Oct 8 Sermon - Law and Gospel (Transcript)
[0:00]
We're going to head back into our series
this month as we go look at the reformation.
This morning we're going to look at a distinction that may not be familiar to you
"trust in the gospel not only for your salvation but also for your sanctification"
Prayer
[1:00]
Lord, I'm grateful that that relationship, that connection is really given to us because of Christ. And I pray this morning that as we seek to understand Your word more clearly, as we seek to understand what Your word says and demands of us, and we seek to understand the gospel of grace, Lord that those would be held in their proper place, that we would be those who trust in You and Your righteousness. And we thank You that Your word is powerful and that Your Spirit is able to do what I am unable to do.
[3:00]
WWJD, for many of you, probably thought it originated in the 90s. If you thought it originated in the 90's actually it didn't. It originated in 1856. It was a book that was written by a man of the name of Richard Sheldon and it was a book written where really it was more of a novel where a person asked a question, "What would would it look like if I were to take every decision that I was to make and I were to ask the question 'what would Jesus do in this situation?'" And that book that was popularized back then and kind of re-came to prominence then was marketed well in the 90s and into the 2000s and kind of showed up everywhere, but as all trends do, it's kind of disappeared again. That trend was really helpful in one respect to kind of interject Jesus into our everyday lives. But I would say in another respect, it was like a trend that followed many before it in that it failed to consider one important spot. Because when we think about "what would Jesus do?" What we might fail to consider is "What has Jesus already done?" [4:17]
[4:18]
In fact, most of it in popular evangelicalism is focused on "What is it that we are to do?" I would say that the majority of the sermons that you hear fall along the lines of "these are 3 principles" "these are two hints", "these are 3 secrets", "these are two things to do" and we pile up all these things that we are to do, and oftentimes we walk out of church with our hands full trying to carry all of the thoughts and actions and principles that we are trying to hold on to.
[5:00]
What I want to expose you to this week is not an idea of what you are to do, but what Jesus has already done. You see, you could say in one respect "Jesus did not come to make you a more moral person." There are many things and many ways and many directions that moral people can be created. We (I actually think) in one respect, are hard wired to be rule followers. Now, I know as soon as you say that, you're going to say "I'm not a rule follower", but I would submit to you that even...]
[6:00]
those that see themselves not as rule followers end up making up their own set of rules. And sometimes those rules can make moral people. Good people. But I would submit to you that Jesus did not come to make you a more moral person. Because what he came to do was to solve a problem that was bigger than that, to solve a problem that was deeper than that. See, he came to do something that you could not do. Last week, we looked at the reformation principle of sola fide. Faith alone. And that, in one sense, was the kind of capstone.
[7:00]
Sola fide was in some ways the central tenant in which the Reformation was formed around. When Martin Luther went through his own personal crisis and was one of the (in his own accounts) one of the best monks who ever lived. He was brought to the end of himself as a moral person because what he saw and what he struggled with was that even in the midst of all of his goodness, he still failed when setting it against the righteousness of God. And so as Luther struggled to try to understand this idea of getting Christ's righteousness, what he rediscovered was the truth of the gospel that Christ's righteousness is not something that you gain through your own effort, but it is something that is given to you, or in his words imputed to you or poured into you, not because of what you have accomplished, but because of what Christ has accomplished.
[8:00]
This morning I want to expose you to another principle which you could really say is a sister principle of this and sits right next to this idea of faith alone and really form these together to understand how this really works. It might be something that's new to me and in one way that's really sad to me, but I understand it, because I grew up in church, I went to seminary and this is only an idea, or really something that has only become clear to me in the last few years by going back and just seeing these reformation principles. I hope that if it is new to you and even if this is something that you are not quite sure about, I hope that you will struggle with it to investigate and really understand what I mean.
[9:00]
Because what Luther saw here was the need for us to clearly delineate two ideas. The idea of the law and the gospel. To keep a distinction between what is the Law and what is the Gospel. And to hold those two separate. In fact he says in his commentary in chapter 3:23-24,
[Editor's note: I read through the commentary on that portion and couldn't find it anywhere. Turns out it is from his New Year's sermon of 1532 on that text. Not in his commentary]
"The difference between the law and the gospel is the height of knowledge in Christendom." That's a huge statement. "It's the height of knowledge in Christendom. Every person and all persons who assume or glory in the name of Christ should know and be able to state this difference."
[10:00]
If this ability is lacking, one cannot tell a Christian from a heathen or a Jew. Of such supreme importance is this differentiation. This is why saint Paul so strongly insisted on a clean-cut and proper differentiation of these two doctrines, the Law and the Gospel."
I want to help you understand that this morning. What is the law? How does it function? What does it look like? And what is the gospel?
If you have your Bibles, open them up to Galatians chapter 3. (and if you don't he gives the page number). One thing I failed to say last week is that in this series when we're looking at different aspects...
[11:00]
Summary: Luther is not a perfect person or perfect theologian. [Anti semitism, Lord's table, Baptism, Personal style of communication]
"Broken frail vessel"
It wasn't just him alone. It wasn't just something Luther held (law and gospel).
[12:00]
We're looking at these through the lens of Luther, but it's not just Luther who held these things. Look at Galatians 3:10. "For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law. For the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith. Rather the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, 'cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree', so that in Christ, the blessings of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
[13:00]
The first thing that I want you to understand this morning is the nature of this law. What are we talking about when we talk about the law. It's hard for us to understand this because the law is used in a bunch of different ways. Both in scripture and outside of scripture in theological writing.
