The Answer to Life's Greatest Question, Part 2

You want to go to God's Kingdom?

Really. You don't want to go to hell? Then love God with all faculties that you possess totally and perfectly. And therein, you see, was the nagging issue of conscience because they had to grapple with the fact that if they looked at their own heart, they knew that they could not, would not love God like that. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. A poll by ABC News once found that 90 percent of Americans believe in heaven. And yet you can imagine that far too many people have never asked, How do I get there? More to the point, have you asked, How do I get to heaven? Today you're going to hear Jesus' response to a Jewish leader who asked basically that same question. What the Lord said may change everything you've ever thought about what it means to be a Christian and what you should tell people when you give them the gospel.

And so here's John MacArthur continuing his study called, What Must I Do to Be Saved? And looking at our text, Luke 10 and verse 25, let's read the text, And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and put him to the test saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, What is written in the Law?

How does it read to you? And he answered and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.

But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? And so with this reading we return to the most critical question that anybody could ever ask or have answered. The question that appears there in verse 25, What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

It is the right question. And I want you to see four things as we look at this conversation. If you're going to evangelize somebody, this is the issue. And we went into detail last time on how the Bible indicates that all people are going to live forever, either in heaven or in hell. And the first task of every evangelist, of every witness, of every Christian who goes out to present the gospel is to show someone that what matters is the next life because it is forever and it is either forever in the bliss of heaven or in the horrors of conscious punishment away from God in hell. The message of the gospel is about eternal life, life in the next world. After there's a recognition of eternal life, there needs to be a motivation for eternal life. If the person will come to the place where they recognize that the gospel is not about here and now, it's about then and there, it's about eternity, not time. If we can get them to understand that they're going to live forever, that there are two places where they will possibly live, either heaven or hell, then we move to the motivation. And obviously as we come into the text now, this particular man was motivated for eternal life. How do you get somebody motivated for eternal life? The only thing you can do is explain the joys of heaven and the horrors of hell. You explain to them that everybody is immortal, everybody lives forever in one of those two places.

Take the time to lay that out. Don't give the gospel on the basis, do you have trouble in your life, do you have pain, do you feel bad about things, let Jesus fix you up. That is superficial and maybe not even saving.

That isn't the issue. And so evangelism requires the recognition of eternal life and the motivation for eternal life. Thirdly, in evangelizing we must talk about the complexion of eternal life.

Complexion being a form of the word complex, that is the order of it, the nature of it, the structure of it, the complex of elements that refer to eternal life. Let's look at verse 26. And he said to him, here's how Jesus answered the question, what is written in the Law? The Master responds by asking the question to him, what is written in the Law?

Boy, that is just so important. Because there was one thing that the Jewish leaders wanted to indict Jesus for, there was one great categorical violation and that was this, He breaks the Law. Anywhere and everywhere that Jesus violated the Mosaic Law or the traditions that grew up around it, they wanted to find it, to label Him and indict Him for it. And here by asking the question He does, what is written in the Law, Jesus affirms His commitment to the Law. And when He said, the Law, the man knew exactly what He was referring to, He was referring to the Mosaic Law. First five books of the Old Testament summarized in the Ten Commandments and further summarized in the answer the man gives.

This is wise in response. He shows His affirmation of God's Word, forces the lawyer to answer his own question and he could answer it. What is written in the Law, Jesus said.

You're the expert. And here Jesus also affirms that what God has written is the authority. Jesus is affirming the Scripture. Jesus says, you know the Law, you tell Me.

And then He adds this question. How does it read to you? How does it read to you? That could be the way it's translated, that's the way it's translated in NAS, that could mean how do you understand the Law?

How do you understand it? Better, the way this is framed, it's He's actually saying, how do you recite it? How do you recite it? Twice every day, two times every single day, the Jew said this, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself, twice every single day. So Jesus says to him, what does the Law say and how do you recite it?

You know the answer to that question. That was part of the recitation of the Shema, Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5. That most notable portion of Scripture in the book of Deuteronomy, the second Law. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might and these words which I'm commanding you today shall be on your heart. And then they added from Leviticus, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, Leviticus 19, 18. What do you recite every day?

