Text:
The Law Always Accuses
Grace to you and
peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Law of God is
impossible for fallen men. That is why we hate it and try to weasel out of it.
We make excuses. We try to minimize our sinful choices by calling them “the
lesser evil” or “extenuating circumstances.” We vainly imagine that we could create
something more reasonable. But to hate God’s Law is to hate God’s Word. What
the Law demands is not merely an outward obedience, but a perfect obedience,
inside and out, pure heart, mind, and body. We have acted like spoiled
teen-agers demanding the keys the family station wagon and at the same time griping
that the car isn’t cool enough. All the while, we are white-washed tombs, clean
on the outside, but decaying on the inside. Our hearts are turned inward. They
are suffocating from the self-destroying thoughts and desires that plague us,
even as we race around trying to keep up appearances.
Measured from the
outside, the scribes and the Pharisees were better than us. They dedicated
their lives to the study of God’s Word. They spent hours in disciplined prayer.
They made sacrifices. They weren’t divorced. They weren’t obsessed about their appearance.
Jesus says of them, “Unless your
righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees you will never
enter the kingdom of heaven.” Which of you will cast the first stone at
them? Who is going to say that his righteousness exceeds theirs? We have broken
God’s commandments. We are no better than other people. We deserve to die. We
deserve to be thrown into the fires of Hell.
But there is One
whose righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, One born
apart from the passions of man, One born of a virgin, One born in the line of
David. God is His Father. He is the fulfillment of the promise to Eve in the
garden; holy for the unholy. He was pure, without malice, greed, or lust. The
world counted Him as stricken, smitten, and afflicted—cursed by God. But still,
He loved the world that hated Him and laid down His life for it. He was above
the Law. But He kept it anyway. He knew no sin, but allowed the Law to punish
Him for all the sins you ever have, or ever will, commit. He laid down His
life, specifically, precisely, deliberately, and particularly, to pick up
yours, to spare you Hell’s tortures. He stood in your place. The last penny has
been paid. Justice has no more demands. There is no one to accuse you. The Law
is satisfied and you go free. For the righteousness of the truly Righteous One
has been transferred to you in the waters of Baptism. It is yours. It far
exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. It is perfect. It is without blame.
It is free.
The Law has been
satisfied, fulfilled, and completed—all for you. But it has not been abolished.
It is still how God desires us to live and describes the best way to live. When
we break it, there are consequences. People get hurt. Our lives are made more
complicated. Sin is dangerous and deadly. But that being said, it is just sin.
And we sinners who have been born from above by water and the Spirit are not
slaves to sin. Christ, our Lord, died to sin and has been raised again. And we
have been joined to that death, buried in the waters of Holy Baptism with Him,
and raised up again to life with Him. We live daily in the forgiveness of sins,
in the daily rhythm of confession and absolution, contrition and confidence,
hearing God’s Word and eating His Supper: not above the Law, but freed from
it’s condemnation, full of the hope of the glory to come, and eager for the Day
of His return.
The Law still
stands, for heaven and earth have not yet passed away. On this side of glory,
it will always accuse and convict us. There is only one solution, one escape,
one righteousness that is enough: the blood of the Lamb. Hell’s demands have
been met in Christ’s flesh. Jesus lives, and the Law now finds no fault in you.
You are covered. The angel of death passes over. The Law is fulfilled. The gift
of that flesh and blood from the Altar is
freely bestowed upon you, for Christ has answered the Judge and reconciled you
to Himself. There is no one to accuse you. In the name of the Father and of the
Son (†) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The
peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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