Jesus Championed the Father's Values

What Did Jesus Do?

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets,
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
Matthew 5.17


When we hear “totalitarian state” we think “dictatorship; evil; oppression,” these thoughts sum up very well the totalitarian regimes which have plagued the world since ancient times. It is necessarily so, for the pervasive effects of the Fall extend to governments and political systems along with everything else in the world in its present state. It simply is not possible for the world to achieve holiness, perfection, and purity in anything, and to consistently, with absolutely no exceptions, compromise, corrupt, and debase all that is holy, perfect, and pure. In truth, the world not only resists holiness, perfection, and purity, it resents them because they make the world so conscious of its unholiness, imperfection, and impurity.

But, here's the thing about totalitarianism, it is the form of government in a theocracy; which means the kingdom of God is—a totalitarian state. God is not the president of a democracy. There are no plebiscites, no constitutional conventions, no elections (other than the Father's election of those who will be saved, and that was concluded long before the earth was created), and not one single vote. God reigns, absolutely, totally. His reign is also, beneficent, holy, just, and eternally and perfectly so. It is both foolish and wicked to oppose or resist God's rule, yet that is what the world does, that is what people do because they are fallen, which is to say in a state of rebellion and sin against God and his government of all things, the world, and every life of every man, woman, and child in the world.

“Law” in the totalitarian states of this world are habitually oppressive, ruthless, and vicious. We rightly abhor and withdraw from the law when it is in the hands of a despot. In a totalitarian state under the control of a holy and benevolent ruler the law is good, and not at all a threat to anyone but those who break it (See 1Timothy 1.8-11). Unfortunately, all of us break it, all of us resent it, all of us wish we could be free from it, never mind that it is for our good. Oh, that the law could just be abolished.

Some folks who met Jesus were under the mistaken impression that he had come to alter, or even abolish the law. In fact, the Son was the one whom the Father called upon to champion and fulfill the law. You see, laws are an expression of the values of the law maker(s). In a republic such as the United States, laws are supposed to reflect the values of the people, though imperfectly so (sorry, again the effects of the Fall). In a totalitarian state the law reflects the values of the ruler. In God's kingdom his values are what matters, and his values are, as we would expect, holy, good, just, and perfect. Jesus completely and perfectly fulfilled the Law, he lived absolutely by the values of the Father. Nonetheless we chafe at them.

But if we could just live the values which the Law represents, well, it would transform our lives, and the world. Of course, in our fallen state, it simply is not possible for us to embrace the Father's values and live by his Law, which is why the Son had to do it for us. Nevertheless, the values of the kingdom, like the Law itself, have not and will not be abolished. This is particularly important at a time when the word and the concept of “values” have themselves come under direct attack. For we live in a world that would love to so react against the tyranny of totalitarianism by fostering and celebrating the tyranny of the self unrestrained by laws and values and truth. As in the days of the Judges of Israel, the world defines freedom today as everyone doing what is “right in their own eyes” (Judges 21.25). As in the days of the Judges of Israel this is the rejection of the totalitarian rule of God, the King. This is, sin.

Setting aside the fact that Christians are not under the law, but under grace, we still should esteem and live the values of the Father, as Jesus did. They ultimately boil down to one thing—love—and two precepts: 1) love the Lord God with all our being (see Deuteronomy 6.4-5), and 2) love others as we ourselves have been loved by God, which is to say selflessly (see Colossians 3.12-17). The Father's love was manifested wholly and perfectly in the Son. And those who would call themselves the Son's disciples are to manifest that same love.

Within the Church it is absolutely essential that the Father's values are championed and lived out. If the Church, if Christians, do not champion and live the Father's values—the only true and eternal values that are above culture and gender and politics and economics—then families, communities, nations, and the world, which all desperately need the foundation of the values of the kingdom, incarnated in Jesus Christ, have no real hope at all of ever challenging the power of the worst tyrant of all—Satan and his arsenal of deceit and lies.

The world loves champions, people who rise and conquer in all kinds of fields of endeavor. War, certainly, but in business, in education, in sports, in science and medicine. Survivor, and even something as silly and stupid as Wipeout have millions of loyal fans who tune in all the time to root for their favorite to become the champion. What is needed more than anything are people to champion the Father's values. That's what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4