All or Nothing

God's grace, mercy and peace be yours from God the Father and God in man made manifest - of course, Jesus Christ - and God the Holy Spirit. Amen. I've got a book on my shelf that's entitled "Does the Bible contradict itself?" What do you think? I know I'm not the only one who's had the privilege of reading through the scripture, perhaps some of you have, or just parts of it. And I know I'm not the only one who's wondered, boy, this just doesn't seem to be fitting together, because it says this over here and it says that over there. We had an example of that in two of our lessons: the epistle and the gospel. And I know you all were tuned in, and you caught it, right? Now, in case you weren't - my mind can wander too with all the information overload - but this is something that we don't want to let pass us by. And first of all, from the gospel. It's the words of Jesus, just a part of the what I shared in its entirety. It comes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7, where Jesus says this. He preaches: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot -" And, by the way, those of you who are still, you embrace the King James version, the King James version has Jesus saying "not a jot or a tittle." I had to look Tittle up, cuz I had never heard that word before, and it so happens that a tittle, as you know, in a lowercase i or j, there's a little dot. That's not a dot, it's a tittle. Did you know that? Now you know that, I know that, too. And Jesus said, not a tittle - not what's on top of a lowercase i or j - will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore 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. Well, that sounds good, doesn't it? For goodness sake, Lord knows we need some fire and brimstone preached. I've had people tell me that: "Pastor, the problem with the Lutheran church is it's gotten too wishy-washy with the gospel. It needs more fire and brimstone. Because you know, and I know the world is just going to heck in a handbasket. And it needs to shape up, and thank you, Jesus, for giving us a reminder that it's about the law and the fulfilling of the law by you and me." I'm not sure that's exactly what he said, but we'll come back to that. Now. Well, then there's this: it was in the epistle. And it's Paul who said to the Christians in Corinth, I decided to know nothing - nothing, mind you - among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Not a word about the law. Not a word about God's expectations. Not a word about God's rules or God's stipulations, that, let's face it, we all like to remind people. Oh, my mother reminded me when I was in junior high. They found out that I wanted to be a pastor one day, and my mother, she loved to throw at me - I love her. She still around - "You better start behaving like a pastor if you want to be one someday." I didn't want to be a pastor. You know why? Cuz I knew I couldn't live up to it. Well, that's another story, but let's get back to this.

So is Paul disagreeing? Do we have a contradiction here? Jesus is saying you are not going to enter into heaven, unless your righteousness, unless your keeping of the law, unless you abiding and not only hearing and reading, but living out all the stipulations and commandments of God - unless you're able to do that better than the scribes and Pharisees, forget about having any life in Paradise after your life here. And then Paul comes along and he says this: I don't want to know anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Boy. Well, what do you do with that? Man, it sounds like they're in disagreement here. What kind of apostle was Paul that he didn't get what Jesus was emphasizing about the law and the prophets and such? Well, I suppose we could just settle the matter right now and and say, yeah, the Bible's got contradictions in it. But then, what am I supposed to do with everything I was taught in seminary? What are you supposed to do with everything you were taught, hopefully in Sunday School and in Confirmation and in Bible study? As we were told, as I was told, when it comes to the word of God and the Holy Scriptures in the Holy Bible, you can count on it being infallible, inerrant - without error - and no contradictions. It's the inspired word of God. So, how do we resolve this dilemma? Well, it is a challenge, isn't it? Because you know and I know that - and even the best of intentioned Lutherans, we would just love things from the Bible to be made more simpler, right? Wouldn't it be nice if what we preach in our doctrines and such were just simpler, especially in regards to what makes sense to us. Right? That would fit our logic. That would agree with the preferences that we have. That we've become convinced, my goodness, I've been on this earth for 63 years. You'd think I'd know what would work to just create some harmony between people. And if only God in His word, you know, could agree with what I consider to be, you know, good words to have and to share. You know, to fit my own understanding and such. Well, alright. Then what about this thing about the universe having been made in millions and billions of years, right? You hear that all the time. It's not given as theory. I've been to school; it's pretty much taught as fact. We happen to have a chaplain who is a rabbi. So, she really knows her Hebrew way better than I do. And if you go to Genesis where it gives a creation account, I said, Rabbi Natalee, help me out here. I think I got this straight. But what does Moses, what does he record in there with regards to the six-day creation? Does it say, can it be understood as, yeah, day one was either a million or up to a billion years, and then that's what happened then. And she said, no, no Chaplain Chris. In the Hebrew, it says from sunset to sunrise - or you could understand it as sunrise to sunset. Now, this time of year, how much light do we have? Imagine that, the Bible saying God did it in that much time. Do you buy that? Contradiction. Or is it? Well? Or how about this: being a chaplain, being in the birth center in Marshfield, the neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I've yet to see a baby born of a virgin. What's with that? How on earth? Babies aren't born by virgins, right? You know that. I know that. What do you do with Jesus, then? We just confessed. And I said to you, I set you up by saying: this is the one true faith, and I thought I heard all of you say and what? And was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. Got a contradiction here, don't we? What are you going to do with that? Right? Oh, and going back to Paul. So he doesn't want to know anything else but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Oh, ladies, especially, what do you want to do with what Paul says about pastors? And pastors, the office of the pastors to be held by men? What do you want to do with that? Especially when I live, I work in an environment where it's about diversity and inclusivity. Everybody. Women can do all what the men can do. Men can do what the women can do. We all are one and exactly the same, no matter what the office, no matter what the calling, what do you do with that, then?