Law - 1. All OT
Sometimes when we talk about the law, we're talking in the biggest broadest sense, the Old Testament. All the OT. And we think of that as the law. .
Law - 2. Pentateuch
Sometimes when we talk about the law, we're talking not about the whole OT, but we shrink it down to the first 5 books. The Mosaic books. The books of the law.
[14:00]
Law - 3. 613
Sometimes when we talk about the law, we think about it in terms of, not the whole OT or the first five books, but we shrink it down even further and we think about it specifically as what God gave Moses at Sinai (sometimes referred to as the Mosaic covenant). And if we're reading through the Bible it's that place where we either skip or we get stuck, because we're like "why are these things in here about what fabrics to wear and when to eat and what's clean and what's unclean?" and we get stuck in that spot.
[15:00]
Law - 4. Pharisees' "Lawful"
We also can talk about the law in terms of the NT and Jesus' interaction with the Pharisees and often times the law there is what is in scripture but then also what has been added to scripture. One of the greatest conflicts in the NT is Jesus' interaction with the Pharisees as they have taken the law and they have built fences around it to not only interpret it (as in commentaries) but to protect it. And so the law then is sometimes referred to not just as God's law, but all of those things that are ancillary or secondary to it that are there to protect the law. Things of how to wash your hands. Or things you can or cannot do on the Sabbath or how far you can travel.
[16:00]
Law - 5. Universal law of God
And sometimes in the NT, that's used in terms of the law. This morning, when we think about it, I don't want to complicate it further for you. When Luther talked about the law, and I think the best way to understand the law in general is to define it this way.
The law as I'm using it this morning is a theological concept. It's an idea. And the law is something that includes all of God's commands no matter where they are found.
No matter whether they are found in the OT. No matter whether they come from the mouth of Moses or from the mouth of Jesus. No matter if they are written in Leviticus or if they are written in Ephesians. The law, in this idea, is all of God's commands no matter where they are found.
[17:00]
And this law reveals the very nature and will of God to us. It shows us who God is and tells us what God demands of us. It is there to see Him clearly. If that feels overly complicated to you, let me bring it down another level: You can think of the law as kind of the ten commandments. Now that is not all of God's commands to you, but the 10 commandments are a kind of a distillation, a kind of pulling down of what the law is. Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5. You have a repeat of the commandments. And the commandments are generally broken down into two different directions.
[18:00]
The first and preeminent commandment is you shall have no other gods before me. That is God's law. He is saying He is without equal. You are to have nothing in your life that is bigger or greater or has more authority than Him.
[19:00]
In one sense, you could say breaking any of the other 9 commandments actually is breaking the first commandment. It's kind of a hinge in which one of the other commandments are broken, you have violated not just that one but you've violated the first as well. But the other commandments go on to kind of lay our our relationship and our interaction with God. To say that you are to have no other images. In other words, God is communicating 'Whatever it is that you can conjure up, I am not like that'. God was not against sculptures or statues. What he was against was us creating God out of our own imagination. Reforming Him how we would like Him to be.
[20:00]
The third commandment is one that protects his name. Goes back to us understanding who He is. The 4th is how do we relate to him or worship him in the keeping of the Sabbath. The second set of those commandments is not a vertical relationship, but our horizontal relationships. Sometimes called the second tablet of the law. Now the commandments 5-10 are about how do we relate to one another. Honor your father and your mother, do not commit murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false witness, do not covet. To violate those commandments are generally you have to do in relationship to someone else.
[21:00 and 22:00]
Although they may be internal, they do affect how you see or your relationship with someone else. This is God's law. When asked about it in Matthew 22, Jesus restated this. When he was asked "What is the greatest commandment?" He says "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength. And the second, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself". This is God's will, this is God's commandment, this shows us who He and and what He is about. And in fact, if you want to go back and think about this further, I would encourage you to go and look at the teachings of Jesus where he takes God's law and I would say he sharpens it. So that it becomes a pointed reality to us that is inescapable. One of th ways that he does this and speaks this law is in the sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, where he says, "you have heard it said, but I say to you." I don't think he's fundamentally changing it, I think he's taking the law there and he wants to expose it all the down beyond what you do all the way down to your passions and your lusts, all the way down to your heart level.
[23:00]
Because he says there, "you think that you don't murder." We generally like to check that one off. "Okay, here is are the things God wants of me, here are the things God has demanded of me. Okay, Murder - yes! I've at least got 10% on this test!" The problem is Jesus takes that and he sharpens it in Matthew 5. He says "Listen, you think you got 10%? Let me mark it wrong for you. You look at your brother with hate in your heart - you have already murdered him!" He does the same exact thing with adultery.
[24:00]
You think that you are righteous that you are good, that you are fine with God because you have been faithful in my relationship. He says "you look on a woman with lust - you have already committed adultery". I love the way one author says it:
The law exists to show us what is right. And the law exists to show us what is wrong.
It is to show us the nature and character of God. To set the plumbline.
[25:00]
And it is at the same time there to show us what is wrong. Because as Jesus does there in Matt 5, He does not allow us to escape, he does not give us any wiggle room. He does not say "I know this is difficult, but you will be fine with it". No, he actually sharpens it and exposes the law all the way down to the heart and shows us what's wrong. The law exists there to show us what is right and it is there to show us what is wrong. Luther, in one of his sermons, describes it this way, similar to how I'm describing it to you:
[26:00]
The law is the Word in which God teaches and tells us what we are to do and not do as in the ten commandments. The law is "do". Or, if you want to rewind it all the way back to the garden, he says to Adam and Eve "Do this and you will live. Do this and you will die." See, here's where it gets interesting and important, the law as Paul lays it out here, has limits. It's got limits. There are certain things that it was designed to do and there are certain things that it was never designed to do. He say in this passage in Galatians 3:
[27:00]
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, "cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them."
