The Proud Lawyer and the Good Samaritan

Jesus told this made up story to illustrate the answer to a question a guy asked him. A proud lawyer asked him a good question.

And the question he asked Jesus was, How do I get saved?

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

And they talk a little bit and basically come up with the answer—it comes down to love. Love for God, loving other people as much as you love yourself. In other words, perfect love.

That is THE standard to get into heaven.

Perfect, wholehearted love for God, and limitless, lavish love—the way you love yourself, you take care of yourself, you want the bet doctor when you are sick, you want help when you are hurting, you want people to hear you out, to give you the benefit of the doubt, to give you another chance when you mess up—all that??? Yeah. Do that for others.

Love other people with the lavish love of the good Samaritan. And you will get into heaven.
Uh-oh.
And if you fail to always do that, you will not get into heaven, because the standard for heaven is perfect.

Let me say that again, unless you have a record of that kid of lavish, righteous love, you won’t get in. YIKES!

Let’s go back and look at this story carefully, and we will see this parable of the good Samaritan was told to show that:
God’s law is beautiful.
God’s law is impossible.
God’s law is fulfilled in Jesus.

Turn to Luke chapter 10, starting in verse 25