Exodus 20 1- 17 2006

Lent 3

Exodus 20:4-6, Galatians 3:10-14, Matthew 5:17-20

March19, 2006

“The Close Of The Commandments: Grace And Every Blessing”

The Close Of The Commandments

            What does God say of all these Commandments? He says thus: I, the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My Commandments. What does this mean? God threatens to punish all that transgress these commandments. Therefore we should fear His wrath and not act contrary to them. But He promises grace and every blessing to all that keep these Commandments. Therefore we should also love and trust in Him and willingly do according to His Commandments.

            Introduction: Are you holy enough? Are you right with God? Bible scholars count 613 commandments in the teachings of Moses. David in Psalm 15 reduced them to eleven; Isaiah shrunk them to six; Micah binds them into three, “Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God”; and Habakkuk reduces them all to one, namely, "The righteous shall live by faith." Jesus reduces them to one Word – “Love.” If we can keep this one commandment, then we will be holy enough, right with God.

            First, let's review what it means to be righteous. The original meaning of the word "right" is "straight." "Let me get this right" means "let me get this straight." When I say I am going right to the store, I mean that I will go straight to the store, not going anywhere else. To act right means that one's behavior is as straight as God wants it to be. God's standard of straightness is His commandments. The opposite of someone who is righteous is someone who is crooked. Don't we talk about crooks and thieves? A crooked person behaves in a way that does not match the straight standards God sets.

            Who is righteous according to God's commandments? One sin puts a kink or wrinkle in the straight line God expects. And it matters not if it is a big kink or wrinkle or a small one. Take the nicest person you know -- is his behavior as straight as the commandments measure? No! The best of us and the worst of us -- makes no difference -- are crooked. Now, we might sit around comparing who is more crooked, more cursed, but so what? God has no room in heaven for anything that is crooked, as Paul writes to the Galatians: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."

            And it doesn't matter if we live straight or right from here on. We still have the life we have lived up till now that is crooked. We can't straighten out the past by living straight from now on. And we can't straighten out the past for the same reason we can't straighten out a coat hanger -- we don't have the right tools or ability. Try straightening out a coat hanger. You can't. We are like a coat hanger -- crooked and wrinkled. So, no matter how we behave, we can never get right with God. And so serious is sin, the Bible tells us if we hate God, his anger lasts long after our grandchildren are dead.

            But the Bible tells of another way to be right with God: Jesus Christ straightens us out. First, Jesus takes us into Himself by baptism so that we can be painlessly executed for our sins along with Jesus when He died on a cross. Jesus then takes the kinks out of our lives with the same power God used to wake Jesus up after He died. "Jesus was crucified for our transgressions and raised for our justification." To justify something is the Latin way of saying "to straighten something out." The power to straighten us out is found in the work of the Holy Spirit, who uses the Word and sacraments of Jesus to create and build faith in us. The miracle of mercy is that God, through Jesus, straightens out those who trust Him. It is God who both helps us want to do what is right and then helps us do it.

            That brings us to the second half of the statement, "The righteous shall live by faith." We know who the righteous are -- those Jesus has straightened out (not those who behave properly). This is one of the most liberating sentences in the Bible. Notice, the Bible doesn't say, "The righteous shall live by keeping the Ten Commandments," or by following certain church rules; there are no rules for righteous living.

            God couldn't care less how we behave! That is because He knows how we behave, as sinners. The curse of sin flows in us like blood in our veins. Most certainly God cares about what we believe! If we think that we can live a right life by following rules, we fall back under the curse that comes whenever we sin and put a kink in our life. Rather, Jesus came to free us from the dead-end kind of life that tries to follow rules. The righteous shall live by faith." Simply put, the person who trusts Jesus is doing the only right thing God wants him to do.

            When Jesus said that one's righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, they were insulted. So they asked Jesus, "What must a man do to do the works of God?" Jesus said, "To do the works of God you must believe on him whom he has sent." Period. Jesus did not say, "Believe on him whom he sent and then make sure you tithe, and go to church and so forth." He said, "Believe on him whom he has sent." Period. And, remember, Jesus gives us the faith we need for believing on Jesus each time we hear His Word!

            What then, should we ignore the Word of Law given through Moses? No! Martin Luther writes, “We too, who are now made holy through grace, nevertheless live in sinful body. And because of this remaining sin, we must permit ourselves to be rebuked, terrified, slain and sacrificed by the Law.” And we are to remember this, “The Ten Commandments (which speak of a holy conduct and life before God and men) are at an end so that they cannot condemn us who believe in Christ. He put Himself under the Law in order to redeem us, who were under the Law, yes, He became a curse for us in order to redeem us from the curse of the Law. However, the Ten Commandments remain in force and are intended for all of us Christians so far as our obedience to them is concerned. For the righteousness which the Law demands is fulfilled in the believers by the grace and help of the Holy Spirit, whom they receive. Hence all the exhortations to lead a godly life – by the prophets in the Old Testament and by Christ and the Apostles in the New Testament – are really beautiful sermons and explanations of the Ten Commandments.”  

            Of course, those who trust Jesus will behave differently than most everyone else. For example, if we trust Jesus, then we will naturally want to spend as much time as we can getting to know Him better through his Word and sacraments. If we take Jesus at His Word we will want to go to church, attend Bible studies, and spend time in personal and family devotions. After all, He promised that anyone who hears and keeps His Word will be blessed.

            If we trust Jesus, we will do our best to follow His instructions, even if they seem hard or silly. We will even be able to do the impossible -- forgive the unforgivable, trusting that Jesus has forgiven the unforgivable sins that we, too, have committed. We will love God and our neighbors as the very love of Christ flows out through us. We will take care of the needs of those around us. We will be able to make disciples of all nations.

            So this is the Law and the Gospel of God. Martin Luther wrote...   

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You redeemed us from the curse of the law. That means You paid the price it took in order to set us free from the curse our sinfulness earned us. Forgive us whenever we fall back into thinking that our behavior is what matters, when we lose sight of the work You have done to straighten us out. Help us live in the mercy You have shown us by filling us with Your Spirit who will give us the faith we need to live in holiness. Amen.