Law Illuminated, Matthew 17:1-9
Introduction
The famed 19th Century preacher, Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “Truth may be compared to some cave or grotto, with wondrous stalactites reaching from the roof, and others reaching from the floor, a cavern glittering with spar and abounding in marvels.
Before entering the cavern you inquire for a guide, who comes with his lighted torch. He conducts you down to a considerable depth, and you find yourself in the midst of the cave. He leads you through different chambers.
Here he points you to a little stream rushing from amid the rocks and indicates its rise and progress. Then he points to some peculiar rock and tells you its name, then takes you into a large natural hall, tells you how many persons once feasted in it, and so on.
Truth is a grand series of caverns, it is our glory to have so great and wise a conductor as the Holy Spirit. Imagine that we are coming to the darkness of it. He is a light shining in the midst of us to guide us. And by the light he shows us wonderful things. He teaches us by suggestion, direction, and illumination.”
In John 16:13 the words of Jesus are recorded, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…”
Transition
Jesus is the ultimate source of illumination. In today’s Scripture reading we listened to the account of the transfiguration of Christ. Jesus had taken with him Peter, James, and James to the top of a high mountain and there God revealed to them the fullness of the true nature of Jesus.
Jesus was – and is – oh so much more than a wise teacher or even a great prophet. In this passage of Scripture the true nature of Jesus is illuminated. That which was previously darkened and difficult to see became plainly visible.
The magnificent nature of Jesus was made observable – the truth was illuminated.
This morning I am going to share with you about the law of God which was and is made fully visible in the person of Jesus Christ – God the Son. You see Jesus is the fullest expression of God’s glorious nature to humanity.
In Christ we find the fullness of the nature of God expressed. God is both Just and full of mercy, God is both Holy and full of grace. When we consider the person of Christ and as we seek to live out our faith in Him we do well not to neglect any aspect of the truth of God’s nature in favor of any other.
In order to comprehend God’s grace we need not abandon His Law and in order to realize His holiness we need not forget His mercy.
In fact, to fully comprehend the grace that was given to us in the person of Jesus Christ we must first consider the Law that was delivered to us through the prophets of God.
In Matthew 5:17 Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (ESV)
When Jesus was transfigured it was the law of God which was finally and completely illuminated before us. That which was previously veiled in the darkness of sin and guilt before the Law of God was made known through the grace of the Son of God.
Exposition
In Exodus 34:29 is says, “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.” (ESV)
I read the story of a children’s pastor, who listened as a fourth-grade Sunday school teacher shared a concern. Completing a quarter’s lessons on the Ten Commandments, he had asked the kids, “What is the hardest Commandment for you to keep?” to which most of them responded, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
He couldn’t understand why fourth graders would find that command a problem until a mother quizzed her son on what he thought committing adultery meant. Without blinking, the boy replied, “Thou shalt not sass back to adults.”
Often, we misunderstand the Law of God as well, don’t we? While we may understand what adultery is, I am afraid that many Christians, and certainly scores of people in the world, live their lives in utter darkness concerning the Law of God.
There are those who place the Law of God above all else and in so doing they fall into the trap of legalism. There are others who, for the sake of grace, fall into the equally ill-fated trap of rejecting the moral authority of God’s Word.
Both of these extremes are incredibly damaging and both are absolutely unnecessary. God is whole and complete and we rightly respond to Him only as we respond to the fullness of all that He has spoken to us.
We see this tragedy played out all across the landscape of the Body of Christ as denomination after denomination, church after church, and Christian after Christian abandon the moral authority of the Word of God in an effort to make the Law of God more palatable to others and to themselves.
We also see this tragedy played out as so many others cast aside the grace of God in a well intentioned effort to defend the precepts of God’s Holy Word.
Is there a God of grace and another God of Law? Certainly not! The God who illuminated Himself to His people through Moses when He delivered the Law on the top of Mount Sinai is the very same God who illuminated His Law as He expressed His amazing grace in the person of Jesus Christ atop the Mount of Transfiguration!
In Mark 3:24 Jesus said, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” (ESV) God gave us the law that we might comprehend His holiness and in the fullness of time He revealed to us the depth of His mercy as He illuminated the fullness of Himself in Christ Jesus.
The Law alone is inadequate to save us but receiving it is absolutely necessary to our receiving salvation. It is the Law of God that teaches us that we are in need of a savior. In fact, it is our very inability to live up to the Law of God that encourages toward the grace of the Cross.
Romans 7:5-6 says, “For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit. (ESV)
Hebrews 7:19 says, “For the law made nothing perfect; but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.” (ESV)
The Law only has the power to condemn because the illuminates God’s holiness while at the same time illuminating our imperfection and sin. To us the Law brings death because we are unable to keep it.
Oh, but before you begin to fret and think us all doomed remember that just as God illuminated His holiness in the Law, so too He illuminated His grace and mercy in Jesus Christ!
In Christ we find the fullness of mercy just as we find the fullness of the very perfection which we could never have attained. In Christ – our redeemer – we find the very purity that God’s Law demands but which we could never grasp.
In II Corinthians 5:21 the Apostle Paul writes, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (ESV)
On the Mount of Transfiguration it was our very salvation which was illuminated! It was the truth of God’s love and mercy and Justice and Holiness all perfectly bound up in Jesus Christ.
Just as Moses went atop Mount Sinai to receive the truth of God’s Law, Peter and James went along with Jesus the top of an unnamed mountain of Galilee where the Law was fully illuminated in Christ.
Jesus did not come to destroy the Law but to bring it to completion. Jesus did not come to do away with God’s holiness but to ascribe it to us through His shed blood and broken body.
All that we could not do for ourselves God has done for us in Christ. The darkness which we were once in has been illuminated by the light of the love of Christ.
Oswald Chambers, the great devotional author, wrote, “There is a danger of forgetting that the Bible reveals, not first the love of God, but the intense, blazing holiness of God, with his love as the center of that holiness.”
You and I need not walk as though we walk in darkness. Nor are we required to live as though we are in shackles to our sin because God’s Law has been brought to completion in the person of Jesus Christ. God’s holiness is imputed to us as we allow our hearts to be illuminated by the light of Christ.
Conclusion
Perhaps you have sometime visited the Lincoln Memorial in our nation’s capital. In this white marble structure millions of people have stood and looked upon the overpowering statue of Lincoln by sculptor Daniel C. French. When the statue was unveiled in 1922, it was discovered that the facial features of Lincoln were grossly distorted by faulty lighting. Corrections were later made so that viewers may now see that face as it really is.
Lighting is so important in seeing a thing clearly. If we view the Law of God through the darkened lens of our sin, we will not see it at all. If we look upon our selves purely on the basis of our sin, then we will be looking in the dark.
Oh, that we might seek to see the Law of God in its fullest light – the light of Christ! Jesus is the ultimate source of illumination in this often dark world!
God illuminated His Law first as He gave it to Moses to teach us our need for Christ and then He brought the Law to completion in the grace and mercy which was expressed in Christ.
The Law has been illuminated. Today, be reminded to allow every corner of your life to be illuminated by the light of truth and love of Christ.
Amen.
