{"id":6936,"date":"2021-07-13T06:16:01","date_gmt":"2021-07-13T13:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=6936"},"modified":"2021-07-13T06:16:54","modified_gmt":"2021-07-13T13:16:54","slug":"god-moves-in-his-mysterious-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=6936","title":{"rendered":"
God Moves in His Mysterious Ways<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n

A sermon for the eighth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re involved with a series focused on this question: What does it look like to live the Christian life with feet on the ground? How do you walk the walk?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important for us to remember the Reformation gospel text: John 8:38: \u201cIf the Son has made you free, you will be free indeed.\u201d We are talking about the freedom we have in Jesus Christ as we live the Christian life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week we closed with the fact that the Christian life is hidden from us, and that it is only lived by faith alone, discerning what it is. What do we mean it\u2019s hidden?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to look at the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). It begins with the Beatitudes. In verses 15-16, there is that famous triple image which says: If salt has lost its flavor, it\u2019s no good. The city on a hill cannot be hidden. You don\u2019t light a lamp to hide it under a bushel. Then comes the kicker: Live so that your good works can be seen, and people will glorify God your Father in heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously your works are supposed to be seen. That\u2019s why it\u2019s important to take a look at the Sermon on the Mount (5:7-21). We know fragments of it but not the way it works. Immediately following those two verses about good works is this passage 5:17-20:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThink not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, before heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will recall that the Pharisees tithed everything, even spices (Matt 23:23). What is referred to here when it talks about the law? Not the Ten Commandments. It\u2019s referring to all 613 commandments as the Scribes and the Pharisees summarized the laws of the Old Testament; all of them. It is not some small matter. Every jot and tittle, and even more carefully than the Scribes and the Pharisees, is what is required of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two ways to try to get out of this. People then say: In Matthew, Mark, and Luke we have an account of the Scribes and Pharisees coming to Jesus and asking: \u201cWhich is the greatest law?\u201d It was a discussion in the first century that was well known among the rabbis. Jesus answered, quoting from Deuteronomy and Leviticus: \u201cYou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength\u201d \u2013 those \u201calls\u201d catch you \u2013 and you shall love your neighbor as yourself, which is, of course, 100%. In doing this Jesus did not set aside the 613 laws. This statement simply summarized, and, if you wish, 613 laws became 614. In no way was this saying we get rid of the 613 laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second way people try to use to get around this is to say there is a difference between the moral law and the ceremonial law, the moral law basically referring to the Ten Commandments, and not the other ritual laws. There is simply no basis in the Old and New Testaments for doing this. That distinction is something arbitrarily brought up later in order to deal with this problem. But when the law is referred to by Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul, James, and the like, it means the 613 or 614 laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This creates a problem because we say: \u201cWe keep the law but not the ceremonial law.\u201d A concrete example from the Ten Commandments: Today is the first day of the week, but the Third Commandment says: \u201cRemember the Sabbath.\u201d That\u2019s the seventh day. When Jesus talks about the Sabbath, he never changes it. He radicalizes it, makes it much more serious. But Jesus did not change the Third Commandment, nor did Paul. If we pretend that we\u2019re keeping the Ten Commandments, we should be in church on Saturdays, because that\u2019s what it says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the New Testament there are several places that refer to keeping the law. In the second chapter of James, it says: Of course salvation is by the law. All you have to do is keep it 100%. That means all 613 laws. Paul in Romans 10:5 refers to this specifically, where he says: \u201cMoses writes that the man who practices the righteousness based on the law shall live by it.\u201d Go ahead if you want, keep it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul also writes in Galatians 3:21: \u201cIf a law had been given which could make men alive, righteousness would indeed be by the law. But one does not become alive by keeping the law.\u201d But people try. A famous example is Tolstoy, who made a fortune from his writings and then established a plantation and said: We will live by the Sermon on the Mount. It was a disaster. It completely collapsed. There were other efforts of this sort in the nineteenth century based on Rousseau and the idea of perfectability through education. Also by Christians who said: \u201cWe\u2019re going to establish the kingdom. We can get beyond sin.\u201d They all collapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individuals do this, too. It may be difficult, but I\u2019ve decided I\u2019m going to live by the Ten Commandments, by the Sermon on the Mount, or by the law. What inevitably happens is that we either get caught in spiritual pride or spiritual despair, because we\u2019re caught in sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is described in the Sermon on the Mount is similar to the ideal we have at least three times in the Book of Isaiah. It talks about how the wolf will lie down with the lamb, and how the child will play with the snake, because we reach that ideal at the end of time when a new heaven and a new earth will come, and God\u2019s kingdom will be established. But not established by us because every time we try to do this, the evil one tempts us. We set it up either individually or as a group with our fantasizes so that basically we dominate others, and all of our sin and selfishness comes out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We thank God for the tent-maker, Paul. Paul made his living as a businessman, making tents. Of course he was also a superb theologian. What does he say? First of all, in Romans 10:4: \u201cChrist is the end of the law.\u201d That end means termination. As in short-wave radio code, 10-4 means: \u201cIt\u2019s over.\u201d In Romans 10:4 it says Christ is the end of the law. In Romans 7:1-6 Paul uses an illustration of a couple who is married and they live under the law of marriage, but if one of the spouses dies, then the marriage is over. And so it is, Paul says, with the 613 laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Galatians 3:24 he uses another illustration: \u201cThe law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith.\u201d This verse deals with something we don\u2019t have anymore. In antiquity well-to-do families kept a slave called a paidag<\/em>\u014d<\/em>gos<\/em> (pedagogue). This slave had authority over the heir of the house in daily life until he was in his late teens. Once he reached maturity and was the heir, the slave\u2019s job was over, terminated. The law was over.[1]<\/a> So it is with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul was a tentmaker, a very practical man, concerned with the obvious question of what next? How do you live? Is it chaos? What does Christian freedom mean in practical terms?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a remarkable set of three verses in Romans 13:8-10, Paul writes: \u201cWhat does the law say? The commandments, \u2018You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,\u2019 and any other commandment, are all summed up in this sentence, \u2018You shall love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019\u201d And then comes the kicker: \u201cLove does no harm to the neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The task we\u2019re given is not to say: \u201cThere are many laws, and we better think about them and try to keep them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather, something more difficult than following a given law code is required of us. Because Christ is Lord, we are free. Free here and now to use our heads in the battles of life. Down-to-earth freedom now. \u201cFor freedom Christ has set us<\/strong> free<\/strong>; stand fast, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery\u201d (Gal 5:1). Faith frees us to think and ask: What does harm? How can we minimize harm? In doing that we\u2019ll be caught in the life we live and the sin we have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even good intentions are not enough and no guarantee of anything. To illustrate our predicament, consider the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n