Another impossibility

Everyone wants a fulfilled life. The last time I wrote for this column, I reminded that Jesus said the greatest and most important thing a person can do is to love God wholly. Jesus didn?t stop there, by the way. In Matthew 22:39, He continued, ?and a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.?

That?s the second part of a fulfilled life. It is as impossible to fulfill the first part if you are depending on your own determination and strength of character. When a lawyer who was seeking to justify himself (that is be assured he was okay with God) heard this second part (Luke 10:25-29), he asked, ?And who is my neighbor?? Jesus gave a startling reply. Read it in Luke 10:30-37. It?s the story of the Good Samaritan. Look at how he loved and, as Jesus says, ?go and do the same.?

Here are a few points to note about Jesus? story. First, it?s a story! There was no Samaritan, beating, inn, etc. He made it up to make a point. As you read it, you?ll see it would be a humanly impossible story. Jesus? point was to describe how you love someone the way you love yourself.

Next, as you read notice that the Samaritan first feels compassion and stops (v. 33). That?s significant. Being a Samaritan and seeing a Jewish man lying there he would be aware that the beaten man would probably hate him if he knew who he was. Jews hated Samaritans. He stopped anyway.

Then, see the caring at cost. The Samaritan uses his own oil, wine and bandages; his own beast and time to bring the man to an inn. He isn?t just dropped off there. The Samaritan stays with him and cares for him through the night (v. 34).

The next day the Samaritan leaves about two months? room and board and says ?Take care of him and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.? That?s a blank check for a stranger! Of course, you or I would do that for ourselves, even for a family member or a good friend, but for a stranger who possibly hated us?

That?s the impossibility of the second commandment. It can only be obeyed in light of the first. If you want a truly fulfilled life, it is one fully filled with Jesus Christ. He came at great cost for those who naturally hated Him and offers a ?blank check? of eternal life because He paid the cost of God?s wrath on the Cross that each sinner deserves.

Only Christ can instill the capacity to fully love God more than yourself and to love others as much as yourself. Only surrendering to Him in faith, accepting His payment as yours for your sin, can give you a life with the capacity to obey the commandments and be fulfilled. A fulfilled life is not one of loving yourself; it is one in which you are not the issue anymore, Jesus and others are the priorities.

Just to be clear ? do you love God fully? Do you love others unconditionally? If not, you?ve not only missed fulfillment, you?ve broken God?s commandments and are subject to His wrath.

The only escape is in Christ, not in being a good person, a religious person, or a well-intentioned person. The Law (these two greatest commandments summarize the 10 commandments) brings only a knowledge of sin (Romans 7:7). Here?s fulfillment. Here?s salvation. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, ?For our sake He (God the Father) made Him (Jesus Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.?

Make Christ your substitute today. By faith give your life to Him and He will live out in you the ?impossible? (Galatians 2:20).