The Sixth Sunday after Trinity – July 27, 2023Psalm 28; Exodus 20:1-17; Romans 6:1-11St. Matthew 5:17-26
In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There are truly, only two religions in
the world: a religion of the Law and a religion of the Gospel. Both are
concerned with the righteousness of men. God has worked into men a sense of
natural law, that is, a conscience, which understands there is such thing as
right and wrong, good and evil in this world. Among those who still acknowledge
a “higher power,” it is still acknowledged that some type of righteousness is
required to enter heaven or whatever other afterlife they can imagine. Even
those who claim to be atheists, recognizing neither a “higher power” nor
eternal consequences for our earthly life, there is a sense that some actions
are evil, deserving punishment, while others are good, deserving reward.
The religion of the Law demands that a
man make or prove himself righteous to attain heaven. “One might suppose he can
enter heaven if he lives a moral life or leads a generally useful life. Another
supposes he can do so if he is religious, that is, if he prays diligently, goes
to church, and remains with Christians. A third supposes he can enter heaven if
he guards himself as much as possible from gross sins and vices. A fourth, who
is one of the wicked, supposes he can earn eternal life if, despite all his
transgressions and evil life, he can point to some good.”[1]
In short, the religion of the Law sets
forth certain standards by which a man may save himself. Those standards might
be revealed by a deity or a prophet. They might be created within a man
himself. They may be strict or lenient. These standards may even be expressed
with great sympathy: “So long as you tried,” “once you’ve done everything
within you,” “insofar as you are able,” “with all your heart.” The bottom line
is that the religion of the Law demands something of you, which if satisfied,
will be rewarded with heaven.
Now what does Christ say? He says, “Unless
your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you
will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”[2]
With these 21 words, Christ destroys any thought that man can achieve heaven by
his own means or even by his own means when helped by God. So far as it was
within them, the scribes and the Pharisees strictly kept the commands of God as
it was read. Their lives were dedicated to fulfilling the letter of the Law. If
the righteousness required to enter heaven is greater than this, then it is
truly something greater than man is capable of.
The Law of God is good and wise. It is His eternal, immutable will. The Law does not change because God does not change. The Ten Commandments are the distillation, the summary of God’s Holy Law and all men, by virtue of being a creation of God, are held accountable to this Law.
As Christ teaches on the Fifth
Commandment, He shows that on outward keeping of this commandment does not
itself keep the Law. The Law demands to be kept both outwardly and inwardly; in
the hands and in the heart. The righteousness of the Law is a matter of the
soul which is then manifested in the work of the hands, and this righteousness
demands perfection.
Just for a moment, let us consider a
distinction between the Law of God and His commands. A command is an expression
of God’s Law, His eternal will. God has commanded, “Thou shalt not kill.” This
is an expression of God’s will that life and our physical being are precious to
Him such that we should not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body but help and
support him in every physical need. Anger harms our own bodies, think rising
blood pressure, and it threatens the physical wellbeing of our neighbor. At the
same time, some are given the authority to take life, to kill. God has given
the sword to the state to punish the wicked. Soldiers are given the authority
to take life to preserve life.
The authority of the executioner and
the soldier is not a violation of the Fifth Commandment because they do not
violate God’s will, even if a strict adherence only to the letter of the Law
would make it seem to conflict. This does not even represent a conflict within
God’s will. The specific vocations appointed by God to take life are for the
very purpose of protecting life, the keeping of the Law as expressed in the
Fifth Commandment.
Yet even in these specific vocations, the
question must be asked if the individual carrying out God’s will is doing so
according to the letter and the spirit of the Law. And even if he is, what
about the rest of the Law? “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and
yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”[3]
“For every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of
judgment.”[4]
The Law forbids all sins. If a man is guilty of one sin—one tiny stumble, one idle
word, one lustful thought—he is guilty of the entire Law and unable to enter
the kingdom of heaven. The Law even accuses man of omitting something which he
could have done. “To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to
him it is sin.”[5]
This is a harsh reality. It is the
truth that stands behind any religion of the Law. No matter what a person
believes might be true, the truth of God’s Word is that the Law demands
perfection. And God could not demand anything less. He cannot change or repeal
His Law for it is His eternal, holy will. To change one iota, one dot of the
Law would make God inconsistent and untrustworthy. “Cursed is everyone
who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law,
to do them.”[6]
His standards do not change.
Where then is hope? Who can hope to
attain the kingdom of heaven? The standards are too lofty for man. Even being
the best Christian you can be doesn’t meet the standards of the Law. Now, of
course the answer is in Christ. The God-Man, He who is without sin, fulfilled
the Law, fulfilled every jot and dot of the Law on your behalf. He who is Life,
gave Himself into death on your behalf, shedding His blood where your blood was
required. He rose triumphant from the grave to pave the way for humanity to
walk through the gates of heaven. The Key of David simultaneously bound the
ancient dragon and unlocked the gates of pearl.