The law exposes and grades. The law is there to ask you the question "How are you doing on this?" It demonstrates our failure. Paul puts it down here that it's not enough for us just to know them, but "cursed be everyone who does not abide by ALL things written in the book of the law and do them."
[28:00]
We tend to live our life graded on a curve. There are good people and there are bad people. Interestingly enough, we tend to put ourselves in the "good people" camp. And then there are the "bad people". The problem is that if we look at the curve, we realize that God does not grade on any sense of a curve. And says "I'm sorry, but you have failed the test."
[29:00]
The test of the law is that you would do "all these things" perfectly always. And not just in action but all the way down into motive. In fact, when we get into Romans, we're going to see this pretty explicitly. Because Paul spends a lot of time in Romans chapter 2 and 3 to help us understand this nature of the law and what it is and does. Because it demonstrates the nature of God and shows us our failure.
[30:00]
We think the law restrains sin. The law is there to hold sin back. And sometimes we live our life thinking that if we take the right precautions, if we follow the right rules, then sin will be restrained. But what Paul says in Romans 7 is actually quite the opposite. You could say in one sense, that the law is there and it actually kind of incites sin. Our flesh, as we see the law, goes against it by nature. Just like that little kid, right? If we've been a parent: you say to your son or daugher "Don't touch this!" What does the kid do? It's like a gigantic magnet has been attached to them and whatever you've told them not to do.
[31:00]
It's like they can't resist touching it. Whatever you have told us not to do, it's like we can't be restrained to stopping it. Because why? Because it's the nature of the law. It's the nature of our rebellion against the law. What Paul is saying here in Galatians chapter 3 is the law was never designed to save us. The law shows us what's right and it shows us what's wrong. In fact, if you live a life devoted to the law, I believe you will]
[32:00]
You either end up in the category of self-righteousness. Because you look around and you say "look at how well I am doing! I myself am righteous. Look at all these people that aren't doing that. Or you end up on the opposite side. You end up in despair because you realize "I can't do this!". You see your utter failure to do this.
[33:00]
It's why most of quit diets. Right? "Oh I'm going to do a little better this week." And we'll do diets for a little while and we'll feel really good about it. (That's self righteousness.) And then we'll fail at it and what do we feel? Utter despair! See the law is there to show us what is right and is there to show us what is wrong. And so much of what we have been trained in, so much of what's taught, so much of what's preached, so much of what's written actually is the law. Taken the way most people took it, I would say the WWJD bracelets was the law. It was the law! Here's the command of God!
[34:00]
It was the law. Here is the command of God. But what we have to understand, what we have to get clear is the law and also the gospel. Paul lays it out here in Galatians chapter 3. He comes back to a phrase that we looked at last week in the beginning of Romans. Verse 11. He says
"now it is evident that no one is justified (right before God, righteous before God), now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law. For the righteous shall live by faith.
[35:00]
In fact he goes on here to show us how that happens. He says that the one who does them shall live by them. And Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. If the law tells us what is right and what is wrong the gospel tells us how do we fill that gap.
[36:00]
I want to take you another place because Paul writes about this in multiple places to help us understand it. But listen to Romans 8:1:
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit".
[37:00]
What he is saying here is "I want you to understand the gospel." He frames it here in the nature of two laws. The law of the Spirit of Life which is a phrase for the gospel, and the law of Sin and Death which is a phrase for the law (what we have been describing.) The gospel is not a message of what you will do. It is a message of what Christ has accomplished fully and completely for you to be right with God. In other words, what Paul is saying in Galatians and here in Romans is Christ has done everything for you to be right with God.
[38:00]
That's why he opens this chapter in Romans 8:1 with "There is now no condemnation, there is no judgment, there is no difference between you and Christ."
Because Christ has come and He has lived a perfect life, He has died a sinner's death. And that life and that sacrifice through faith is then given to you and your status is changed. So you are no longer condemned. You are no longer guilty. (to put it in a judicial phrase).
[39:00]
You are no longer guilty. The gospel, the work of Christ, is what fills the gap between the perfect and just holiness of God in His law and our active condition of our sinfulness. Luther put it this way: he differentiated between the law and the gospel.
"This other word, the word of God is not law or commandment. Nor does it require anything of us. But after the first word, that of the law, has done this work and distressful misery and poverty have been produced in the heart, God comes and He offers His lovely living Word and promises and pledges and obliges Himself to give grace and help that we may get out of this misery and that all sin not only will be forgiven, but will also be blotted out and that love and delight to fulfill the law may be given besides."
[41:00 +]
See this divine promise of His grace and forgiveness is properly called the gospel. If we mix these two, we have what some people have called "Glawspel". I'm going to be right with God by what I do.
We talked about it last week, that God got us in but it's our job to finish. But the problem is, that's like putting rat poison on a steak. It fouls up the whole thing. You've diluted it to the point that it is no longer gospel. The truth here in Romans 8 is that I
[42:00]
Why should we even talk about this? That was 500 years ago, like we have the internet now. I would say we regularly mix these back together. We don't keep these separate. I would say we often end up with a lot of difficulties. I would say first in when we think about conversion or regeneration. Coming to faith actually is the moment we realize for the first time "here is God's law, here is who He is, here is what He demands, and here's who I am, and the only thing that will bridge that gap is not my work but Christ's work.
