Luke 16:14-18 "Law Vs Gospel"
When a social media personality makes millions promoting a product they have never used and would never use—then someone points it out and everyone loses their mind.
When politicians campaign to support certain causes or ideologies and get caught doing the opposite of what they said—then someone points it out and everyone loses their mind. Everyone points their finger at them and mocks them.
When athletes cheat using performance-enhancing drugs or some trick—they look great on the box of Wheaties and act like some kind of superhero role model—until they’re found out and cast aside in shame.
When preachers go hard against a certain sin and get caught doing it themselves—then they cry and cry for the cameras. No one buys it. It’s gross.
When people go to church and make a big show of how devout they are—but their family knows the truth and everyone’s miserable at home.
In all those examples, the people knew the truth about what they were doing, but they thought they were fooling everyone.
Nothing will make someone lose their temper quicker than yanking the toupee off their bald head. Or saying something that pokes them in their insecurities or exposes something they’re trying to hide. Self-delusion sits right on top of our anger. When we hear the truth, the truth shall make us mad.
That’s what’s going on in today’s lesson. Jesus and His disciples were hanging out and eating with a bunch of people that the religious leaders thought looked like sinners. He told a few stories that illustrated what He was doing: finding lost people and restoring them to God. The stories also painted those religious leaders in a bad light as self-righteous greedy hypocrites. The last thing Jesus said before we pick up today was, “You can’t serve both God and money.” They thought Jesus was off His rocker.
Luke 16, VERSE 14:
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.
This is not what you want to do. When Jesus points out something that you’re doing wrong, it’s probably not a good idea to get defensive about it and start making fun of Him.
VERSE 15:
And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Luke 16:15
Jesus said a bunch of things that should have humbled them. They knew what He was saying was true but they weren’t going to admit it in front of their friends. They just got defensive. Got mad. Dig in and try to justify themselves. Not going to admit anything to Jesus—but that’s a problem because He already knows. He’s the divine Son of God and He knows fully well what’s in their hearts, what they’re thinking, what their motives are. “You might be able to fool people but you can’t fool God.” The only right response would be to confess, repent of their pride, humble themselves, and stop defending their sin. When we defend our sin and get defensive in the face of God, it’s an abomination in His sight.
What does abomination mean? It means something detestable. Disgusting. Gross. It’s really strong language. What’s the most disgusting thing you can think of? Something you absolutely never want to see? That’s what it looks like to God when we try to justify our sin—when we try to look cool in front of our friends and defend ourselves instead of admitting we did something wrong.
But who says what’s right and what’s wrong? Isn’t that the big question of our time? Who gets to say what’s right and what’s wrong? Jesus has an answer.
VERSE 16:
“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. Luke 16:16
The Law and the Prophets is another way of saying “the entire Old Testament” — the first five books which are also called the Books of Moses or the Torah, the Pentateuch—and the rest of the Old Testament which explains and illustrates the first five books in practical ways and poetry and teaching. How God was active in the world until John the Baptist.
And then a new thing happened. Jesus brought the good news of the kingdom of God—the New Testament, the Gospel. Jesus is the way from now on. Through Jesus is how God is active in the world going forward. He is going to determine going forward what’s right and what’s wrong—”and everyone forces his way into it.”
That phrase “and everyone forces his way into it” sounds strange, doesn’t it? What does it mean? It’s obviously about the kingdom of God, the New Testament, the Gospel—but what does it mean?
You know, the main reason we’re going through the Gospel of Luke line by line like this is so we have to deal with every verse—whether we like what it says or not, whether it’s easy to understand what it’s saying or not. I hope you’re taking notes as we go. I don’t know how you expect to remember all this stuff otherwise.
An old preacher friend of mine used to say, “Taking notes during the sermon is wise, thinking you’ll just remember is otherwise.”
Ever since Jesus started proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, the Gospel, everyone has been forcing their way into it. Or everyone is forced into it. Strange verse, isn’t it?
