Less Law, Less Gospel
Matthew 5:17-26 & Romans 6:1-11
July 12, 2026 anno Domini
How do you react to the Law? Either little “l” laws like speed limit 70 miles per hour or big “L” laws like “Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.”
You make the law less than it is. 70 miles per hour doesn’t mean 70. 70 is more like 63 so you can safely go 77.
Remember the Sabbath day. Is that every week? Do I have to pay attention or can I just show up and daydream? You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian, do you?
Repent, for what does Jesus say, “Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven?”
Today’s readings tell us there are two reasons we make the Law less. First, we make the law less so we look better before God and our neighbor. Second, as Christians we falsely believe forgiveness does away the law. We see the first in the Gospel and the second in the Epistle from Romans.
In the Gospel reading Jesus points to the Pharisees. They were the most outwardly righteous, law abiding people you would ever know. They would be early to church, sit in the front row, with perfectly behaved children, who followed the liturgy and never left the service to go to the bathroom. President of the LWML, Sunday School teacher, and youth chaperone.
Seeing a person like that you would conclude, “Well, if anyone is going to get into heaven it’ll be him.” But what does Jesus say, “I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
The problem with the Pharisees, according to Jesus, was that they lessened the law. They made it only a matter of outward obedience. This is what Jesus condemns when He saw this, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment, but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.”
If all God only cared about outward appearance then all of you have kept the fifth commandment. You have never murdered anyone. If you haven’t walked into your neighbor’s garage and stole his Dewalt tools you have kept the seventh commandment. But such an interpretation of the commandments makes them only a matter of the flesh and not the spirit, only a matter of your physical body and not a matter of your soul. God doesn’t just want your hands. H wants your heart.
Why do you play such games with the commandments or the laws of the land? Because you want to look good in God’s eyes and your own. You want to self-justify – you want to be right and by outward obedience most of you look pretty good. You’re not on the Stearns County Jail roster for murder or theft.
But if you read the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7 (and you should) or if you remember the 10 commandments from Luther’s Small Catechism (and you should), you the fullness of God’s law. Hatred is murder. Name calling is murder. Lust is adultery. Coveting is theft. Being a miser is theft.
Even if the commandments were whittled down to just the fifth commandment– it is still too much for you – you have not kept it. What do you think of Somali immigrants? What’s your attitude toward the political atmosphere in Minnesota and those who don’t agree with your political persuasion? Have you called someone a fool or an idiot? Repent and heed Jesus warning – you might miss out on the kingdom of heaven.
You lessen the Law to hide your sins, but that is not the Law’s purpose.
Lessening the Law might be compared to a doctor who says, “I really don’t want to take an x-ray because it might reveal something is broken, and you don’t want that.” The Law’s chief purpose is to expose your sin, to reveal to you what God Himself sees in you.
Because only when you know your sin in its fullness will you look for a Savior. Only after you know you have trouble will you seek help. So repent, turn away from sin, and seek your Savior. Look to Jesus and there you will find a righteousness greater than the Pharisees. Jesus is the Righteous One, not just doing the right thing, but with the right heart. Not just obeying His Father, but loving every Word of His Father, and keeping every commandment inwardly and outwardly. Jesus never sinned and then He took your sin, the sin you were born with and the sins you committed and He suffered the hell you deserve and died your death. Only sinners need Jesus. Only by the fullness of the Law will you know the fullness of your sins and seek the fullness of Christ’s life, death and resurrection for your forgiveness.
The second way we lessen the law is found in Romans. Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome when he asks them, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” Here’s the argument some Christians were putting forward at First Lutheran in Rome back in the days of Paul. Since God forgives our sins, sin doesn’t matter anymore. Can’t we just keep on sinning since God keeps on forgiving?
This lessening of the Law also lessens forgiveness. Paul makes it clear that a person receiving forgiveness is changed. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” The Law kills you by revealing your sin. The good news, delivered in your baptism that Christ died and rose again, makes you alive again in Christ.
A good picture of this is what happened to the Israelites at the Red Sea. The Israelites were slaves in the land of Egypt, subject to the tyranny of Pharoah, destined to suffer until death. Then God sent Moses down to deliver the Israelites and he led them to the Red Sea. There God parted the sea and the Israelites passed through the waters, arriving safely on the other shore. Then the sea closed on Pharaoh and his army as they pursued God’s people. Pharoah and his army were drowned. Israel was free. Now, do you think the Israelites wished for Pharoah would rise from the dead so they could go back to slavery and suffering and death in Egypt? Of course not. Or as Paul says in Romans “by no means.”
So it is with you. You were born enslaved to sin, under the rule of the Devil, with eternal death as your end. You have been baptized into Christ. His death for sin became your death and His resurrection is your resurrection. You were saved in the waters of baptism, and your sins, the devil, and death were drowned.
To continue in sin, to love sin, that’s like wanting to go back to slavery. It’s acting like Christ is dead and your sins are still alive. It’s returning to the bad old days of sin, suffering, death, and the devil ruling over you. Should you do that? By no means.
Don’t lessen the Law, because when you diminish the law, you also diminish Jesus. You diminish your need for the Savior. You diminish the resurrection to life He has given you. And you don’t need less of Jesus. You need all of Him because He is your forgiveness, your life and your salvation. In His name. Amen.