And this reality of Christ’s victory
over sin and fulfilling the Law is all well and good, but it does not benefit
you if His righteousness does not come upon you. Something can be objectively
true and good without you receiving the benefit. So the pressing question is
not just where the hope of salvation comes from, but how you receive the
righteousness required for entry into heaven.
The answer is revealed in our reading
from St. Paul this morning. You do not obtain this righteousness. You do not
grasp hold of it. You do not seek it out and find it among the treasures of
this world. God brings it to you. God delivers it to you. God scoops you up and
wraps you in His righteousness, and He does this through death.
“Do you not know that as many of
us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His
death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death.”[7]
There is so much that happens in Holy Baptism and it begins with death. The
waters of Holy Baptism begin with our death to sin, as we are drown and dragged
to the depths of the sea. This is prefigured in the Flood of Noah. Every
imagination of the hearts of man had become wicked in the Fall and the Lord
decided within Himself to wash away this wickedness in a watery death. Your
death in Holy Baptism is no less real than all those who perished in the Flood.
From the moment of your birth in the flesh, the minutes of your life have begun
to count down. Holy Baptism points forward to this temporal reality but
fast-forwards that clock spiritually. You were drowned and died in the flood of
Holy Baptism.
It is a shame that our culture has
become so afraid of death that it is almost unheard of for friends and family
to be present at the actual burial, pouring of dirt, over the casket of a dead
loved one, much less to even witness the lowering of the casket into the grave.
This is to our shame because Holy Scripture reveals this as the reality of our
Baptism. Not only are we drowned in the waters but we are in fact buried in the
earth. We are swallowed by the very ground on which we once walked.
Yet Baptism does not end in death, just
as Christ’s sacrifice did not end in death. Having been drowned, having been
buried in the depths of the earth, we rise from the font to a new life. Just as
Christ is raised from the dead, so too we rise from the dead. And just like the
death of Holy Baptism, this points forward to the temporal reality of our
resurrection in the flesh. It immediately is the reality of our spiritual new
birth. We rise from the waters of Holy Baptism a new creation, created for New
Life, the temple of the Holy Spirit and a new-born son of God.
“If we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”[8]
Yet again, this new life is not the end
of Holy Baptism. Just as our first parents were not sent out of the Garden with
the Word of God’s promised salvation alone but clothed in the skin of a lamb,
so too the new man who rises from the waters of Holy Baptism is given the robe
of Christ’s righteousness. This robe is entirely foreign to you. You did
nothing to earn it and if fact, you do nothing to maintain it. It is given to
you by Christ, Himself. He takes the very shirt off His back and places it on
you. And this righteous garment bears the very righteousness of God. “Be holy
as Your Heavenly Father is holy.” This is how you come to possess the very
righteousness, the very holiness of God.
Along with this righteousness comes the
very hope, the very faith by which you receive that cloak of righteousness.
Having been made a dwelling of the Holy Spirit and clothed in Christ’s
righteousness, your mind is renewed and you are made fit to receive these
glorious blessings of God’s mercy. Again, even the objective truth and reality
of the blessings of Holy Baptism are of no benefit if they are not received by
faith, yet even this faith is not of your own doing, your own reason, works, or
emotions. This faith is itself a working of God.
So how do you know that you have met
the requirements of the Law in order to gain entrance into heaven? How do you
know that you have the faith that receives the righteousness of Christ? It is
quite simple. Ask yourself, ‘Am I baptized?’ ‘What has Christ said about Holy
Baptism?’ Christ has said that in Holy Baptism, the very name of God—the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit—has been placed on you, marking you as one
of His own. If you are His, then you have been made a dwelling of the Holy
Spirit and the robe of Christ’s righteousness has been placed on you. And if
this is the case, and if faith is itself a working of God, then those blessed
words of Christ are all you need, “All who believe and are baptized will be
saved.”[9]
Not only has the shed blood of Christ
opened the way to salvation, but He has given you His own credentials for
admission. He has tightly woven His own righteousness around you such that
nothing more is required. Is it possible to wriggle out of His righteousness?
Of course! It is quite easy to do. But it is unthinkable for the Christian who
realizes just what Christ has done and continues to do for you. “Shall we
continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we
who died to sin live any longer in it?”[10]
Now may Christ the life of all the
living and the death of death our foe, guard your hearts and minds in the true
and living faith once delivered to you in the waters of Holy Baptism now and
forever.
In + Jesus’
name. Amen.
