EXAMINE ME!

Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. -Psalm 26:2

In Exodus 33 Moses plead with God:

If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? There is nothing else to distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?

In his book, Mission Creep, Larry Osborne notes,“...it’s obedience (orthopraxy) that produces proper doctrine (orthodoxy), not the other way around.”

I disagree. There are plenty of fallen people leading moral lives who will neither develop “proper doctrine” nor enter the Kingdom of heaven because of their “good behavior.” That’s not my opinion. That’s what Jesus had to say on the matter. Oswald Chambers nails it when he states elsewhere, “The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being.”

It would be a tragic heresy to understand this as a graduated scale or something we can engineer. The Bible does not teach us right-thinking is good, right-doing is better, and right-being is best. They are intimately connected and interwoven in the life of Christ’s followers. They only begin through our being born again in Christ.

In John 3:3 Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.” There are brilliant Bible scholars who are atheists. Many are far more intelligent and far more prolific writers with superior notoriety and material wealth than me. Bart Ehrman, author of Jesus Interrupted, is one example.

Ehrman has placed all his stock in his own deductive reasoning, intellect, knowledge, and skill rather than in Christ. While Ehrman was working as a professor of Biblical Greek at a prominent seminary he came to the conclusion that the Bible is ripe with “inherent inconsistencies” (paraphrase). These inconsistencies led Ehrman to reject the Christian faith. Ehrman’s faith was his own. It was never born from above.

Having never been born again means Ehrman was still fully corrupted by sin throughout his being - even as a seminary professor. Eventually, wrong-being always undermines our attempts at right-thinking. The failure of right-thinking always undermines right-doing.

...and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

-Romans 14:23b

Countless people today, like the Pharisees, Scribes, and Teachers of the Law whom Jesus rebuked, rely on subjective personal beliefs rather than His transcendent gift of grace through faith. When faith isn’t from above, eventually it will flounder and fail.

Immanuel came in the flesh and pitched His tent with us. Christ came to live with rebellious, broken, and putrid sinners. He came as the Light of the world. Jesus came for me. He came for you.

Jesus told us “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus was NOT talking comparatively.

God’s only standard is perfection. He was not saying we should have greater biblical knowledge, more passages memorized, more seminary classes, or fancier degrees. Jesus was not teaching us about improved morals and ethics: e.g. abstinence (sex, drugs, alcohol, dancing, etc.), mission trips, tithing, or church attendance.

The Bible teaches this: Unless His Presence dwells within – we are unfit to enter the Kingdom. The prophet Isaiah said it like this, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sin sweeps us away” (Isa 64:6).

If we merely examine ourselves through the lens of the world’s subjective and comparative standards we end up feeling pretty good. Remember, Jesus said “unless your righteousness EXCEEDS…” Therefore, unless we have the righteousness of Christ, His perfection, and His Holy Spirit dwelling within us, then Jesus says that we are surely unfit for His Kingdom.

The test isn’t any list of things we’ve done or accomplished. It’s not about the trials we’ve gone through, what we’ve sacrificed or lost, or how we’ve pulled ourselves up. It’s not about about church doctrine, mental resolve, or personal piety. It’s about Immanuel, God, dwelling within us.

There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

-Proverbs 16:25

We invent creative ways of examining. We’re experts in fooling ourselves. We’ve perfected the art of death. That’s why it’s not enough to merely examine ourselves. Nor is it enough to get the opinion of others. Instead, we need to call out to God Almighty and ask Him to examine us. We need to pray as the Psalmist prayed:

Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. -Psalm 26:2

The beauty of Scripture is that after God examines and reveals our unworthiness, Jesus responds in love. That’s why He came. No, we’re not worthy. Thankfully, He is. Graciously, He’s the Way.

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com