Bible Text: Matthew 5:17-26 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus
Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. Why would anyone think that about Jesus? That he came to destroy the Law? Because He preached the free forgiveness of sins. And when you preach that forgiveness, access to God and to eternal life is free, then people think you are throwing out the Law. What good are good works if forgiveness is free? My father once had a debate, a formal debate with an audience and all, with a Mormon in Grand Forks, ND. After Dad gave his presentation of the Gospel, the Mormon kindly said that he must have misunderstood Dad, that he couldn’t possibly mean that good works earned nothing, couldn’t advance you one inch toward heaven. Dad said, that’s exactly what I said. Good works cannot avert our doom; they help and save us never. And the Mormon asked, Then why do them? Now that’s what we call legalism. Not being able to conceive of doing good, except to gain something from God. Thank God you can answer that question. Why do them? To help your neighbor. Works serve our neighbor and supply the proof that faith is living. You do good works because you love your neighbor.
The accusation against Jesus was not of legalism. That is extremely important for you to know. Find a passage in all the Gospels where anyone ever accuses Jesus of legalism. He simply doesn’t preach, doesn’t teach, in a way that could invite that accusation. He doesn’t lay down a bunch of rules for you to obey. He doesn’t say, fast twice a week. He doesn’t say, give ten percent of your income. He doesn’t say, cross yourself when you hear the name of God. He doesn’t say, don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t touch. He doesn’t give a bunch of religious rules, which if you keep, you will be right with God.
In fact, he gets accused of exactly the opposite. Again and again. Why don’t your disciples fast? Why don’t they wash their hands? Why do you break the rule and heal on the sabbath? Jesus himself says, The Son of man came eating and drinking and they called him a glutton and a winebibber. And he received sinners and ate with them, prostitutes, the trashy, the drunk, the promiscuous dregs of society, he received them, and instead of teaching them rules, forgave them their sins. That’s Jesus. And so they call him not a legalist but a libertine, an antinomian, a rule-breaker. And this will be the accusation against his disciples. You heard that last week: a disciple is not above his master. If they accuse Jesus of being a libertine, they will accuse you of the same.
But why? Are they going to accuse you of being a drunk, because you drink too much? Are they going to accuse you of being immoral because you do what belongs inside marriage outside marriage or watch filth on the internet? Are they going to accuse you of being a glutton because you have no self-control? God forbid. You have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You have died to sin, so that you are freed from it, so that you fight against it, trample it under your feet, work to conquer it, until in the resurrection you see it fully conquered.
They accused Jesus of being a glutton and a winebibber, not because Jesus had no self-control and drank too much, but because Jesus didn’t follow their rules about fasting and drinking. We can fast, we can refrain from drink, we can cross ourselves, we can create all sorts of rules for ourselves that help us in life, but we do not get to impose our rules on others as if they were God’s rules. I had a conversation with a man once, who had stopped coming to church and I was trying to bring him back in. I got through all the important stuff, thought I was making progress, when the issue of drinking came up. But people at your church drink, he said. I said, yes, in moderation, and if they drink too much, they repent and receive forgiveness and try to do better, and I drink sometimes too, so did Jesus. And this man blew up. Called us fake Christians. This is what legalism does. It judges, judges, judges, according to its own rules, and every time it ends up making the standard of Christianity you obeying rules, you keeping the law.
But that is not the standard of being a Christian. It is not your righteousness. If it were, Jesus would have said, Unless your righteousness meets the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. But that’s not what he says. He says, unless your righteousness exceeds it. The Greek says more than that, it says, abounds in excess of, it’s what we call a pleonasm, Jesus is saying your righteousness has to so far exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees that their righteousness would seem like a grain of sand to your mountain. It puts the most righteous works of the most righteous men in front of them and says, that’s pathetic, that’s not even close to enough to make you right with God. God wants a pure heart, pure love that never fails.
And this is the horrible thunderbolt of Jesus’ teaching. It is how you know, among a million others things, how you know He is no mere man, no mere prophet, not another religious leader. He is God-in-the-flesh. So He speaks. As the one who spoke and made the world. Not as the scribes and pharisees, but as the One with complete authority, the Inspirer of the prophets, “You heard that it was said of old, do not murder, but I say to you whoever is angry with his brother will be in danger of judgment.” “You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” There is the pure and holy law, and it is a law no scribe or pharisee has kept, but that we all must keep perfectly if we want to enter into the kingdom of God. And we can’t.
