July 25, 2004 * Windows to the Word: Law Window * Vicar Caauwe

We are surrounded by Windows to the Word. Each of the windows we have looked at so far this summer has focused on a person who recorded the Word of God. We learned some history about these four men, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We’ve learned about major themes and emphases in their books. Beginning today, these windows turn our attention from the writers and writings themselves to the content of the Word, the basic teachings, doctrines of the Bible--the Atonement, the Lord’s Supper, Baptism.

The first two doctrines of the Bible that the windows point us to are the Law and the Gospel. We know these doctrines as the two main teachings of the Bible. We also know that these two teaching are very different from each other, and so it is also very important that we understand the differences between them.

I’d like to show you how I pictured this difference for a catechism lesson this year. Using Bible passages, words, and pictures, the lesson shows that law and gospel are different. They differ as to where they were written (the law is written on our hearts and in the Bible; the gospel is recorded in the Bible only), what they tell us (the law tells us what to do and not to do; the gospel tells us that all has been done by Christ), and what God will give, based on the law or the gospel (based on the law, God will give eternal punishment in hell (pictured by fire flame); based on the gospel, God will give eternal life).

You can easily see how law and gospel are pictured. They’re opposites. Black and white. The gospel is positive, the law - negative. So it’s not surprising that in the church window devoted to the law, we see images very similar. On the left, the burning bush, the bush Moses saw on Mt. Horeb. On the right, a flaming sword like those held by the angels guarding the garden of Eden. And in the center, tablets of stone inscribed with God’s law.

According to the pictures, we might conclude that the gospel is good and the law is bad. But look closely at this center picture. What do you see behind the stone tablets? Do you see the lily? It doesn’t really seem to fit. We’re more accustomed to seeing lilies on Easter Sunday, a day that is anything but negative.

Let me suggest to you that the reason for the flower is to remind us of something very important.

THE LAW OF GOD IS GOOD

...because of

I. how it was given

II. how it was fulfilled

III. how it remains for Christians.

In order to see that the law is good, we need to go all the way back to the Garden of Eden. In God’s perfect creation, he had provided everything that Adam and Eve needed for their lives. He gave them bodies, food to eat, a beautiful garden to live in and work in. He gave them companionship with each other, and more importantly, companionship with God. In this perfect creation God gave his first law. Of course, before God had even told Adam and Eve that they were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God had already inscribed his law into their hearts. On their perfect hearts God had written his will. Their perfect hearts knew and wanted exactly what God wanted.

God’s law was not a burden to Adam and Eve. Instead, it was a blessed opportunity to serve their creator. It was an opportunity to show their thanks to the one who had given them everything. And how were they to do that? By simply doing what he said, by not eating from the tree he had said not to eat from. God’s law to Adam and Eve was good.

God’s law on Mt. Sinai was good, too. Behind each of the commands that God thundered from the mountain was a blessing that God wished to give his people. Think about it. God said, “Don’t misuse my name” because God wanted to bless his people when they called on his name and proclaimed his name. God said, “honor your father and mother, so that it may go well with you” God wanted to bless his people through the representatives he had established. God said, “do not murder” because he blesses people with life. God’s law in the Ten Commandments is good.

But things change when sin enters the picture. In the garden of Eden, along came Satan, who convinced Eve that maybe God’s law wasn’t so good. Maybe God was trying to withhold something from them. Maybe life would be better if she knew as much about good and evil as God did. And Adam and Eve sinned.

Now Adam and Eve were cut off from the blessings in the garden. The flaming sword would always remind them that they could never go back.

Moses was reminded of the same fact in the burning bush. God said to him, “Do not come any closer; take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”(Ex. 3:5) Yet Moses knew that nothing he could do gave him the right to come before such a holy God. He was a sinner.

On Mt. Sinai, the people trembled with fear when they heard the LORD. They feared because they knew they were already guilty of breaking God’s holy law.

How does the law look to you? How would you paint it? When you set your life up against the standard of the law, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27), how do you come out looking? Not too good?

Don’t you find yourself saying right along with Paul, “We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (Ro 7:14) and “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” (Ro 7:18

The same law that was given for my good tells me what a sinner I am. The law that was given to bring me closer to God says “Your iniquities have separated you from your God.” (Isaiah 59:2) The law threatens separation from God, separation forever.

Yes, the law is good, but I cannot obey it. The law is good, but I am not. Again, we say with Paul, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Ro 7:24-25)

Jesus Christ is the answer to our problem. We heard in the Gospel lesson, “For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) The accusations and threats of the law are silenced by our Savior. But make no mistake; Jesus did not take away the law itself. Jesus did not remove the Ten Commandments, nor did he not present a new set of laws that was a little bit easier to complete.

Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Mat. 5:17) Jesus could not simply get rid of the law because the law, by itself, is good. It was still God’s perfect and holy will.

Jesus silenced the accusations and threats of the law, not by taking it away, but by keeping it. The law revealed the life God demanded that mankind live. And as a man, Jesus lived that life.

So it’s not my life that shows me that the law is good, but Jesus’ life. When we look at the Ten Commandments in view of the life that Jesus lived, then we can truly see that yes, the law is good. It’s good to worship the Lord God and serve him only. It’s good to show love to all people, even people who seem unlovable. The law of God is good.

But here’s where it really gets good. Picture in your mind obedience to God’s law, perfect love shown to God and to neighbor, good deeds done in line with God’s holy will. Picture all these things that we see in the life of Christ. Now picture all these things attributed to you. Through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, his holiness has been credited to you.

Now our perspective on God’s law has changed, because in God’s sight we have been changed. In baptism God dressed us in a robe of righteousness (his righteousness). And now our lives look as white as snow, white as a lily on Easter Sunday. God sees us as those who have kept his law. And the rewards that come to those who keep God’s law - life, blessedness, joy - those are ours as well.

The way we think about God’s law has changed. It’s no longer something we must do, or at least try really hard to do in order to win favor with God. It’s no longer a burden that weighs us down because we can’t do this or we can’t do that.

Rather, we again find ourselves speaking right along with the apostle Paul, “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.” (Ro 7:22) I want to know what God wants. I want to do what God wants. I want to serve. I want to honor and respect. I want to love. I want to obey God’s good law because Christ has already obeyed it for me.

And now I am able to make use of God’s law to help me know what it is that I should do. Now I can use the law as a lamp to my feet and a light for my path (Ps 119:105). I can use the law to guide me throughout my life.

Of course, as long as we live on earth we will always continue to be plagued by the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh. That will never go away. And the battle that takes place in us between our sinful nature and the new person God has created in us will never subside.

But as we continue to hear and learn God’s Word, both Law and Gospel, we will grow. We will grow in our understanding, our knowledge. We will grow in living lives of repentance and faith, lives of being forgiven and forgiving each other.

Anytime we compare the two main teachings of the Bible, the law and the gospel, we are bound to come away longing for the gospel. When our hearts have been cut with the message of our sin, we naturally long for the healing the gospel brings. For while the law thunders and accuses, the gospel shines and comforts.

Yet as much as we can’t wait until next week when we will hear about the Gospel window, we really can’t say that God’s law is bad. The law of God is good. It’s good because it was given by God himself for our good. Though we broke and continue to break God’s law, we see how the law was kept perfectly in Jesus Christ. And there, in Jesus Christ, we find our righteousness and the motivation to joyfully live our lives according to God’s good law. Amen.