Leviticus 18:1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'I am the LORD your God. 3 You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. 4 You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. 5 Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.
Dear Fellow Redeemed:
5 Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. Does this statement answer the question, ‘How does a person get to heaven?’ 5 Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. Many have thought and still think so.
Paul had begun the section of his letter to the Galatians that serves as our epistle lesson for today with the words: You foolish Galatians! (3:1) They had begun to forsake the gospel for this idea that a person gets to heaven by keeping the Law.
In our gospel lesson, a man believed similarly, asking the question, “What must I do to be saved?” When Jesus tested him by saying he needed to keep God’s Law perfectly (He was testing him with what most people at the time believed), the man’s answer was, “I have.” Jesus’ response was to demonstrate to him in a number of ways that he hadn’t. He would do the same for us were we to make such a foolish statement.
So, where does that leave us? We feel very righteous compared to the politician caught in a scandal this past week. And yet, our lives that also look so pure on the surface (like his did throughout the campaign this year and for years before) also hide things that are equally scandalous as far as God is concerned. Are we ever unsatisfied with what God has given us? Just as bad. It’s what led to that politician’s sin. Do we ever resent other people? Just as bad.
Could God have really been telling the Israelites of Moses’ time that their ability to come to Him and find acceptance and love for eternity depended upon them perfectly fulfilling his commands and His laws? Because, if that is the case, then we are out of luck, aren’t we?
Paul adds perspective to this question. There’s an issue of sequence that is very important – the order of things; what comes first, and so on. Something else came into existence before the Law was even given. Oh, the people had a sense of what God wanted and didn’t want from them. Their conscience bothered them when they sinned. Look at Adam and Eve, who hid from God after their sin thousands of years before the Law was given at Mt. Sinai. Look at Cain, who lied about what had happened to his brother after killing him. But in terms of having written commandments, the people didn’t until Moses’ time, about 1500 years before Christ. Something that Scripture considers more important had come before the statement of the Law.
The more important thing is what God had vaguely promised to Eve in the garden, and more specifically promised to Abraham 430 years before God’s Law was written down. That promise was that this sense of being wrong before God that we all have; of being on the outs with Him; of needing to be afraid of Him had a blessed solution.
A seed had been promised 430 years before Moses brought the written Law down from Mt. Sinai. A human born in the line of Abraham could reestablish good terms between people and their creator. He could make unrighteous people bound for hell’s punishment into righteous people bound for heaven’s reward. Oh, well, then, did human beings do something in order to earn the right to be associated with this Seed? No, Paul says in our epistle lesson, 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. In His grace He gave it. He gave it to people who didn’t deserve it. That’s what grace is! They didn’t do anything to earn it. They couldn’t have done anything to earn it.
Paul reasons in our epistle lesson that if it were true what his readers were thinking, and if it were true that the statement in our text, ‘Keep my commands,’ answers the question, ‘How does a person get to heaven?’ then the thing God said hundreds of year later must cancel out what He had previously said about salvation in this Seed of Abraham.
But as Paul says, God can’t do that. People can’t even just set aside or add to human covenants or agreements duly established (professional sports notwithstanding. It happens all the time today in professional sports that people don’t honor contracts). Typically, covenants must be kept – and maybe even more so in Paul’s time. And he says that if covenants must be kept even in human matters, where sin gets in the way of everything, certainly it stands to reason that the perfect God can’t just say one thing, and then 430 years later say the opposite.
Worksrighteousness is the opposite of grace. We need to understand that very clearly. If one is the case, the other cannot be. That’s Scripture’s position. We cannot both benefit from God’s grace in Christ for eternal life, and have anything to do with saving ourselves. To need His grace means we cannot save ourselves. To think we can save ourselves is to believe we don’t need His grace. The two cannot exist together.
In our gospel lesson, Jesus shows by means of a parable that, while we regularly demonstrate our hypocrisy and our absence of love for God and our neighbor that make it impossible for us to save ourselves, He has done everything required of us, making Him suitable to be our substitute for punishment and death. Being perfect Himself, He can put Himself forward and presume to replace us in that way.
In the parable, a man had been beaten and lay injured and dying on the road. Two of his own countrymen; his own relatives really, each with an opportunity to help the man had walked right past.
In thinking about how this applies to you personally, don’t think so specifically about the details of the parable. Maybe in past you have helped someone in need – maybe even along the road. Maybe you find it despicable that someone would refuse to help someone in need. Think about it in this more general sense. These two men had the opportunity to do God’s will. Both of them chose to do otherwise. In that, we have a lot in common with them, don’t we?
The third man was different, and not primarily because he was a Samaritan. That’s a detail Jesus added to His parable to shame them even more that it would take an outcast in their society to do right by his neighbor. This man was different in that given the opportunity to do God’s will, he did it. It was inconvenient, and it was dangerous, and he did it. And when He fulfilled God’s will on the man’s behalf, it resulted in the man being restored to health. That reminds us of Jesus, doesn’t it?
When God caused the words of our text: ‘obey my laws…follow my decrees’ to be spoken 430 years after His promise of grace that a seed of Abraham would be a blessing to all people, He wasn’t canceling out the promise. He wasn’t saying, I’ve changed my mind on restoring you to myself in Christ.
The Words of our text that specify what God would have us be and do help to enable godly people to lead godly lives. When the Israelites were about to take possession of the promised of Canaan, they needed a strict code that reminded them of God every day. They would be living among heathen peoples doing the opposite of God’s will. And most importantly, they needed to be reminded of the things God required of them that they hadn’t done and couldn’t do.
Knowing that, they knew they needed Him. They needed the promise that had been made. They needed the seed of Abraham who, having the opportunity to do God’s will, always did it. They needed the One who had mercy on people; the One who seeing His own dying, didn’t pass by without help. They needed the One who having fulfilled God’s will on their behalf, brought about the result that they be restored to health – spiritual heath; health that results in eternal life.
We know the Law of God. We know that according to our natures, we are bound by that Law that we can’t keep to be punished for eternity. But we also know what came first: The promise of God that in grace He would send Christ to pay for our sins and restore us to Him. The second (the Law) doesn’t cancel out the first (the promise).
We have been baptized into His death. On our Lord’s Table this morning, He assures us that this promise is secure in our receiving of His true body and blood for our forgiveness and salvation. The promised Seed Who obeyed God’s Laws and followed His decrees, and Who took our place and made atonement for our sins on the cross has risen from death. By His grace, without our having done anything to earn it, we will rise from death in His Name as well.
‘How does a person get to heaven?’ The answer isn’t the words of our text: ‘Obey my laws…follow my decrees.’ Those words serve a different purpose. The answer to the question, ‘How does a person get to heaven?’ is in what God said first: that what was promised [to Abraham], [has been] given through faith in Jesus Christ, to those who believe.
Amen.
Galatians 3:15 Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. 19 What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one. 21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
Luke 10:23 Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it." 25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" 27 He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" 28 "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' 36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" 37 The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
Trinity 13
