Exodus 20, Luke 17

Monday, March 3, 2008 - Brandon Hatmaker (Exodus 20, Luke 17)

"Guilty as Charged"

(Exodus 20)

In Exodus 20, God gives us the Ten Commandments. He introduced them with a reminder: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

It was God, who spoke and it was. It was God, who breathed life into Adam. It was God, who called out a nation. It was God who then delivered that nation from... well… from everything. And it was God, who outlined the Commandments.

The law was given to expose our sin. Each of us has broken, in one form or another, each of these commands. There are so many indictments on us, much more than these ten. Today, my mind leans less to the list and more to the one who gave it. Why, because it is the same God who delivers us through Jesus. He made the list, exposed the problem, then, he provided the answer.

Lord, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for a New Covenant in His blood. Forgive us in our lives for our selfish living. Forgive us for losing perspective and living our lives for ourselves. There is so much more of YOU to discover and live for.

(Luke 17)

“So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” Luke 17:10

The word “duty” means to owe or to be under obligation. The concept of duty is hard for many believers to grasp. As humans, when something is done for us, our nature is to try and “pay back” that act with another act. We’ve all felt it. We feed our neighbors dog because they fed ours. We let the car in, in front of us, because the car behind us let us in (or do we?). We buy a present for a non-family member for Christmas because they bought one for us. In and of itself, this is not a bad response, and seems in “good form”. But the majority of the time, we don’t do it because it’s the right thing to do. Most of the time we do it because then we’re “even” and we get to feel better about ourselves. It’s hard to admit it, but it’s true. We feel guilty for accepting generosity without trying to pay it back.

It’s our nature that Jesus is reminding us of in Luke 17. No matter our act of service, love, or sacrifice we make out of response to God’s Grace… we are still unworthy of Salvation. That’s why it’s called Grace. We cannot “make-up” for what was offered. We can only do what we should. And He wants us to stop trying and start being. Payback can so easily become self-serving.

An interesting thing is that the word for “duty” in this scripture comes from the base of the word that means “benefit”. At first this confused me, because honestly, God does not need benefit from our efforts of duty. It can bring Glory to His name if done right, but scripture is clear that he will be Glorified whether we do it or not. Jesus said the rocks themselves, will cry out. God simply doesn’t need to “benefit” from our duty.

So who does? I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to learn that we benefit, just as much if not more, than anyone. Every service project I’ve ever been on, every mission trip I’ve ever taken, any time I’ve ever made a sacrifice for another person (I need to make many more), the richness of my personal benefit is great. It’s immeasurable. And in turn, someone else might actually end up getting blessed as well.

This is a beautiful reality that God has built into our being. The danger is chasing that reality, for once again, selfish reasons because it feels good… “Hey me, look how good we are!” Our journey is a constant battle against the flesh. I guess that’s why Paul told us to deny ourselves daily. What a journey.