[43:00]
The problem I think oftentimes, even in modern day, is we leave that at the door, because we've been trained in conversionism or revivalism, where you sign the card, you pray the prayer, you throw the pinecone into the fire, and then the gospel is left and we move onto greater and bigger and better things. And I was telling the guys at the retreat, I actually think our understanding of how we grow is different. It's not that we continue to get better and better and better. I actually would argue that the scriptures show that what we see is we see...
[44:00]
We see God's glory and demands and character more clearly as we grow. And we see ourselves more clearly and deeply as we go. And so we don't step away from the gospel, we actually step into it and we see it more and more and more. And that is Christian maturity. As Paul says in Romans 7 as a mature saint living out his most of his Christian life, he's looking at himself and he's not saying "man, I'm doing awesome." He says "wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" What's his answer? "Praise be to God"
[45:00] The daily Christian walk
He's turning back to the gospel over and over and he's saying "the only solution to this problem, when I see the glory and the demands of God, and when I see my own self clearly and honestly, the ONLY thing that I can claim, the ONLY thing that I can call to, the ONLY thing that I can rest in, is the gospel. See, we must never assume the gospel. I love the way one person put it: "You are worse than you think you are. You are more loved than you could ever imagine." That's the gospel. If the law is the bad news, the gospel is the good news.
[46:00]
Very often we turn and leave the gospel when it comes to issues of our assurance. We think of our... [sic] "How will I know that I'm a Christian? How do I know that I am saved?" If you asked me that years ago, do you know what I would say? I would rattle of a list of the things that I have done. Here are the habits that I keep. Here are things I've accomplished this week. These are the good things I have done."
[47:00]
What happens when that flips the other way? I'll tell you what happens: People come into my office and they say "I don't know if I'm saved". If the assurance of your salvation rests on you, then I'm going to guess that you've mixed up the law and the gospel. Some say that what the reformation recovered was the doctrine of assurance. Because it took us from looking at the interior of our Christian life and it turned us outward and it said "Look at Christ".
[48:00]
I don't look at myself at what I have accomplished but at Christ's life and what He has accomplished. That's where assurance is ultimately found.
The majority of what I read, hear, see, ends up telling us, "Go and do more."
[49:00]
Love it when you wake up and you turn on Twitter and you get a sermon illustration. That happened to me this morning. I wake up and someone has posted this article "how to revitalize your Christian life". "Okay, cool, I need that... How to revitalize my Christian life" Pull up the article. You know what the article says? Guy's written a book. Surprising (*sarcastic tone*). You know what the book says? "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself." I want to scream! Like, "no that's the problem!"
[50:00]
If I'm honest and I look at that, and I say, "Oh yeah, here's the 3 tips to do that better", then I fail. What I need if I am to revitalize my Christian life is "Look to Christ" "Trust in him". If you're coming here, to be honest with you, and what you want is you want me to come in here every Sunday you want me to give you three things to do, or two principles, or five to do that, I'm sorry I'm going to disappoint you. There's a place for the law. In fact, Luther talks about it in that quote where it comes back around. But,
[51:00]
What I really want you to do, if you're coming here, what I'm going to say to you is "look to Christ." I've got nothing else. I have nothing bigger. I have nothing greater. I can point you to no greater display of God's love for you than to read the words in Romans 8:1 "There is now no condemnation for you that are in Christ Jesus."
PAUSE
I can tell you, we do an awesome job at shrinking the gospel. I told the guys at the retreat, we shrink the demands of who God is in God's law by performing. We call that "legalism" to be honest. Here's how you can accomplish it. Here's how you're going to do it. But legalism is really just shrinking the demands of God.
There's two kinds of legalism. There's the fist pounding fundamentalist preachers.
[53:00]
That like to yell and throw stuff. But we also get what I would call soft legalism. "Here's the 3 ways, the 2 principles, the couple things to do. Go out with your arms filled up and come back next week and I'll give you 4 more. What end up doing, is we end up performing, lowering God's standard, shrinking the gospel, or we go on the other side of that and we end up pretending. "Oh I'm not really that bad. I really didn't mean to do it. That's not who I really am. And what we're doing is we're taking that line o exposing who we really are and we're pulling it up and saying, "oh this is who I really am..."
[54:00]
What we'll see here this morning is that the law doesn't allow you do that. It's going to show you the nature, the person and character, will and desire of God in its full completeness. And it's going to show you the depth of your own sinfulness all the way down. But what I also want to show you this morning is that the gospel is the thing that will bridge that gap. What Christ has done in his life death and resurrection is full and complete, total. To put it one way, it's "Grace all the way down and faith all the way up."
[55:00]
I hope that you begin to see this distinction between the law and the gospel, that you begin to see what Christ has accomplished. That you begin to know what He says here, that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Maybe it might be that you take your WWJD bracelet and just repurpose it, right? It's not what would Jesus do, but "What did Jesus do?" On the cross, He says "It is finished!"
[57:00]
May we see them fully. May we see the truth of the gospel in all of its glory. Lord, may we put no trust in ourselves, but every bit of our trust in Christ. Lord, I pray for each person here, that they would know that there is no condemnation for those in Christ. Lord, as they feel the press of your law, may their only plea, may their only [cuts off]
We're going to head back into our series
this month as we go look at the reformation.
