to fall and get trapped in a lie, the lie they believed He was and operated in, so this wasn't really about the Truth at all, or about being ignorant of what the Truth was, but about what they did and did not want, and as hard as it may have been for them to receive the New Wine (faith & grace vs. law & sacrifices), it's still not like Jesus didn't show them His forerunner John, who paved the way before Christ showed up by preaching the baptism of repentance and by telling people everywhere that One greater than himself was on the way; except these Pharisees had rejected John, probably for assuming to have already repented and were the skilled moral church leaders over the people. But listen to what Jesus tells this one bible-thumping scribe just after the man agrees with Jesus about what the two most important commands are to obey.
v34 Jesus says to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."
This scribe was used to the law, used to church authority and position, but here in his answer he had shown faith, the first part of faith, which is to 'believe in' for now you must 'act on' that 'belief in' which becomes 1 Peter 1:9 and James 2:22, of which Jesus was referring to when He quoted v34 to this man. Listen to the man's agreement in verse 32-33
So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices (law)."
Burnt offerings and sacrifices were the Old Testament way of serving God but now this scribe verbally agreed to the way of faith instead of law only which can't save the soul. The kingdom of God was not far from this man because already he could see the New Way of doing things... now he just needed to understand that it all comes through Christ Jesus, for once he did that he could start practicing 1 Peter 1:9 & James 2:22 ~Believing in Active Faith
Comments