Well, if you really have a disagreement, or you're just, "okay, I I want to simplify things," one suggestion is, you know what a Sharpie is? A permanent marker. Just take that and just cross out those verses. That will simplify things for you. Right? And then you can get it to fit into kind of your own rationale and the way that you understand how things would work out, best. Or, you can just tear a page out of out of the book of, well, whatever book of the Bible it is. In Genesis, if you don't like what what Moses said about how God created the world in just a matter of hours. You could do that. But then, what are you going to do with what Jesus is saying in the Sermon on the Mount? Because when it comes to simplifying the scriptures and making it fit into your preferences and mine and the way that we reason things and our rationale and understanding and our logic and our standards, Jesus is saying - what He is saying in the Sermon on the Mount - is it won't work. It will not work to do that. Doesn't work. Here again, He says, "Truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or tittle will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, 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." I mean, I don't know how you can not hear what He's saying there. He's saying that anything that lowers God's standards, what? Is it going to work? It's not going to work. I mean, keeping most of the commandments isn't going to work. I ask the confirmation kids all the time: so, which commandment is it that you've never broken? Well I've never murdered anybody. Well, I bet your parents are proud of you for that. But, sorry to tell you, kids, you have murdered. Have you ever called somebody you don't like at school an idiot? Or there's other names, too. Well, keep listening to the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says, I tell you the truth. You have murdered your brother or sister when you have called them - her or him - a fool. Alright? So keeping keeping nine of the Ten Commandments doesn't cut it, Jesus is saying. It doesn't work. Well, if it weren't for Jesus, the Son of God speaking and preaching - what He does here - we'd probably think that this was the worst kind of legalism, and who on earth would want to live according to the standards that Jesus is laying out and saying "This is what God has for you." And not only being able to memorize all 10 of the commandments and the rest of the law - you know, in Judaism, they have 614. I was in Israel a few years ago. They have an elevator, where on the Shabbat - Sabbath - it's an elevator where you don't have to push any buttons, because then you'd be working. And if you push any buttons on the elevator, you'd be breaking the law. Wow, what kind of? Well, but then again, some: hey, this is how it's to be done. Not only are you to keep it, you are to live it, you are to do it. Well so then, what do you do with what Paul is inspired here to preach? And when I came to you, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided again to know nothing. Nothing - All or Nothing - among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, do you hear what Paul is saying? Do you hear, what he's saying is the whole of it, the message, the "it" of it? Jesus preached about law and commandments. Paul says, what? The "it," this is all or nothing, is what? It's right here. The cross. This is what it's all about. The law and prophets alone? No, Paul says, this is it right here (the cross).

A pastor, Jim Lamb, he was executive director for Lutherans for Life. He's retired now, from that position, but I knew Pastor Jim when we served in the same area in Iowa, and he was a mighty preacher, and he would stand in the Pulpit, and he would say, Chris, I can never stand in the Pulpit without having a cross such as this within reach. I got to be able to take hold of that because it's all or nothing. It's the cross or nothing. And there would be the cross, right by the Pulpit. Do you buy that?

