"Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not seek justice. They do not promote the case of the fatherless; they do not defend the just cause of the poor." - Jeremiah 5:27-28
The Bible prophet Jeremiah preached for years and didn't have a single convert. Almost 3,000 years later, has anything changed?
Three times in chapter 31 alone, Jeremiah speaks of new things that God promises to do in people's lives. So why didn't everyone come running and listen to all the prophet was sent to say?
Well, that's just it. People don't want to hear "all that a prophet was sent to say."
Jesus died for our sin. Part of our sin is believing that "I'm doing the best I can, and that should be enough."
But in today's verses, Jeremiah is God's instrument to say that our "evil deeds have no limit" because it includes the things we don't do, like "they do not seek justice. They do not promote the case of the fatherless; they do not defend the just cause of the poor."
Nobody wants to hear this because we're all pushing back and saying, "Hey! I'm doing the best I can!"
But there are two things that we really need to take away from these verses.
First, we need the reminder that we can never do enough to be pleasing in God's sight. Martin Luther asked, "When have I done enough?" The only answer that he found in the Bible and that also gave peace to his soul was this--"Only Jesus, like us in every way, except he had no sin, can do enough. And what Jesus has done gets credited to us when we put our faith in him."
God calls this the righteousness of faith. It's peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
The other thing that we really need to take away from today's verses is that, having peace with God through faith in Jesus, we are called to stop and not push back long enough to ask, "Is there something more I could be doing to 'seek justice, promote the case of the fatherless, defend the just cause of the poor'?"
Do we even care?
Care. That would be a good start, knowing that's what God, through Jesus, has done for us.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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