You heard the Gospel. That Jesus came into the world, lived a perfect life for you, died on the cross for you, rose from the grave so that you will also rise from the grave in the resurrection at the end of time, your sins are forgiven now and will not be held against you in the life to come. That’s all really good news—that’s the Gospel. It all happened to you the moment you heard it and believed it.
But then you have to start walking it out. Your faith has to be expressed as faithfulness. Your new life is supposed to be filled with all the good works God has called you to walk in. You have to actually force yourself to do it.
Force. Because no matter how thankful we are, there’s going to come a day when we have to force ourselves to do what God has called us to do. We won’t want to get out of bed and pray, we’ll have to force ourselves. We won’t want to read the Bible, we’ll have to force ourselves. We won’t want to show up for church every Sunday. Going to take some force. We won’t want to love the people in our lives by being kind, patient, humble, not defensive, not angry—we’ll definitely have to force ourselves to do these things a lot. And then, when we shamefully blow it, over and over, we’ll have to force ourselves to repent, confess, and admit we were wrong.
In the New Testament, God’s activity in the world is now being done through Jesus and His followers. This is what the kingdom of God is. God’s activity in the world through Jesus and His followers. And it’s war. Battle after battle, everything and everyone in this world has to be taken by force.
But it doesn’t look like the Inquisition. We don’t convert the infidels by holding a sword to their throat. It’s actually the opposite. The way of Jesus is the way of the cross. Offering our lives, laying down our lives, our pride, our power. It’s love. And it’s not easy.
We die a little inside every time we humble our pride—when we force ourselves to die to ourselves instead of defending ourselves—force ourselves to confess our sin instead of justifying ourselves.
By the way, when Jesus says, “everyone” in this verse, He referring to everyone who enters the kingdom. Like when a train conductor says, “All aboard!” He’s only talking to the people who are going to get on the train. Jesus isn’t saying everyone is going to be forced into the kingdom of heaven. But He is saying everyone who enters the kingdom of God through the Gospel involves a kind of holy violence toward themselves in the form of repentance and self-denial. There is no comfortable, easy way to enter the kingdom of God. Should be obvious. First, Jesus brutally died on the cross to make it happen—pay for our way in—then in faith, we have to repent—turn away from our pride and die to ourselves. So when we hear the Gospel and instead of ridiculing Jesus like those religious leaders, we humble ourselves and force our stubborn hearts to get with the program.
So if the Gospel is the new program, what does that mean for the Old program?
VERSE 17:
But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.
Luke 16:17
Jesus is contrasting the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was God’s activity in the world from creation until John the Baptist. Then Jesus came on the scene and brought what He called the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven. Jesus is now the activity of God in the world. When we pray “Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” we’re praying that we would be part of His activity on earth. That we would do what God has called us out of the world to do.
So what exactly is that?
The religious leaders accused Jesus of breaking God’s Law, not taking it seriously enough. Was that true? Did Jesus come to do away with the Old Testament?
No. He says it would be easier for all of creation—heaven and earth—to disappear than for one dot of the Old Testament to become void.
He’s very clear: Nothing in the Old Testament is deleted by the New Testament. Some things are fulfilled, some things look different on this side of the cross, but it all points to Jesus and it all matters.
Have you ever heard someone say, “Yeah but that’s the Old Testament, we’re not in the Old Testament anymore.”
It happens to me all the time. Maybe we’re talking about something that was called a sin in the book of Leviticus, maybe something punishable by death in Israel—they make it seem like the God of the Old Testament was a grumpy old dude with all these old-fashioned, out-of-date opinions on sex and sexuality and gender. But Jesus is cool. He’s all about love and acceptance. They pit the Old Testament against the New Testament. Law versus Gospel.
That’s not how it works. Jesus and the God of the Old Testament are the same God—they don’t have different opinions. If God didn’t like something in the Old Testament, He still doesn’t like it. Jesus didn’t come to earth so His people would stop doing what God wants.
Then the argument always gets weird. They say something like, “Oh yeah? Then what about wearing mixed fibers? Eating bacon? Trimming your beard?” What about all those strange rules in Deuteronomy.
There’s a pretty simple answer. But you’re going to have to track with me.