This morning we're going to look at a distinction that may not be familiar to you
"trust in the gospel not only for your salvation but also for your sanctification"
Prayer
[1:00]
Lord, I'm grateful that that relationship, that connection is really given to us because of Christ. And I pray this morning that as we seek to understand Your word more clearly, as we seek to understand what Your word says and demands of us, and we seek to understand the gospel of grace, Lord that those would be held in their proper place, that we would be those who trust in You and Your righteousness. And we thank You that Your word is powerful and that Your Spirit is able to do what I am unable to do.
[3:00]
WWJD, for many of you, probably thought it originated in the 90s. If you thought it originated in the 90's actually it didn't. It originated in 1856. It was a book that was written by a man of the name of Richard Sheldon and it was a book written where really it was more of a novel where a person asked a question, "What would would it look like if I were to take every decision that I was to make and I were to ask the question 'what would Jesus do in this situation?'" And that book that was popularized back then and kind of re-came to prominence then was marketed well in the 90s and into the 2000s and kind of showed up everywhere, but as all trends do, it's kind of disappeared again. That trend was really helpful in one respect to kind of interject Jesus into our everyday lives. But I would say in another respect, it was like a trend that followed many before it in that it failed to consider one important spot. Because when we think about "what would Jesus do?" What we might fail to consider is "What has Jesus already done?" [4:17]
[4:18]
In fact, most of it in popular evangelicalism is focused on "What is it that we are to do?" I would say that the majority of the sermons that you hear fall along the lines of "these are 3 principles" "these are two hints", "these are 3 secrets", "these are two things to do" and we pile up all these things that we are to do, and oftentimes we walk out of church with our hands full trying to carry all of the thoughts and actions and principles that we are trying to hold on to.
[5:00]
What I want to expose you to this week is not an idea of what you are to do, but what Jesus has already done. You see, you could say in one respect "Jesus did not come to make you a more moral person." There are many things and many ways and many directions that moral people can be created. We (I actually think) in one respect, are hard wired to be rule followers. Now, I know as soon as you say that, you're going to say "I'm not a rule follower", but I would submit to you that even...]
[6:00]
those that see themselves not as rule followers end up making up their own set of rules. And sometimes those rules can make moral people. Good people. But I would submit to you that Jesus did not come to make you a more moral person. Because what he came to do was to solve a problem that was bigger than that, to solve a problem that was deeper than that. See, he came to do something that you could not do. Last week, we looked at the reformation principle of sola fide. Faith alone. And that, in one sense, was the kind of capstone.
[7:00]
Sola fide was in some ways the central tenant in which the Reformation was formed around. When Martin Luther went through his own personal crisis and was one of the (in his own accounts) one of the best monks who ever lived. He was brought to the end of himself as a moral person because what he saw and what he struggled with was that even in the midst of all of his goodness, he still failed when setting it against the righteousness of God. And so as Luther struggled to try to understand this idea of getting Christ's righteousness, what he rediscovered was the truth of the gospel that Christ's righteousness is not something that you gain through your own effort, but it is something that is given to you, or in his words imputed to you or poured into you, not because of what you have accomplished, but because of what Christ has accomplished.
[8:00]
This morning I want to expose you to another principle which you could really say is a sister principle of this and sits right next to this idea of faith alone and really form these together to understand how this really works. It might be something that's new to me and in one way that's really sad to me, but I understand it, because I grew up in church, I went to seminary and this is only an idea, or really something that has only become clear to me in the last few years by going back and just seeing these reformation principles. I hope that if it is new to you and even if this is something that you are not quite sure about, I hope that you will struggle with it to investigate and really understand what I mean.
[9:00]
Because what Luther saw here was the need for us to clearly delineate two ideas. The idea of the law and the gospel. To keep a distinction between what is the Law and what is the Gospel. And to hold those two separate. In fact he says in his commentary in chapter 3:23-24,
[Editor's note: I read through the commentary on that portion and couldn't find it anywhere. Turns out it is from his New Year's sermon of 1532 on that text. Not in his commentary]
"The difference between the law and the gospel is the height of knowledge in Christendom." That's a huge statement. "It's the height of knowledge in Christendom. Every person and all persons who assume or glory in the name of Christ should know and be able to state this difference."
[10:00]
If this ability is lacking, one cannot tell a Christian from a heathen or a Jew. Of such supreme importance is this differentiation. This is why saint Paul so strongly insisted on a clean-cut and proper differentiation of these two doctrines, the Law and the Gospel."
I want to help you understand that this morning. What is the law? How does it function? What does it look like? And what is the gospel?
If you have your Bibles, open them up to Galatians chapter 3. (and if you don't he gives the page number). One thing I failed to say last week is that in this series when we're looking at different aspects...
[11:00]
Summary: Luther is not a perfect person or perfect theologian. [Anti semitism, Lord's table, Baptism, Personal style of communication]
"Broken frail vessel"
It wasn't just him alone. It wasn't just something Luther held (law and gospel).
[12:00]
We're looking at these through the lens of Luther, but it's not just Luther who held these things. Look at Galatians 3:10. "For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law. For the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith. Rather the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, 'cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree', so that in Christ, the blessings of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
[13:00]
The first thing that I want you to understand this morning is the nature of this law. What are we talking about when we talk about the law. It's hard for us to understand this because the law is used in a bunch of different ways. Both in scripture and outside of scripture in theological writing.