You know what is the summation of the Law. You have it in the mezuzah, stuck on the house. You ever go to a Jewish house and see the little black box on the door screwed into the wall? Inside there is the Shema, Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, your neighbor as yourself.

You also find that when you go to a synagogue and you see the phylacteries, you ever see an Orthodox Jew with a big box on his head or wrapped around his wrist and a box on the back of his wrist? Contained in there is the same text of Scripture with some other texts. It's repeated again in Deuteronomy chapter 11 and it's a critically important text. Deuteronomy, let me just read you briefly, Deuteronomy 11 and verse 13, and it shall come about if you listen obediently to My commandments which I'm commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul. He'll give you rain for your land in its season, early, late rain, etc., etc.

You'll have all these blessings. If you don't do that, it goes on to say you're going to be punished. Then in verse 18, you shall impress these words of Mine on your heart, on your soul, bind them as a sign on your hand and as frontals on your forehead. And all that meant symbolically was have them on your mind all the time and make sure they're on your hands in the sense that everything you do with your hands is a reflection of the Law. And instead of getting the idea they're supposed to think about them and act on them, they stuck them on their head and stuck them on their hand in a box. And teach them to your sons, talk of them when you sit in your house and you walk on the road and lie down and go and rise up, write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gate. And all he meant there was when you go in your house and come out of your house, remember that you're to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And instead they just put a little tiny thing on there and the thing is inside so you couldn't read it anyway.

If they wanted to really put it on their house, they ought to write it on the wall on the inside and outside so they're reminded of it going in and going out. Well he knew that. He knew...he knew what the Old Testament said. He knew that. How do you say...how do you know he knew that?

Well look what he said. And he answered and said, verse 27, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. I mean, there wasn't any hesitation at all. Jesus said, you know the answer to the question and that's what takes you back till you put Jesus to the test. He wanted to know if Jesus would give him back the answer that he believed was right.

This was the right answer. But the problem was he knew he couldn't do that. That's why he stood up. Sure he was trying to put Jesus to the test, see if Jesus would violate the law or Jesus would agree with the law and they knew this was the law. They knew the Shema, Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5 was the summation of God's law. They knew that from that passage in Deuteronomy 11. He wanted to know whether Jesus is in agreement with that, not only for the sake of the reputation of Jesus and information that Pharisees might want, but for his own information. But down in his heart he knew what every sinner knows, you can't fulfill that.

So if eternal life depends on perfect love for God, nobody's going to be there. That is the summary of the law. If you go back to Mark's gospel, chapter 12, just a quick look at verses 28 and following. One of the scribes, here's another occasion and another lawyer.

This one's parallel to a Matthew account. One of the scribes came and heard him arguing, recognizing he had answered them well, asked him, what commandment's the foremost of all? Jesus answered, the foremost is here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, quoting Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There's no other commandment greater than these. And look what the scribe said, verse 32, and the scribe said to him, right, you got it right, teacher, you have truly stated that he is one and there is no one else besides him and to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, to love one's neighbor as himself is much more than all burnt offering and sacrifice. They knew that behind the whole system of laws and rules was this compelling reality in the law of God that was at the heart of everything that had to do with the attitude of the man and the woman. The lawyer knew the answer to the question and he was testing Jesus to see if Jesus would affirm it and agree with it or violate it. Now you come into the issues of eternal life here. You want eternal life?

Here's how. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. The emphasis is so strong here, with all your is repeated four times...four times.

Well what's the point of that? Well the point of that is to emphasize the extremity, the perfection, the completeness of this kind of love. With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind so that nobody would think that he meant well with all your heart and your soul and your mind and your strength and somehow diminish the latter three. No, this is a call for perfect love of all human faculties. You want to go to God's Kingdom? Then love Him with all your cardia, you know, the cardiac area, that's to the Jew, that is the place of thought and mind. With all the suke, all the fleshly part of you, all the soulish part of you, all the human part of you with your iskus, your will, your volition. Love Him with all your dionoia, all your intelligence, your intellect, with all your human faculties. Love Him completely. And it's the word agapao in the Greek, translating the old Hebrew aheb, or aheb, Deuteronomy 6, 5, which refers to the love of the mind, the love of the will, the love of the emotion, the love of the affection, the highest kind of love. So you want to go to God's Kingdom?