First, there were all kinds of rules for ancient Israel about how they were to worship, what to do in the temple, sacrifices, and ritualistic cleanliness and uncleanliness—all the things that were completely finished when Jesus was the final sacrifice on the cross. The book of Hebrews explains this in great detail.
Second, in the Book of Acts, chapter 15, the new Gentile believers wondered how Jewish they had to act in order to be faithful Christians. God’s Word is very clear, they didn’t have to convert to Judaism at all: They didn’t have to be circumcised or adhere to Jewish dietary laws—they only had to concern themselves with avoiding sins of idolatry and sexual immorality.
Which, of course, are the only sins anyone is ever really concerned about. Greed, worshiping money instead of God—that and whatever their sexual sin of choice might be. People will do anything to try and justify who they want to have sex with and how they want to spend their money. No one is naturally inclined to listen to what God says about these things. There has to be a supernatural change of heart. They have to hear the Gospel, the Word of Christ—faith has to be created in them. They have to believe. Faith is a gift. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. Ears opened. Hearts opened. Minds opened. Then they can respond to God’s mercy and grace by forcing themselves to do what He wants. His will. No one’s interested before they have real faith.
So, what’s God’s will? Where can we find it? To absolutely no one’s surprise: The Bible. Old and New Testament. Ten Commandments? Yes. Prayers of the Psalms? Yes. Wisdom of Proverbs? Yes. Rebukes of the prophets? Yes. But what about all the weird stuff? Shellfish and casseroles? The New Testament specifically says some commands have been lifted (like the dietary laws and circumcision, the sacrificial system, and special dress codes for Jews) but otherwise, yes, it still shows us what God’s will for our life in Christ should look like. God doesn’t change.
So, Jesus said all this directly to a bunch of religious leaders who thought they had it all figured out. They’re mocking Jesus and think He’s doing it all wrong. He shouldn’t be hanging out with sinners. He eats too much. He drinks too much. He laughs too much. He’s not taking God’s commandments seriously enough—not like them. They take God’s commands very seriously! They even make up extra ones. They beat people over the head with them. They’re the poster boys for what righteousness looks like. At least that’s what they wanted everyone to think.
Jesus looks into their hearts and sees something else. He sees corruption. He sees self-delusion. He sees them rationalizing their own sin while pointing out other people’s. He sees abomination. He’s disgusted.
That’s not what you want. You don’t want God looking at your heart and being disgusted. This is why we confess that we’re sinners. Often. The only way to stand before God without grossing Him out is in humility, admitting that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We don’t try to justify ourselves.
Is there anything in your life that you’re tempted to try and justify? I mean, maybe you know God’s word says it’s wrong but for some reason, you don’t think it applies to you. Is there? If someone brought it up, would you get mad? Defensive?
Remember the scene: A group of Pharisees and scribes are accusing Jesus of not being careful enough about how He’s following God’s Law—eating and drinking with sinners like a party boy.
Well, the next thing Jesus does is call those religious leaders out on something they thought they had found a loophole around. I want you to be ready for this—understand why Jesus said this next thing and what He’s doing. He’s going to bring up something that God has clearly said is a sin—something contrary to His will for His people. But they were doing it anyway, and they refused to admit it was a sin. They were justifying themselves. It’s something we still do, something that’s affected almost everyone in this room in one way or another.
VERSE 18:
“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. Luke 16:18
This isn’t Jesus laying down a new commandment. This commandment is as old as the hills. God gave Adam a wife in holy marriage. A man, a woman, a life-long commitment. Till death do us part. What God has joined together let no one tear asunder.
But they were just like us, they divorced willy-nilly. If she burned the breakfast toast—divorce her! Find someone who knows how to cook. If you get bored of her—divorce her! Trade her in for a new model. Those judgmental religious leaders thought they had found a loophole but they seemed to have forgotten something.
God hates divorce.
I know, it affects a lot of us here in this room, too. So what are we supposed to do with this? Get mad? Get our feelings hurt? Get defensive? Be offended by God’s word? Try to find some theological loophole so we can pretend it wasn’t a sin when we did it? No. Admit it. Confess it. Don’t try to justify yourself—that only makes it worse. Abominibally worse.
