Three weeks ago, I was driving through Frankford on my way to a jobsite. I had neglected to watch my speed and in short order I saw flashing lights behind me. I pulled over to the side of the road. The officer informed me how fast I was going. Had I been going that fast? Yes. He was brining truth. And he could have stopped there. But he didn't. So he asked me some more questions, and then suggested that I more carefully watch my speed. Not only did he show me the truth, but he also allowed for grace. Grace and truth are what our Lord Jesus Christ brings to the world this Christmastide.
"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (Jn. 1:17). The law was given through Moses. The Law was not Moses' own invention. He was a recipient of it from someone else. "When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God" (Ex. 31:18). The Law of Moses was the Law of the Lord.
But Israel's history shows us that the Law was not adequate. "He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul" (Prov. 19:16). Yet Moses disobeyed God and struck the rock at Meribah, King David committed adultery, and Jonah turned away from Nineveh. The Law showed us our own sinfulness and inability to meet the requirements of righteousness.
Man can meet man's own standards of goodness and morality--and man changes the standard when it no longer suits him. God gave to Moses and the Israelite the Law to teach what is sin in His sight, and that we, who may in our inner being delight in God's law, do not do it, have not done, and, however much we try, cannot do it. That's pretty dreadful. But there is Good News. Let's look backwards, though, to see where the Good News was first announced.
When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, simple innocence died in them. "Once I was alive apart from law" (Rom. 7:9). Oh, the cleanness, simplicity of life apart from law! Sin and temptation, powerless. But man's knowledge of good and evil required God to now treat man differently. No longer content to walk with God in the garden, naked and feeling no shame, man had to find another way to be with God--a task impossible for man alone.
Man tried to cover his nakedness, "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves" (Gen. 3:7). Did these coverings prove adequate? No. "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden" (Gen. 3:8). How awful that moment must have been. Caught with their hands in the cookie jar, Adam and Eve ran away from God at the very instant that God was coming toward them. What once had been a pleasing communion had now become unworthy communion, and they felt the weight of judgment.
God, even before the announcement of salvation was seeking out man, even as man tried to hide and repair the damage done, to pay the wages of sin on his own. "But the LORD God called to the man, 'Where are you?' He answered, 'I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid' " (Gen. 3:9,10). God wanted to reconcile man at that moment.
We all know what happened. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. And God cursed the serpent, saying, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (Gen. 3:14,15). God's promise was for an unusual salvation. The word "offspring" here is not a good translation. I'm not going to impress you with my knowledge of languages; I'm going to impress you with yours. The word "offspring" in Latin is semen, and in the Greek, sperma. Do you understand? The offspring, the seed of a woman is a biological impossibility. The seed of the serpent was to be defeated by the seed of the woman. In no wise could man fabricate this salvation on his own, as he had futilely attempted to cover his own nakedness. Somehow God would have to intervene to make this promise come about.
How does God leave Adam and Eve? What happens next? Yes, he kicked them out. "The LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life" (Gen. 3:23,24). But before God banished them from Eden, he did something else. "The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them" (Gen. 3:21). Here was the first blood shed, the first sacrifice for man. Here is prefigured the sacrifice of God's own Son, which will at last cover man's nakedness satisfactorily. "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" (Gal. 3:26,27).
So what do we call the Law? Sin? Certainly not! Is Law too high a standard? No, because our God is holy, righteous, and just, and so must be His people. Is the law, then, a lie and deception? Now don't you laugh? How many people can you think of that live like God's law is a lie? Not simply the faces you see on TV, I mean those with whom you work, your colleagues and your friends and your family members. How many of them act like it is no big deal to plink away at a commandment here and there; how many live as if the Ten Commandments was a "Bucket List" to violate.
How many times have you and I allowed murder, adultery, covetousness, and idolatry into our hearts, and then call it a peccadillo, a little thing, a white lie, not a big deal? Or am I the only sinner here (since Dcn. Joe's away?). The world takes sin, and makes it out to be "cute." The world takes eternal separation from God and says that it is a trifling matter. The world dares dance with the angel of death and says it's safe. The world is insidious. How little a sin is little enough that we, of our own power, can recover our standing as a child of God?
Friends, may this never be! "Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you" (Php 3:16,17). Let me tell you, I struggle with that. As a priest, I am obliged to be able to say, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." And you, as a father, mother, grandparent, sister, brother--you as a Christian--must be able to look the world in the face and say the same thing. It's not easy, but God gives us the means to live it. Listen, St. Paul continues: "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (Php. 3:20,21).
I said there's Good News, didn't I? Friends, our Savior has come from heaven. We have received our citizenship. "Let us live up to what we have already attained." Therefore, see sin as it is, "utterly sinful." Then what do we call the law? How shall we term it? Truth.
And the Good News is just that: "What the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering" (Rom. 8:3). "The law was given through Moses." Jesus brings more. Not just "truth" but "grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ." Not the least part of the law was wiped away, but grace came with the law of truth through Jesus Christ.
"And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit" (Rom. 8:3-4). Such is the Good News of Christmas. The law was never meant to stand by itself. It always had its end in Christ Jesus. "The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ" (Gal. 3:24). And Christ has brought grace. He has redeemed us. And we are now the recipients of the full rights of sons.
I'd like to close by asking about your request from last Sunday. Do remember? We prayed: "Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself." He came to us. He offered to us purification--purification based not on our merits under the law, but as his gracious gift. He visited us daily.
What did he find when he came? An air mattress on the living room floor? A spare bedroom. A mother-in-law cottage set nice and far away from the house? Or a mansion, large, grand, splendid, and decked out will every adornment we have to offer?
Today we asked the Word to shine forth in our lives. But if we haven't made room for his fire to be kindled in our hearts, we will not see his light in our lives. As you prepare for the New Year, take time to ask God to show you what room in your mansion you have locked him out of. He'll tell you the truth, if you ask. Then ask Him for the grace to let you open the door and let him to come in. He'll bring in truth, but he also brings in grace.