Really? You want to go to heaven? You don't want to go to hell?

Then love God with all faculties that you possess totally and perfectly. They knew that was the law. They could read it. They knew it. When Jesus answered the question, the lawyer said, You're right. When Jesus asked the question, the lawyer answered the question with that same Scripture. They knew that. And therein, you see, was the nagging issue of conscience because they had to grapple with the fact that if they looked at their own heart, they knew that they did not, could not, would not love God like that.

They couldn't and neither can you and neither can I or anybody else in this life. And the love that was referred to here as the agapao love, it's not phileo-affection, it's not eros-physical-sensual, it's not storge-family love. And the point here is not to exegete these four things.

It's not as if they're separate technical categories. It's simply a way of speaking of perfection and comprehensiveness and totality, loving God fully with every human faculty, loving with the mind and the feeling and the will and even the body. So bottom line, folks, you want to be in God's Kingdom?

Love Him perfectly. It's about love. It's not really about law because if you love Him, you'll keep His law.

Isn't that true? That's why you can sum up the Ten Commandments in love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. The first half of the commandments are how to love God, the second half are how to love your neighbor. The summation of the Ten Commandments is the two first and second commandments, loving God and loving your neighbor.

That is the complexion of eternal life. It's about loving God perfectly...perfectly. And it connects with Luke 9 23. Go back to Luke 9 23 for a moment. He was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself.

You remember when we studied that? The first appropriate attitude for a person who comes to Christ is self-hate. I told you, when Luther pinned his 95 Thesis on the door of the church at Wittenberg, he had 95 declarations to make. Declaration number four called for self-hate, nobody comes into God's kingdom doesn't hate himself. And the word, let him deny himself, the word here, the Greek term means to refuse to associate with. It is to disdain yourself.

It is to refuse to associate any longer with the person you are. Salvation is not about self-fulfillment, it's about self-denial. It's not about self-love, it's about self-hate. It's not about self-esteem, it's about self-distain, disappointment.

It's the rejection of who you are. It's hating yourself and loving God. And so the sinner is in an impossible situation. Because of his fallenness, pride dominates his life. On his own he can't hate himself and because he loves himself, he cannot love God perfectly. But that's how you get into the kingdom. The person who perfectly loves God, who perfectly loves others, who is completely self-denying, selfless, this person qualifies for eternal life.

The person who truly loves God with all his capacity demonstrates that love by perfect trust in God, perfect devotion, perfect fellowship, perfect humility, perfect obedience, perfect hatred of sin and whatever dishonors God, perfect rejection of evil, perfect love for others, perfect longings for God's presence, perfect desire for truth. You see, you say, well nobody's going to be able to do that. Right. Isn't that the point? Isn't that what Paul was saying in Romans 3? I mean, that was everything foundational in his gospel presentation. Listen to Romans 3, but now apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Why? Why do we have to be justified by grace? Why does it have to be through faith?

Reason? Verse 20, Romans 3, because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight. You say, well what good is the Law then?

Through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. You know what the whole purpose of that command was? To make you know you couldn't keep it, to confront sinners with their wretchedness and inability. That's the point. That's the point.

Nobody could keep that, nobody. But that's what God asks. That's what He requires if you're going to save yourself by means of the Law. They were into the Law. They had basically turned away from all the other statements in the Old Testament about grace and mercy and forgiveness based on faith, about righteousness granted to them, cleansing, washing, New Covenant promises.

And they were still trying to figure out in their legalistic system how they were going to deal with the dilemma of being required to keep the Law, to keep this summarization of the Law, knowing in their own hearts that they couldn't come close to doing it. This is where you want to take the sinner. It's exactly where you want to take the sinner because now sin is even intensified. Now you move from the reality of hell and the issue of sin that sends you there, to the reality of the fact that I can't remedy my sin. I can't love God this way.

What am I going to do? You create for the sinner a certain frightening dilemma, already recognizing eternal life, already motivated for eternal life. Now the sinner understands the complex of what God requires and realizes that he can't do that. So his dilemma, his judgment is predicated on the fact that he stands guilty of sin before God and worthy of hell and has no ability to remedy the situation.

