P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

PROUD OF MY FOUR-AND-A-HALF POINTS

There's a cute theological joke making the rounds these days - and in case your Internet friends haven't already sent it to you, it runs something like this. Deacon Jones gets to heaven, and of course, he meets St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. True to the form of these jokes, St. Peter tells him that it's going to take a thousand points to get into heaven.
And Deacon Jones turns pale. A thousand points?! But with faint hope in his heart, he tells Peter, "Uh, I went to church every single weekend for 68 years." And the gatekeeper checks his log book. "True," he says. "I see that. You get two points for that."
What?! Only two? Out of a thousand? And the deacon remembers all the offerings he gave over those 68 years. Many thousands of dollars. And Peter does the calculations. One point. How about 53 years of faithful marriage? Deacon Jones asks. One point. Many, many hours of community service. Half a point. Now he's up to 4.5 . . . and needing a thousand.
Finally, in despair, he cries out: "Woe is me! The only way I'll get into heaven is by the grace of God." And St. Peter immediately throws open the gate. "Come on in!"
Well, it's a marvelous story, but today I want to rewind the video and ask this question: What would it mean if it really DID take the thousand points . . . and there were no grace to cover it? What if you had to earn the entire sum by your own good deeds?
We've been studying for two weeks now on this topic: TRYING TO BE IMPERFECT. And the main points of our discussion - three of them - have been as follows: first of all, it's a good thing to aim for perfection. No faithful Christian should try to be IMperfect, try to mess up, try to sin. When you go out into a field with your bow and arrow, you aim at the bulls-eye, not at the parking lot over on the right. Jesus Himself mandated that His followers should accept these marching orders:

"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey EVERYTHING I have commanded you."

So perfect obedience is a good thing, a thing Jesus invites us to strive for, and to invite others to strive for as well. Abraham Kuyper once wrote:

"An office-bearer who wants something other than to obey his King is unfit to bear his office."

But here's the second point: God Himself promises to work IN us, HELPING us to grow, SHAPING us into perfect men and women for His kingdom. And the third point is key: perfection is NOT the basis of our salvation. That St. Peter story is at least half true: because of the grace of God, the gate is thrown wide open and Jesus says: "Come on in! Not because you've got a thousand points, but because I can GIVE you a thousand points which flow from Calvary."
Still, you know, friend, the first half of that St. Peter story - just the first half - really does infect the Christian church today. It always has, and I guess it always will. A thousand points. Earned by YOU - a thousand points. And with heaven REQUIRING a thousand points.
In his book, What's So Amazing About Grace?, Philip Yancey points us to perhaps THE key moment in history when legalism, or perfectionism, reared its ugly head. It was Friday afternoon, and Jesus was just hours away from death. The grace that would purchase heaven for all of us was about to take place. But what were the "good people" of the church doing that afternoon? Here's what he writes:

"The low point of legalism played itself out at Jesus' execution: the Pharisees took pains to avoid entering Pilate's palace before the Passover feast and arranged the crucifixion so as not to interfere with Sabbath rules. Thus the greatest crime in history was carried out with strict attention to legalistic detail."

What do you think about that? Here were people saying, "Let's kill the Son of God - let's string Him up on a tree - but we've got to make sure we earn points at sundown by keeping the Sabbath." They put to death the source of grace - a thousand points - and got ONE point by washing the blood off their hands before the Sabbath hours began.
Let me tell you something today, neighbor. I'm so hugely and humbly grateful that God stays with us while we learn about grace. While we learn that although obedience is wonderful, and growth is wonderful, and that perfection is wonderful, we don't get heavenly points for any of those things. It's so hard to learn that . . . but God has always loved the Pharisees and the legalists and the perfectionists who have been slow to get the point.
My own denomination, the Adventist Church, has preached for more than 150 years about the great blessings that come from obeying Jesus. Listen, it's a wonderful thing to honor God by following His law. We lift up Jesus when we obey what He teaches. In our own faith community, we want to exalt Christ by celebrating the Sabbath as we believe He has invited us to do. But all through our experience - and I'm sure it's the same in your church as well - it has been so very difficult to grasp that obedience is not the BASIS of our salvation.
Early in our history, we had a godly leader named Uriah Smith. He loved the Lord; he was an influential man who helped chart the early days of the Adventist faith. But a great scholar, George R. Knight, who teaches church history at Andrews University in Michigan, discovered an early sound bite in the archives of this faithful believer. Listen:

"Obedient observance of all the commandments was central to his view of [the faith.] In fact, a person came to Jesus THROUGH obedience."

Another exceptional pioneer, a man of vision and dedication to God, was a ship captain named Joseph Bates. He came out of the Christian Connexion, a broad-based spiritual movement in the 1830s and '40s. And as he studied the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation and met with like-minded believers, he had this to say about God's final saints: "The remnant are at last saved BY keeping the commandments." "The Lord REQUIRES perfection from His redeemed family" was another expression from that time period.
Well, friend, I'm so thankful that God takes us from where we start - our well-meaning misconceptions - and kindly leads us to Calvary. He tells us about the thousand points His own Son is offering to give us. But what happens to a Christian who falls into the deadly trap - not of seeking perfection - but of pinning his hopes on perfectionISM? If you are earning your OWN points, where does that lead?
In that same Yancey book, What's So Amazing About Grace?, he tells a story which brings me a certain sorrow. A young man in my own Adventist church family was concerned about healthful living. Well, it's good to honor God by being in good health. "Whatever you eat or drink," the Bible says, "do it to the glory of God." Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. But this young man, as Yancey tells the story, had literally starved himself to death over a concern regarding which foods it was all right for him to eat. He actually died; one of Philip's close friends conducted the funeral service.
And in that chapter, entitled "Grace Avoidance," he writes these very straightforward words:

"I have little resentment against these particular rules" - the ones we so often use to try to rack up those "points" - "but much resentment against the way they were presented. I had the constant, pounding sense that following an external code of behavior was the way to please God - more, to make God love me. It has taken me years to distill the gospel out of the subculture in which I first encountered it. Sadly, many of my friends gave up on the effort, never getting to Jesus because the pettiness of the church blocked out the way." Then he adds this P.S. about the dangers of legalism: "Nothing represents a greater threat to grace."

That gives us all something to think about, doesn't it? And notice the crucial turning point: friends never getting to Jesus because perfectionism was in the way. Rules - even good rules, helpful rules - blocking a person's path to Calvary.
So it comes down to this for you and me. Every single day of our lives . . . we need to head for the foot of the Cross. Head for Jesus. And say to Him: "Jesus, I guess I don't even have four-and-a-half points. I don't have any. Zero. I need Your thousand points, Jesus. I needed them yesterday, and the day before, and now today, and then tomorrow and the next day."
And then, when you get up from your knees and thank God for the Calvary dust on your pants, you then resolve that all day long you'll allow God to live in you and work in you to seek perfection. Not to get more points . . . when you've already got Christ's perfection applied to your bank account. But just to honor Him. Just to show Him how grateful you are.