Law - 1. All OT
Sometimes when we talk about the law, we're talking in the biggest broadest sense, the Old Testament. All the OT. And we think of that as the law. .
Law - 2. Pentateuch
Sometimes when we talk about the law, we're talking not about the whole OT, but we shrink it down to the first 5 books. The Mosaic books. The books of the law.
[14:00]
Law - 3. 613
Sometimes when we talk about the law, we think about it in terms of, not the whole OT or the first five books, but we shrink it down even further and we think about it specifically as what God gave Moses at Sinai (sometimes referred to as the Mosaic covenant). And if we're reading through the Bible it's that place where we either skip or we get stuck, because we're like "why are these things in here about what fabrics to wear and when to eat and what's clean and what's unclean?" and we get stuck in that spot.
[15:00]
Law - 4. Pharisees' "Lawful"
We also can talk about the law in terms of the NT and Jesus' interaction with the Pharisees and often times the law there is what is in scripture but then also what has been added to scripture. One of the greatest conflicts in the NT is Jesus' interaction with the Pharisees as they have taken the law and they have built fences around it to not only interpret it (as in commentaries) but to protect it. And so the law then is sometimes referred to not just as God's law, but all of those things that are ancillary or secondary to it that are there to protect the law. Things of how to wash your hands. Or things you can or cannot do on the Sabbath or how far you can travel.
[16:00]
Law - 5. Universal law of God
And sometimes in the NT, that's used in terms of the law. This morning, when we think about it, I don't want to complicate it further for you. When Luther talked about the law, and I think the best way to understand the law in general is to define it this way.
The law as I'm using it this morning is a theological concept. It's an idea. And the law is something that includes all of God's commands no matter where they are found.
No matter whether they are found in the OT. No matter whether they come from the mouth of Moses or from the mouth of Jesus. No matter if they are written in Leviticus or if they are written in Ephesians. The law, in this idea, is all of God's commands no matter where they are found.
[17:00]
And this law reveals the very nature and will of God to us. It shows us who God is and tells us what God demands of us. It is there to see Him clearly. If that feels overly complicated to you, let me bring it down another level: You can think of the law as kind of the ten commandments. Now that is not all of God's commands to you, but the 10 commandments are a kind of a distillation, a kind of pulling down of what the law is. Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5. You have a repeat of the commandments. And the commandments are generally broken down into two different directions.
[18:00]
The first and preeminent commandment is you shall have no other gods before me. That is God's law. He is saying He is without equal. You are to have nothing in your life that is bigger or greater or has more authority than Him.
[19:00]
In one sense, you could say breaking any of the other 9 commandments actually is breaking the first commandment. It's kind of a hinge in which one of the other commandments are broken, you have violated not just that one but you've violated the first as well. But the other commandments go on to kind of lay our our relationship and our interaction with God. To say that you are to have no other images. In other words, God is communicating 'Whatever it is that you can conjure up, I am not like that'. God was not against sculptures or statues. What he was against was us creating God out of our own imagination. Reforming Him how we would like Him to be.
[20:00]
The third commandment is one that protects his name. Goes back to us understanding who He is. The 4th is how do we relate to him or worship him in the keeping of the Sabbath. The second set of those commandments is not a vertical relationship, but our horizontal relationships. Sometimes called the second tablet of the law. Now the commandments 5-10 are about how do we relate to one another. Honor your father and your mother, do not commit murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false witness, do not covet. To violate those commandments are generally you have to do in relationship to someone else.
[21:00 and 22:00]
Although they may be internal, they do affect how you see or your relationship with someone else. This is God's law. When asked about it in Matthew 22, Jesus restated this. When he was asked "What is the greatest commandment?" He says "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength. And the second, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself". This is God's will, this is God's commandment, this shows us who He and and what He is about. And in fact, if you want to go back and think about this further, I would encourage you to go and look at the teachings of Jesus where he takes God's law and I would say he sharpens it. So that it becomes a pointed reality to us that is inescapable. One of th ways that he does this and speaks this law is in the sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, where he says, "you have heard it said, but I say to you." I don't think he's fundamentally changing it, I think he's taking the law there and he wants to expose it all the down beyond what you do all the way down to your passions and your lusts, all the way down to your heart level.
[23:00]
Because he says there, "you think that you don't murder." We generally like to check that one off. "Okay, here is are the things God wants of me, here are the things God has demanded of me. Okay, Murder - yes! I've at least got 10% on this test!" The problem is Jesus takes that and he sharpens it in Matthew 5. He says "Listen, you think you got 10%? Let me mark it wrong for you. You look at your brother with hate in your heart - you have already murdered him!" He does the same exact thing with adultery.
[24:00]
You think that you are righteous that you are good, that you are fine with God because you have been faithful in my relationship. He says "you look on a woman with lust - you have already committed adultery". I love the way one author says it:
The law exists to show us what is right. And the law exists to show us what is wrong.
It is to show us the nature and character of God. To set the plumbline.
[25:00]
And it is at the same time there to show us what is wrong. Because as Jesus does there in Matt 5, He does not allow us to escape, he does not give us any wiggle room. He does not say "I know this is difficult, but you will be fine with it". No, he actually sharpens it and exposes the law all the way down to the heart and shows us what's wrong. The law exists there to show us what is right and it is there to show us what is wrong. Luther, in one of his sermons, describes it this way, similar to how I'm describing it to you:
[26:00]
The law is the Word in which God teaches and tells us what we are to do and not do as in the ten commandments. The law is "do". Or, if you want to rewind it all the way back to the garden, he says to Adam and Eve "Do this and you will live. Do this and you will die." See, here's where it gets interesting and important, the law as Paul lays it out here, has limits. It's got limits. There are certain things that it was designed to do and there are certain things that it was never designed to do. He say in this passage in Galatians 3:
[27:00]
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, "cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them."