He can't save himself, can't be done. By the deeds of the Law, no flesh will ever be justified, no flesh will ever be declared righteous, no flesh will ever be made right with God through the Law. Galatians chapter 3 says, in fact, the opposite happens, as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse. God holds all men who have broken His Law under a curse. Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law to perform them. That's Deuteronomy, that's back in Moses again, Deuteronomy 27, 26. By the way, at the end of the fifth book of Moses, right at the very end of the whole Torah, it says, if you ever break one of these, you're cursed.

They knew that. And then verse 11, Galatians 3, no one is justified by the Law before God. No one...no one. That's where you want the sinner to go. There is a hell and your sin is going to send you there and there is a heaven, but you can't qualify on your own because you are under a curse for violating the Law of God. You say, well maybe I never killed anybody, etc., etc., etc., oh but you didn't love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength all the time and your neighbor as yourself all the time, did you?

That's it, you're cursed because cursed is everyone who doesn't abide by all things written in the book of the Law and all things written in the book of the Law are summed up in the great first and second commandment. Well we can't finish. We can only stop and wait to see how the story ends. Father, we thank You again for Your precious Word. What a wonderful opportunity this is for us to discuss and learn how to effectively do the work that You've called us to, the work of the gospel, because that's why we're here to be used in such ministry and offer You our praise in Your Son's name, amen. You're listening to John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, What Must I Do To Be Saved? That's the title of his current study here on Grace To You. And John, you talked about sinners needing to understand, as you put it, the complex of what God requires.

In other words, a person coming to Christ cannot hold anything back and must be willing to embrace everything God demands from him or her, even if that calls for a life of poverty, sickness and suffering. It's not really an easy message to sell, is it? Well no, it isn't, but it is the truth. The gospel does not promise no pain and no suffering.

It promises just the opposite of that. And it is a hard message. It's hard to believe. It's difficult to speak because you don't want to offend people, you don't want to frighten them away, but it just so happens to be the truth. The fact that it's difficult to do that, that it's a hard truth for people to accept, is the reason you have the prosperity gospel. They avoid that by creating lies and saying, God wants you healthy, wealthy, successful, rich, and wants to give you everything you've ever desired and longed for and dreamed for, etc., all of that. All of that are lies meant to avoid the reality of the gospel that offends people because it confronts their sinfulness and their wretchedness. Even when you're a Christian, and I think I want to add this, even as a Christian, you're going to have difficulty. That's life.

You're going to have trouble. And the good news is this, and I love what Peter said. Peter said, suffering is the thing that proves your faith. What is the greatest gift that a Christian could have? Salvation. Okay, then the greatest awareness or the greatest assurance a Christian could have would be that he's really saved, right? If you're saved, but you doubt it, you can't enjoy the blessings of that salvation. So assurance of your salvation, that salvation is forever, and that I have that forever salvation, the assurance comes through how your faith endures suffering. So if you want real joy, it's not going to come to you because you hit the jackpot, you won the lottery. If you want real joy, it's going to come to you because in the darkest, deepest, most difficult times of your life, your faith was sustained, and you continue to love the Lord, to desire to honor the Lord, to cling to the Lord. That is the test that becomes the proof of your faith. And when your faith is proven, then your hope shines brightly.

Yes, it does. Thank you, Jon. And friend, for even more help in setting your hope on the Lord, even in the darkest times, I encourage you to get a copy of Jon's booklet called Anxiety-Free Living. It's free of charge. All you have to do is request it.

Contact us today. Our number here, 855-GRACE, and our website, gty.org. Anxiety-Free Living unpacks comforting teaching from Jesus, outlining six reasons you can be confident in your Father's perfect care for you, and you can enjoy a life truly free from anxiety.

Again, to request this free booklet called Anxiety-Free Living, call us at 855-GRACE or go to our website, gty.org. Also keep in mind that you can download all of Jon's sermons for free at our website, gty.org. That includes every lesson from his current series titled What Must I Do to Be Saved, and to keep up to date on the latest radio series and books and free offers from Grace to You. Be sure you follow us on Instagram, X, and Facebook. Just search for Grace to You. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to watch Grace to You television this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378, or you can watch anytime at gty.org, and don't miss the next broadcast where you're going to see that the only thing more important than the question What Must I Do to Be Saved is how Jesus answered it. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Monday's Grace to You.