What are we to do with passages of scripture like our text from Matthew or the admonition from James we also heard this morning? Doing good is more than a habit we should practice, it seems to be absolutely essential to our identity as followers of Jesus Christ. If Matthew is correct, then we are currently and always being assessed by Christ himself as to how well we are following his admonition to love others completely and without question. Good deeds are required. Failure to do them results in judgment. It seems to set up an impossible standard for us to meet, a rule for life that is inhuman in its demands. No one can be good all the time.

Here is when a quick cross reference with the Old Testament is invaluable.

First and Second Chronicles are a retelling of the history of the kings of Judah and Israel found in First and Second Samuel and First and Second Kings. In this retelling, we discover stories that are fleshed out from their first telling and find out a good deal more about the lesser known monarchs of God’s people. Asa is one such figure.

Asa was a minor king, but one whom the Chronicler rescues from obscurity with this introduction to his reign. Asa was a reformer, a king who sought to reorient the people back on their original footing as a people grounded in the Torah, the Law of God given to Moses. He cleansed the country of outward signs of paganism and symbols of the people’s failure to live as the flock of God. In short, he was a doer of good deeds, and as such, God responded by ensuring the peace of Israel during his reign.

At first glance, this is less than helpful--Asa earned the favor of God. One of the great pieces of good news in the gospel is that we are freed from such thinking. No one can ever hope to be good enough to earn the favor of God. We are all powerfully aware of our failings, our missteps, and our faults. We know that we cannot ever completely live by the love that God requires. Bu Christ freed us from such pharisaical demands--faith is not about codes, it is about love. God judges us based on love, therefore, we have hope. God will redeem us if we believe not that we are good enough but that Christ is good enough. The story of Asa appears to be a throwback to the bad circumstance of us having work our way into heaven.

But such an assumption misreads the story. “Asa did what was good and right in the sight of the Lord his God,” writes the Chronicler. Superficially, there is the tit-for-tat of good deeds bringing reward, but within the phrase “in the sight of the Lord his God” destroys such a line of thought. Asa acted not because he sought to win favor from God, but because he saw it as the only response to make to the great love God held for his people. In short, God brought Israel into being, therefore, Israel can do nothing other than respond in faith. Asa is king by the grace of God, therefore he acts as the recipient of more than he could ever imagine. Good work is a response, and a response only. God has loved Asa, now it is Asa’s turn to respond.

This idea is at the core of our own faith in Christ. We love others not to earn Christ’s favor, but because there is no other way to respond to Christ’s love for us. If good works could be amassed to earn salvation, then they would come first. The idea of self-sacrificial love would be our idea, not God’s, and then God would reward such wonderful thinking with salvation, probably kicking himself for not having thought of it himself. But is as ludicrous as it sounds and completely separate from the truth.

For example, as Christ separates the sheep from the goats, note that the blessing comes to those who perceived the presence of Christ in the people of the world. The sheep do not invent care for the poor and needy, they care for the poor and needy because they know Christ has already done so. They see Christ present in the plight of the poor, so they respond in kind. The blessing comes to them because they enter the realm of Christ, joining him where he already is.

How does this work in real life?

Return to the reign of Asa. There is an old adage--there are times when one does the right thing only because it is the right thing to do. Asa became a reformer because it was his only option. Judah was in grave danger when he became king. They had lost their way, for they had lost sight of and understanding of the Law, the foundation for their existence as a community. Asa enacted a reform not because everyone would declare him the greatest king on earth, but because if he did not, he and his people were lost. God was already there. God had already set the code in stone to live by. They had no choice but to get with the program. He did the right thing because it was the right thing to do.

That is us.

We are to strive to live by the love of Christ not to earn brownie points from friends and neighbors, or even from God, but we strive to live by the love of Christ because it is the right thing to do. We do so because there is too much need within the world to ignore. We do so because there are too many voices crying out for help to pass by. We do so because the only way to fill the vacuum created by a self-centered world is to love. And most importantly, we do so because Christ is already way ahead of us in the task of redemption. If we are to be his people, we had better get busy before we fall too far behind. We do not earn salvation, salvation is already at hand, we simply to need to act as if it were so.

In the reign of Asa, there was peace within Judah. She lived in the shelter of God and she enjoyed a respite from the challenges and hardship of existence for a time. That is grace. It is ours if we accept it. It is ours today.

In the face of so great a gift, what other can we do than to live by grace as we love one another and minister to the world?