The law exposes and grades. The law is there to ask you the question "How are you doing on this?" It demonstrates our failure. Paul puts it down here that it's not enough for us just to know them, but "cursed be everyone who does not abide by ALL things written in the book of the law and do them."
[28:00]
We tend to live our life graded on a curve. There are good people and there are bad people. Interestingly enough, we tend to put ourselves in the "good people" camp. And then there are the "bad people". The problem is that if we look at the curve, we realize that God does not grade on any sense of a curve. And says "I'm sorry, but you have failed the test."
[29:00]
The test of the law is that you would do "all these things" perfectly always. And not just in action but all the way down into motive. In fact, when we get into Romans, we're going to see this pretty explicitly. Because Paul spends a lot of time in Romans chapter 2 and 3 to help us understand this nature of the law and what it is and does. Because it demonstrates the nature of God and shows us our failure.
[30:00]
We think the law restrains sin. The law is there to hold sin back. And sometimes we live our life thinking that if we take the right precautions, if we follow the right rules, then sin will be restrained. But what Paul says in Romans 7 is actually quite the opposite. You could say in one sense, that the law is there and it actually kind of incites sin. Our flesh, as we see the law, goes against it by nature. Just like that little kid, right? If we've been a parent: you say to your son or daugher "Don't touch this!" What does the kid do? It's like a gigantic magnet has been attached to them and whatever you've told them not to do.
[31:00]
It's like they can't resist touching it. Whatever you have told us not to do, it's like we can't be restrained to stopping it. Because why? Because it's the nature of the law. It's the nature of our rebellion against the law. What Paul is saying here in Galatians chapter 3 is the law was never designed to save us. The law shows us what's right and it shows us what's wrong. In fact, if you live a life devoted to the law, I believe you will]
[32:00]
You either end up in the category of self-righteousness. Because you look around and you say "look at how well I am doing! I myself am righteous. Look at all these people that aren't doing that. Or you end up on the opposite side. You end up in despair because you realize "I can't do this!". You see your utter failure to do this.
[33:00]
It's why most of quit diets. Right? "Oh I'm going to do a little better this week." And we'll do diets for a little while and we'll feel really good about it. (That's self righteousness.) And then we'll fail at it and what do we feel? Utter despair! See the law is there to show us what is right and is there to show us what is wrong. And so much of what we have been trained in, so much of what's taught, so much of what's preached, so much of what's written actually is the law. Taken the way most people took it, I would say the WWJD bracelets was the law. It was the law! Here's the command of God!
[34:00]
It was the law. Here is the command of God. But what we have to understand, what we have to get clear is the law and also the gospel. Paul lays it out here in Galatians chapter 3. He comes back to a phrase that we looked at last week in the beginning of Romans. Verse 11. He says
"now it is evident that no one is justified (right before God, righteous before God), now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law. For the righteous shall live by faith.
[35:00]
In fact he goes on here to show us how that happens. He says that the one who does them shall live by them. And Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. If the law tells us what is right and what is wrong the gospel tells us how do we fill that gap.
[36:00]
I want to take you another place because Paul writes about this in multiple places to help us understand it. But listen to Romans 8:1:
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit".
[37:00]
What he is saying here is "I want you to understand the gospel." He frames it here in the nature of two laws. The law of the Spirit of Life which is a phrase for the gospel, and the law of Sin and Death which is a phrase for the law (what we have been describing.) The gospel is not a message of what you will do. It is a message of what Christ has accomplished fully and completely for you to be right with God. In other words, what Paul is saying in Galatians and here in Romans is Christ has done everything for you to be right with God.
[38:00]
That's why he opens this chapter in Romans 8:1 with "There is now no condemnation, there is no judgment, there is no difference between you and Christ."
Because Christ has come and He has lived a perfect life, He has died a sinner's death. And that life and that sacrifice through faith is then given to you and your status is changed. So you are no longer condemned. You are no longer guilty. (to put it in a judicial phrase).
[39:00]
You are no longer guilty. The gospel, the work of Christ, is what fills the gap between the perfect and just holiness of God in His law and our active condition of our sinfulness. Luther put it this way: he differentiated between the law and the gospel.
"This other word, the word of God is not law or commandment. Nor does it require anything of us. But after the first word, that of the law, has done this work and distressful misery and poverty have been produced in the heart, God comes and He offers His lovely living Word and promises and pledges and obliges Himself to give grace and help that we may get out of this misery and that all sin not only will be forgiven, but will also be blotted out and that love and delight to fulfill the law may be given besides."
[41:00 +]
See this divine promise of His grace and forgiveness is properly called the gospel. If we mix these two, we have what some people have called "Glawspel". I'm going to be right with God by what I do.
We talked about it last week, that God got us in but it's our job to finish. But the problem is, that's like putting rat poison on a steak. It fouls up the whole thing. You've diluted it to the point that it is no longer gospel. The truth here in Romans 8 is that I
[42:00]
Why should we even talk about this? That was 500 years ago, like we have the internet now. I would say we regularly mix these back together. We don't keep these separate. I would say we often end up with a lot of difficulties. I would say first in when we think about conversion or regeneration. Coming to faith actually is the moment we realize for the first time "here is God's law, here is who He is, here is what He demands, and here's who I am, and the only thing that will bridge that gap is not my work but Christ's work.