If you’re sitting here, divorced and remarried, what are you supposed to do with that?
This: Hear it. Believe it. Confess it.
Is anyone going to pretend like everything that led up to your divorce wasn’t painful? That the divorce didn’t have ripples that affect you and everyone you love? It might have been a terrible situation and you might be glad to be out of it—sure—but can you at least admit the whole thing wasn’t ideal? It wasn’t the way marriage is supposed to be?
So, now maybe you’re married to someone else. Now what? Well, be thankful for God’s mercy and forgiveness. You are forgiven because of Jesus. Be thankful for a new beginning and do your best to faithfully love each other.
This section of Scripture is about hearing the word of God and responding faithfully. Honestly. Not trying to justify ourselves. Not pretending like our sin doesn’t stink. Not pointing at other people’s sin and thinking it’s worse than our own. We’re all sinners. We all get it wrong. Some people say, “Love the sinner but hate the sin.” I don’t like it. Love the sinner, hate your own sin.
Because everyone feels pretty attached to their sin. If you go around condemning people and pointing out their sin, saying you hate their sin, you are not doing the work of the kingdom of God. If you think you’re better than other people because at least you don’t sin like they do—you are not being the person Jesus called you out of the world to be.
God’s Law defines sin. What He tells us to do, and what He tells us not to do. God’s will for how we should live our lives. God’s wisdom for how life on planet Earth works. Will we get it all perfect? No. We’ll make mistakes. Sometimes we’ll try really hard but fail miserably anyway. Most of us aim in the right direction but we miss the target a lot. It happens. And when it happens, it’s called sin. Not a “mistake” not an “oopsie” but a sin, a fatal error. It’s not like dropping your shoe—no big deal. It’s more like accidentally driving your car off the Grand Canyon. Oppsies! Dead!
And sometimes we do it on purpose, pretending we’re an airplane. That doesn’t make it any less fatal.
Sometimes we do it out of ignorance, didn’t know the cliff was there. Still dead.
Sometimes it’s a mechanical failure. The brakes went out! Not my fault! Still fatal.
All have sinned and fallen short of God’s holiness. Contrary to popular opinion there is not safety in numbers.
God has clearly told us what is sin and what isn’t.
He told us in His Law. It’s both the reason we’re guilty and at the same time, the only way of wisdom and how to live life. It doesn’t save us but it can sure help keep us out of trouble and make our life work better.
Then there’s the Gospel. The part God does for you through Jesus that you can’t do for yourself—this is the good news part. The Law shows you what the standard is and the Gospel forgives you for not living up to it. You’re not defined by the law—whether you keep it or break it. You’re a sinner either way. So, stop trying to justify yourself—instead, believe the good news that Jesus justifies you, He makes you right with God, He forgives your sins. You’re defined by what He’s done for you instead of all the things you failed to do on your own. You’re defined by who you are in Christ instead of anyone or anything in this world—not your failures, not your successes, not your mistakes, not your sins.
Jesus said, “For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” The things of this world, the things society holds up and uses to justify themselves, these things make us look gross in the eyes of God. The way we look at hypocritical social media influencers, athletes who cheat, preachers who live double-lives, and two-faced politicians—when we try to justify ourselves, that’s how we look to God. Thinking we’re good because we fool people. Or because we have money or success we think we look great from a worldly perspective but if that’s how we measure our worth, how we feel good about ourselves—that’s not how God sees it. If we waste our life seeking the approval of men, the applause of people—it’s empty. It’s idolatry. Worshiping the wrong god. It’s not the truth. All those things lead to self-delusion. Lay it all down. Force yourself to let it go. All those things you’re tempted to justify yourself with. Trust Jesus to justify you instead. AMEN
Prayer: Father, help us to hear Your Word and respond faithfully. In humility. Not defensive. Not trying to justify ourselves. Trusting in Jesus to have mercy on us and forgive us, to justify us before You. Trusting the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and lives to help us grow in faith and faithfulness. Lord, remind us — every day — to force ourselves to repent and believe. We pray in Christ’s name and we all say… AMEN.