Reacting to the Law
Exodus 20:1-17 and Matthew 5:20-26
July 29, 2019 anno Domini
What’s your reaction when you hear the commandments? The Exodus commandments aren’t too bad. I believe in God. I don’t have any statues of foreign gods in my office. I honor my parents. I’ve never murdered anyone or had an affair. However after Jesus explains just one commandment in today’s Gospel reading I have to confess that I am a serial murderer. How many people have I murdered by my anger, by my insults, by my neglect? How many have you?
What’s your reaction to the commandments, to God’s Law?
We deduct from the Law. We make the commandments less than they really are. It isn’t speeding if you’re within 5 mph of the speed limit. It isn’t adultery if there’s no sex. It isn’t breaking the Sabbath if it’s for a good reason. We lower God’s standard from 100% perfection and grade ourselves on a curve.
We despair of the Law. We hear Jesus preach the fullness of the Law. We memorize Luther’s explanation to the commandments. We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. Did you convey to your children your gladness in hearing God’s Word? Do you hold this day sacred – as the time and place to set aside your work and your pleasure to have God work His good pleasure on you? You don’t keep the commandments. You cannot keep the commandments. How can God love someone like you? That’s despair.
We are defeated by the Law. This perhaps is the worst reaction to the Law and it’s often used as an answer to despair. It goes something like this. I haven’t kept the commandments. I won’t keep the commandments. I give up. I’m not even going to try to keep the commandments. Why would God ask us to do something we cannot do? This reaction is made even worse when a Christian adopts it. His argument goes something like this. I am a sinner. God loves to forgive. It’s a perfect relationship. I’ll keep on sinning (which I enjoy) and God can go on forgiving (which He really likes to do.)
A better question to ask this evening is not “how do you react to the Law?” but rather why has God given the Law? The Scriptures tell us there are three purposes behind God’s Law.
The first is that the Law serves as a high and wide fence to keep us sinners from destroying each other. All humans have God’s Law written in their heart. We call this the conscience. Every society and culture, even those who were not influenced by Christianity have generally held to the last 7 commandments – respecting authority, honoring marriage as one man and one woman. Stealing, Lying, and Coveting are all wrong. When you were in confirmation this was called the Curb or the Fence – the Law keeps most sinners civil, outwardly good.
The chief purpose of the Law is not that general first purpose, but a very specific purpose, to convict you of your sin, to teach you that you are a sinner. Scripture says there is nothing in us but sin and death. That’s not how we want to think of ourselves – that’s why we deduct, despair, or are defeated by the Law. We call this the mirror – God’s Law shows us our sin.
But God does not show us our sin so that we can fix ourselves up. Trying to make up for your sins is about as effective as putting a band aid on a severed artery. God gives you His Law because He has the remedy for your sin. He wants you to quit looking at yourself so that you look to Jesus.
The Law serves like all those wonderful tests your doctor orders before or after your yearly physical. Some of those tests are uncomfortable. They reveal information that you didn’t even know. They are humbling and sometimes downright embarrassing. So why does your doctor conduct such a horrible examination of you? So he or she can heal you. You would never undergo heart surgery if you didn’t know your heart had 97% blockage. You wouldn’t endure dialysis if your kidneys weren’t failing. You wouldn’t swallow some pill with 271 side effects if you didn’t need it. You will never turn to Jesus if you are not a sinner. Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32) IF you think you’re righteous you won’t even listen to Jesus. Who needs forgiveness if you’re not a sinner?
Jesus is serious medicine. He is not just a great religious figure of history. He is God in the flesh. He is the Son of God and the son of Mary. He didn’t come to help you. He came to kill you and resurrect you. He desires that you die to sin and live in Him. Your problem isn’t trouble and sickness. Your problem is death and hell. You don’t fall short some of the time. You are completely lacking in what God requires. But don’t deduct, despair, or be defeated. Look to Christ Jesus. He always feared, loved, and trusted in His Father above all things. When His Father said, “Go to hell. I’m going to load the world’s sins on you and then I want you to go to hell.” the son went willingly, with your sin.
Jesus is serious, powerful medicine – so powerful that His death took away all the sin of the all the world. So powerful that He took all your sin away – every one, the worst one and the first one, the most troubling one. His perfect life is such strong medicine that after He died death couldn’t stomach Him. The grave had to let Him go. When you swallow Jesus by faith, when you take the medicine of immortality that is given to you in His flesh and blood, you will live even though you die. Your body will be raised incorruptible on the last day. You will live without a wrinkle, without a cavity, without an ache, pain, or tear.
That leads us to the third and final use of the Law. Whenever you take strong medicine there are side effects. Weird things like if you take blood pressure medicine you might get a dry cough. Most of the time these side effects are unwelcome and bothersome. When you swallow the medicine of Jesus Christ there are side effects, but they are universally good, but that doesn’t mean they are painless. When you believe in Jesus Christ your heart is changed to desire what God desires. Your ears are opened to listening to your Father’s voice. You have no need to deduct, despair, or be defeated by the Law, because you delight in the Law. You are dead to sin – you don’t love it, you don’t’ want it, and when you sin hate it. You are alive to God in Christ Jesus. Your eyes seek His way. Your ears hear His Word. Your hands help your neighbor. Your mouth prays for those in need and praises God in Christ.
God has given His Law. It’s His humbling examination of you. It is good because it prepares you for the strong medicine of forgiveness that is administered in the name of Jesus. Amen.