Grace Rather than Tradition or Law

Matthew 15:1-20

Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches his familiar sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. In it, He commands us to "Be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect." I struggled with these words when I first read them. "I am definitely not perfect." "How can I be perfect?" "Nobody is perfect!" Then I realized I was thinking in terms of law and not grace. According to the law, I am imperfect and that is the purpose of the law, to help me realize that I need Christ -- I need grace. Christ's sacrifice on the cross was a gift of grace so that I might have His perfection, His righteousness.

Christ taught the difference of law and grace later to his disciples in terms of the external and internal. External laws have little power to change a person. Only with the power of Christ's Holy Spirit working in our hearts, internally, can we make progress and become more perfect, more like Christ. That is, until the day we enter Heaven and receive a new, perfect body.

Much of what Matthew wrote was to help the Jewish people embrace Christ. Matthew writes in a way for Jews to grasp the impotence of the law and their traditions, and rather, apprehend the power of Christ's grace. Let us read as Jesus dialogues with the Pharisees, the Jewish rulers of the day to rebuke them and to instruct His disciples as to the real path to purity.

The older we get, the more set in our ways we get. Only Christ can transform us and help us break the patterns that prevent us from being more like Him.

READ Matthew 15:1-20

Does washing our hands, if it obeys a law, make our hearts clean? Does dirty hands mean an impure heart?

Does being a good citizen or following traditions make us pure? No! We can be very obedient to external laws and very obliging to the traditions we have learned to follow throughout our years, and still be impure in our hearts.

Jesus tells us that what comes out of hearts demonstrates our purity. In order to enter Heaven, we must be pure. Not on the basis of the good deeds that we have done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:5-7). By believing in the righteousness of Jesus and His taking the punishment for our sin, we are declared pure, righteous in God's eyes, and we can enter Heaven. By His Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we can learn to walk righteously here and now. Although we will falter from time to time, we can ask for forgiveness and continue walking down the straight and narrow path with the help of Christ. Praise the Lord, that this struggle between flesh and spirit will end when we enter Paradise.

Do not be fooled that being a good person or keeping up traditions is a ticket to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is only by His grace that we are saved.