True Mercy Over True Sin

True Mercy Over True Sin

Good Morning. Today we look at Law and Grace, two things that live in constant tension in a Christian’s life. A common knock against focusing too much grace is that it will encourage a lack of love or respect for God’s Law. As Paul says in Romans 6, because we have grace from sin doesn’t mean we want to keep sinning so we can get extra grace.

Then there is the other side. What’s the problem with focusing too much on the law? Guilt! No one can keep the law perfectly, and no one has, other than Jesus. The Law shows us what God loves, what he desires, and expects from us. It shows us what God is like.  But we can’t keep it.

My fun challenge today is to make clear the wonderful balance in Christianity of Law and Grace, which gets to the bottom line of what our faith is all about. So, let’s begin by looking at a guy named Phil.

Phil (Melancton) lived 500 years ago and was one of the greatest writers and theologians who ever lived. But he struggled with the fact that, as a Christian leader, he still sinned, and in a letter to Martin Luther, he wrote that he was even despairing about continuing his work.

He hated the fact that, as a preacher and a pastor, he still sinned. He felt dirty and unworthy to preach. How can I stand in a pulpit and preach to people when I know I fall into the same sins I am preaching against?

How would you answer him? Martin Luther’s reply was amazing, and I’ll get back to it, right after we look at our lessons, and the type of things that got Phil so anxious.

Our first lesson features 2 of the most famous verses in the Bible. Deuteronomy 6:4 is known as the Shema. “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One.” I am sure that there are a few of us that even recognize it in Hebrew, because it is recited in every Synagogue and prayer service like we use the Lord’s Prayer in every service, no matter how small.

What comes next, of course, is the tough part: You Shall Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your strength. We say that every Communion service, Jesus quoted it as the greatest commandment. Now, how many of us keep it?

In our lesson, Moses said to help keep it, God’s people should bind it on their hands and foreheads. Even today, Jews will strap boxes containing these and other laws and commandments to their body in black boxes called te-FILL-in or phylacteries during their daily prayers. They still place these verses on their doorframes in little boxes called mezuzas.

Wouldn’t it be nice if I could say that by doing all these things, and exercising real great self-discipline, the people of God never sinned again, and everyone lived happily ever after in a land flowing with milk and honey. Unfortunately, just as Moses predicted at the end of the chapter; after getting to the Promised Land, Israel repeatedly forgot the Lord who brought them, even after He rescued them time and again.

Paul, who certainly is the most prolific preacher of Grace there is, also this morning calls us to live holy lives. Verses 1-2 of Ephesians 5:

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,

a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Next verse 8 says:

8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 

Jesus call in the Gospel lesson is no less demanding:

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 

It is easy to see why passages like this, about self-discipline, end up with a Gospel message based on the cross. Because no matter how many obstacles to disobedience we can put in our lives, or how many spiritual disciplines, crosses, mezuzahs we set up for ourselves, we still end up as wayward sheep. The Good News is the cross, and that our salvation is not based on what we have done, or can do, but what Christ has done.

One of the great turning points in Church history came from a man trying to completely fulfill everything we find in our lessons and having a nervous breakdown. Martin Luther, living as a monk in Germany, was compelled to go to confession several times a day for all of the sin and sinful inclinations he felt himself constantly falling into during the day. Even as a quiet Monk he felt himself breaking the law everywhere and was desperate.