[43:00]
The problem I think oftentimes, even in modern day, is we leave that at the door, because we've been trained in conversionism or revivalism, where you sign the card, you pray the prayer, you throw the pinecone into the fire, and then the gospel is left and we move onto greater and bigger and better things. And I was telling the guys at the retreat, I actually think our understanding of how we grow is different. It's not that we continue to get better and better and better. I actually would argue that the scriptures show that what we see is we see...
[44:00]
We see God's glory and demands and character more clearly as we grow. And we see ourselves more clearly and deeply as we go. And so we don't step away from the gospel, we actually step into it and we see it more and more and more. And that is Christian maturity. As Paul says in Romans 7 as a mature saint living out his most of his Christian life, he's looking at himself and he's not saying "man, I'm doing awesome." He says "wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" What's his answer? "Praise be to God"
[45:00] The daily Christian walk
He's turning back to the gospel over and over and he's saying "the only solution to this problem, when I see the glory and the demands of God, and when I see my own self clearly and honestly, the ONLY thing that I can claim, the ONLY thing that I can call to, the ONLY thing that I can rest in, is the gospel. See, we must never assume the gospel. I love the way one person put it: "You are worse than you think you are. You are more loved than you could ever imagine." That's the gospel. If the law is the bad news, the gospel is the good news.
[46:00]
Very often we turn and leave the gospel when it comes to issues of our assurance. We think of our... [sic] "How will I know that I'm a Christian? How do I know that I am saved?" If you asked me that years ago, do you know what I would say? I would rattle of a list of the things that I have done. Here are the habits that I keep. Here are things I've accomplished this week. These are the good things I have done."
[47:00]
What happens when that flips the other way? I'll tell you what happens: People come into my office and they say "I don't know if I'm saved". If the assurance of your salvation rests on you, then I'm going to guess that you've mixed up the law and the gospel. Some say that what the reformation recovered was the doctrine of assurance. Because it took us from looking at the interior of our Christian life and it turned us outward and it said "Look at Christ".
[48:00]
I don't look at myself at what I have accomplished but at Christ's life and what He has accomplished. That's where assurance is ultimately found.
The majority of what I read, hear, see, ends up telling us, "Go and do more."
[49:00]
Love it when you wake up and you turn on Twitter and you get a sermon illustration. That happened to me this morning. I wake up and someone has posted this article "how to revitalize your Christian life". "Okay, cool, I need that... How to revitalize my Christian life" Pull up the article. You know what the article says? Guy's written a book. Surprising (*sarcastic tone*). You know what the book says? "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself." I want to scream! Like, "no that's the problem!"
[50:00]
If I'm honest and I look at that, and I say, "Oh yeah, here's the 3 tips to do that better", then I fail. What I need if I am to revitalize my Christian life is "Look to Christ" "Trust in him". If you're coming here, to be honest with you, and what you want is you want me to come in here every Sunday you want me to give you three things to do, or two principles, or five to do that, I'm sorry I'm going to disappoint you. There's a place for the law. In fact, Luther talks about it in that quote where it comes back around. But,
[51:00]
What I really want you to do, if you're coming here, what I'm going to say to you is "look to Christ." I've got nothing else. I have nothing bigger. I have nothing greater. I can point you to no greater display of God's love for you than to read the words in Romans 8:1 "There is now no condemnation for you that are in Christ Jesus."
PAUSE
I can tell you, we do an awesome job at shrinking the gospel. I told the guys at the retreat, we shrink the demands of who God is in God's law by performing. We call that "legalism" to be honest. Here's how you can accomplish it. Here's how you're going to do it. But legalism is really just shrinking the demands of God.
There's two kinds of legalism. There's the fist pounding fundamentalist preachers.
[53:00]
That like to yell and throw stuff. But we also get what I would call soft legalism. "Here's the 3 ways, the 2 principles, the couple things to do. Go out with your arms filled up and come back next week and I'll give you 4 more. What end up doing, is we end up performing, lowering God's standard, shrinking the gospel, or we go on the other side of that and we end up pretending. "Oh I'm not really that bad. I really didn't mean to do it. That's not who I really am. And what we're doing is we're taking that line o exposing who we really are and we're pulling it up and saying, "oh this is who I really am..."
[54:00]
What we'll see here this morning is that the law doesn't allow you do that. It's going to show you the nature, the person and character, will and desire of God in its full completeness. And it's going to show you the depth of your own sinfulness all the way down. But what I also want to show you this morning is that the gospel is the thing that will bridge that gap. What Christ has done in his life death and resurrection is full and complete, total. To put it one way, it's "Grace all the way down and faith all the way up."
[55:00]
I hope that you begin to see this distinction between the law and the gospel, that you begin to see what Christ has accomplished. That you begin to know what He says here, that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Maybe it might be that you take your WWJD bracelet and just repurpose it, right? It's not what would Jesus do, but "What did Jesus do?" On the cross, He says "It is finished!"
[57:00]
May we see them fully. May we see the truth of the gospel in all of its glory. Lord, may we put no trust in ourselves, but every bit of our trust in Christ. Lord, I pray for each person here, that they would know that there is no condemnation for those in Christ. Lord, as they feel the press of your law, may their only plea, may their only [cuts off]
Comments
Post a Comment