Here is the death of legalism. Try to show the law that can give life, and Jesus will show you the law that can only give death. Not because there is any fault in the law. The opposite. The law is good and righteous and holy. But it shows how far you are from its goodness. Love God above all things, God says, and of course you should, He made you, and what have you done? You have forgotten to pray to Him, mistrusted Him, been discontent with what He gives you, even doubted whether He is there at all or cares for you even after He has done all these beautiful things for you and sent His Son to join your flesh and blood and take on Himself your sin and suffer for you and die for you. Love your neighbor as yourself, the Law says, love even your enemies and bless them, and you have harbored grudges and judged and spoken and thought evil of your own loved ones. There’s the Law. Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect, and you have not been.
So Jesus says, Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish but to fulfill them. And so your Lord did. He all the law for us fulfilled and thus His Father’s anger stilled. There is your righteousness, nowhere else. Where every man failed, He prevailed. The legalist and the hypocrite crucified Jesus for this and the legalist and the hypocrite still crucify Him in their hearts. But not you. Be honest. Look at your life. Look at your thoughts, your dreams about money, your abuse of God’s good gifts. Look at your heart and see that no way have you been good enough, done good enough. That’s what the legalist cannot do. And Jesus annihilates the legalist’s religion. He makes an open mockery of it by His death on the cross. God dies for sinners, there’s the work that saves, and it is no work that you can do.
But you, whether you have fallen like the drunks or prostitutes or been outwardly decent like the Pharisees, you look at yourself and see sin and death from which you cannot remove yourself, not by any rule, not by any striving, it is simply not in you. And Jesus’ words to you are, “I have not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.” There can be no happier words in all the world. He has fulfilled it. He has done it for you. He has loved His Father above all things. He has loved His neighbor as Himself. He has done it. So far from the libertine, the lawless, He is the only One who fulfills the Law, so that you who have broken it time and time again, can find in Him a Savior. And what a Savior you have! He loves you to His death. He takes away all God’s anger. He breaks down the wall of separation between you and God. He gives up His life to His Father in place of yours, and His blood washes away every sin, every lawless thing you have ever done or said or thought. And He sets Himself before you now, risen from the dead, Life itself, your life forever, and tells you not even to imagine that your righteousness, your goodness, could ever earn a step to heaven, but that He the ruler of heaven and earth, He, true God from eternity and true Man, born of the virgin Mary, is heaven, is righteousness, is purity and forgiveness, and He gives Himself to you. You receive Him by faith. You trust in Him. That’s what it means that He is your Lord. Not that He issues rule or command for you to earn some favor with Him like some sniveling slave, but that He redeems you by His blood and you trust in Him to forgive you, to wash you clean, to protect you, to feed you with His own body and blood, and to bring you to everlasting homes.
And this trust is no empty thing. It cannot be. It takes hold of your life. And from it come all manner of good works.
There will always be legalism and libertinism among us. Not just in the world, but in the Holy Christian Church, here at Mount Hope. We live in a nation of libertines. Sex has become casual and babies an unfortunate byproduct. People think getting drunk is an innocent and hilarious pastime. The purpose of life pushed for generations in public as well as private schools has been simply to get a good enough job to get enough money to please yourself until you die. That’s become the American way and so it’s also become the way of people in the Church in America. So we react against it. We apply the Law. And we should. We teach with renewed vigor that marriage is God’s institution and it is to be kept pure, that children are a gift from God, that what is noble and honorable is not to give in to passions of lust (that’s weak, that’s servile), but strength is to practice self-control and raise our children to do the same. That’s all wonderful. We should uphold the Law. We must. Jesus doesn’t dismiss the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees as nothing. We need the outward keeping of the Law. Societies crumble and churches with them when we lose that.
But the Law will not make you right with God. You may have the nicest family, the most well-behaved children, excellent work ethic, the nicest disposition, the perfect church attendance, do everything right and according to the rule. So does the Mormon. So does the noble pagan. And underneath it all sin is festering. There is no escaping it. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a false religion. Strive every day to keep the Law, to love as God has loved you, but don’t ever make the Law your master, don’t ever think you have mastered it – it cannot be mastered by you. Your Lord and Master Jesus Christ has come to save sinners. Consider yourself the chief. And so consider His cross for what it is, the greatest possible love of your God, that He has done what you could not do, fulfilled the Law in your place, every iota, every dot of it, He has mastered it, because He wants you with Him forever. He is your righteousness; He is perfect as His Father in heaven is perfect. There is no fault in Him. And He gives it all to you. That’s the heritage of your Baptism, the promise you receive in the forgiveness of your sins. And because of it, you want to obey your God, to love and forgive and do good as He has loved and forgiven and done good to you.