"But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?" (Luke 10: 29)
The lawyer asked Jesus this question after the Savior of the world had answered his first question.
Here is the prior exchange:
25And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live." (Luke 10: 25-28)
The question itself was leading and misleading.
If you need eternal life, what can you or anyone else do to get this life? Crazy!
Yet that kind of question is inevitable if you live under law, if you are defined by the law rather than by grace.
"How do you read the law?" Jesus answered.
The lawyer listed the ultimate resume of the law, from the Shema (Deuteronomy 6: 4)
No one can love God with his heart, for man needs a new heart:
"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." (Ezekiel 36: 26)
Even though the lawyer was self-righteous from the outset, Jesus still praised him, then leveled him with its impossible demands:
"This do, and you shall live."
Yet if you are not alive, how can you do anything?
Instead of getting caught up in that revelation, the lawyer attempted to justify himself:
"Who is my neighbor?"
Jesus then relates the parable of the Samaritan, who was not under law, therefore did not fear defiling himself to help the man beaten and robbed along the road to Jericho (Luke 10:30-36)
After relating this parable, the lawyer defines who was neighbor, and Jesus then exhorts the lawyer:
"37And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise." (Luke 10: 37)
Yet even with all of this, the lawyer missed the fact that Jesus was being a neighbor to the lawyer, demonstrating that grace is greater than the law:
"For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." (Hosea 6: 6)
Furthermore, because of God's grace, we are saved (Ephesians 2: 4-9), and we are made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 21).
Because Jesus took us from dead in our trespasses to alive and seated in heavenly places (Ephesians 2: 1-6), Jesus our neighbor has justified us, and forever (Romans 5: 17, Acts 13: 38-39)
Today, we are justified by our Heavenly Neighbor Jesus.
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