We're not doing away with what Jesus said about - I didn't come to abolish the commandments, but to fulfill them. I sure hope you buy what Paul is saying, because if you don't, then the Cross of Christ is, it's nothing when it comes right down to it. But if you're stuck on what seems to be a contradiction, that well yeah, okay, it's about the cross, but it's also about me being good. Otherwise, it won't work. Think about that contradiction in your life. A solution is the cross, because the cross is the what? Jesus said: I came not to abolish, but to fulfill. So, in the cross, you have what? Who hung on that cross? The one who said I'm going to fulfill it. And this is how I'm going to do it. This is how I'm going to do it. This is how I'm going to do it. This is how I'm going to do it. I've sat here, I didn't get them all, but there's at least 15 crosses up front here. Not counting the stained glass windows. Why is that? Because it's all or nothing. It's all or nothing. There's not just one cross. Do you know that there are churches that claim to have the truth? You won't find a cross in them. What's with that? There are churches. I've seen, we refer to them as pencil sharpeners. They got a steeple up there. There's no cross up there. To me, that's a pencil sharpener. I want to see a cross up there. If it claims to be preaching the "it," what it's all about. I mean, this is the one and only begotten Son of God. A Father who dearly loved His Son. "This is my Son whom I love. Listen to Him." Who hung upon a cross because of one piece of fruit that was eating a long time ago. Against God's better judgment. This is God the Father's Son. God, whose heart had to have been crushed, coming to realize would had to take place to fulfill what had to be fulfilled for the one word you spoke yesterday - and I spoke - that shouldn't have been spoken.

This is God's Son. His one and only begotten. Who was nailed. Who suffered in such a way that others who deserve a greater suffering for their crimes didn't come close to experiencing what He did on the cross. And He did it for the word you and I did not speak when somebody, when God had opened the door to you and to me to say something, or to share something about Christ and Him crucified.

But Jesus knew what it was about. And that was: "we're not going to abolish the law, but I'm going to fulfill it. I'm going to fulfill it. Because I came not to be served, but to make my life as a ransom for many, for all." By His wounds, He suffered so that we would be healed. The law has been fulfilled, folks, if you haven't heard that before. I sure hope you have. Boy, but we need the reminders, don't we? Cuz we live in a world, let's face it. The solution is the law, lets legislate at all. That'll fix everything. The law has been fulfilled. The demands and stipulations and the rules and the commands of God have been met, not by you or me, but for you. And for me. For us. Boy, that's where I tell you, I think when it comes to teaching and preaching, the smallest words can be the most important. Did you catch that? What's the difference between? By and for. Not by you, but for you. That's what Paul means when he says, "I don't want to know anything else. It's all or nothing. Give me Jesus Christ crucified on the cross, or nothing at all." And what this does for God - the one who has given us all things, especially His Son - it allows God, then, because of what Christ did eventually fulfill for you and for me, and for all people, it's God, here, on one side of that cross and His Son is hanging up on it. And you and I are over on the other side of it, and He's looking through that cross, even today at this moment, every day you have. And He says to you by name, "You are righteous. You are mine. You are perfect in my sight for everything that I had once put before you to accomplish, He did it for you. And I love you for it. I love you for it." Wow, Paul nails it. So does Jesus. Because Jesus was nailed. And Paul understood what it all meant. So do we abolish the law and the commandments? No way, no way. Are we to use them to - like my dear, beloved mother tried to drive me to being a perfect pastor before becoming a pastor? No, no, we don't do that, either. If so, then Christ bore the cross for nothing.

It's what Paul said in agreement with Christ, with regards to how Jesus knew why He was sent, to be who He was, to fulfill what had to be fulfilled, and doing it by that cross. So that you knowing Christ, and I mean you really knowing Christ, because you know yourself, and you know, as much as you like to look at yourself in the mirror like I do and think oh, yeah. You know what Jesus meant and what Paul means about the law being fulfilled and Jesus Christ and Him being crucified as the one who did it.

And the more you know that one thing that Paul knew - all or nothing - the more you will want to do. You will want to do everything the law demands. No exceptions. No exceptions. You want to. You don't have to, but you want to. Because that memory verse today will then let the world see in us this whole, "why are you doing what you're doing?" Because I have this hope. And it's actually a certain hope because of what Christ did for me and made me righteous in God's eyes. So what's the one thing, the only thing you need to know? Jesus? Christ? Or simply the cross. The cross. Now, may the peace of God, which transcends all our understanding and way we want to simplify things, may it surpass that and keep and guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus and Him crucified. Amen.