There is no Christianity without the Gospel

Sermon for Trinity 18

1 Corinthians 1:4-9  +  Matthew 22:34-46

You’ll often hear the phrase, “Judeo-Christian values or principles,” how our country was founded on them, or how our country has largely abandoned them. What do people mean by Judeo-Christian values? They usually mean the basic principles of what’s right and what’s wrong, based on the Old Testament Law, based on the Ten Commandments, which Jews and Christians tend to agree on, for the most part. And, in a way, we do see the Jews who rejected Christ in our Gospel today agreeing with Christ on those principles. But I would urge you never to use that phrase, “Judeo-Christian values.” Why? Because, as we see in today’s Gospel, it’s only half the picture of what makes up “Christian values” or “Christian principles.” Yes, we Christians uphold the Law. In fact, we uphold it even more strongly than the Jews did. But without the Gospel, the principles of the Law are helpless to save anyone. Without the Gospel, there is nothing “Christian” about the Law.

Today’s Gospel is clearly divided into two parts: a discussion of the Law in the first part, and a discussion of the Christ, that is, the Gospel in the second part. It’s a stark contrast between Law and Gospel, between a focus on man’s works vs. a focus on Christ. The Law makes demands of us. The Gospel offers us grace, God’s undeserved favor, through Christ.

It was, once again, the Pharisees who wanted to discuss the Law with Jesus. They always wanted to discuss the Law, what man is supposed to do to please God, to obey God, to be accepted by God and acceptable to God. That shouldn’t surprise us. For one thing, the Law was sort of the defining characteristic of the people of Israel. It’s what set them apart from the surrounding nations, made them special, made them different. But it also shouldn’t surprise us that the Pharisees were focused on the Law, because it has always been the devil’s strategy to turn mankind inward, to ourselves and our works, and so to turn away from God and His grace and His works. What was the devil’s temptation to Eve in the Garden? “Look what you can do! Look what you can have! Eat! Take knowledge for yourself! Work to become like God! Whatever you do, don’t focus on God’s grace to you in giving you life and all you need for it! Whatever you do, don’t think about God’s love and goodness. Think about yourself!”

So the Pharisee, thinking about himself, about the Law, pressed Jesus to summarize the Law, to point to the first and greatest commandment. And Jesus replies here, using the same reply given to Him by another lawyer earlier in His ministry: ’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The whole Law depends on these two commandments, as do the Prophets. The Law of God demands obedience, obedience in the form of perfect, selfless, whole-hearted love, first for God, then for our neighbor.

First for God. Not just for a god, for the true God, the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the God who has revealed Himself in the Bible. How many people in the world think they’re “good people,” even as they criticize God’s teachings or actions in Scripture, even as they reject Him as God and either follow after other gods or after no god at all, even as they fail to trust Him, even as they find better things to do than to hear and ponder His Word. The Law demands obedience, loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. So everyone who fails to do that, at any time, is a lawbreaker.

And second, the Law demands obedience in the form of selfless love for your neighbor: love that honors father and mother; love that does not murder, and that includes children in the womb; love that honors marriage, and that includes avoiding every form of sex outside of marriage, adultery, lust, unscriptural divorce, and homosexuality. (That brings up something I saw on TV the other day. A woman was calling the practice of homosexuality “dirty.” And someone asked, “Can love be dirty?” But that kind of relationship isn’t love, not according to God’s Law.) Love for the neighbor does not steal, and that includes every form of communism or socialism that seeks to grab one person’s property and redistribute it to someone else; love does not slander, and that includes branding people as racists or spreading lies about them; love does not covet what your neighbor has. Instead, Love is patient. It is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not boast. It is not conceited. It does not behave indecently. It does not seek its own. It does not become angry. It does not dwell on evil. It does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That is the love for the neighbor that the Law demands. So everyone who fails to do that, at any time, is a lawbreaker.

In addition to demanding obedience, the Law also demands something else. The Law demands punishment for disobedience—not just a slap on the wrist, but, as Moses says, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them, and as the Prophets declare, “The soul who sins shall die.” Suffering and death are what the Law demands for sinners, for lawbreakers. So all the world’s complaints about how unjust God is, about how unfair human suffering is—it may be unfair with regard to man’s laws, but none of us has anything to complain about when it comes to God’s Law. According to His Law, all that we deserve, as lawbreakers, is temporal and eternal punishment.

If the Pharisees had truly understood that, had truly understood the Law, how strict its requirements are, how universal its accusations are, how deadly its condemnation is, they wouldn’t have loved the Law so much or focused on it so much. Instead, they would have been much more afraid of it, and they would have been glad to hear that God has another teaching, another doctrine, revealed in both the Old and the New Testaments, to save all those who stand condemned by the Law. That teaching is known as the Gospel.

Since the Pharisees were content to leave off their discussion with Jesus after He so nicely summarized the Law for them, He takes it to them with His own question, to turn the discussion in a different direction. What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is he? The Christ… The “Anointed One” whose coming was foretold in the Old Testament, who was supposed to come and “save” the people of Israel, and the Gentiles too, who would be the ultimate Prophet, Priest, and King. Where would He come from? The Pharisees knew the answer. Every good Jew knew the answer. They said to him, “The Son of David.” The Christ would be a descendant of great King David. Jesus knew they would get that answer right. It prepared the way perfectly for His follow-up question: How then does David, by the Spirit, call him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?”’ Now, if David calls him Lord, how is he David’s son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor did anyone from that day on dare to question him further.

The Pharisees knew the Christ was coming, and they knew whose Son He would be. But they were so focused on the Law, they never gave enough thought to why the Christ was coming. They imagined He was coming simply to reward all those who did such a great job keeping the Law, to set up a glorious earthly kingdom for such people and to make their life on earth better. But for that, any great earthly leader would do. What they didn’t get was that the Christ had to be both man, David’s Son, and God, David’s Lord. He had to be both God and man so that He might satisfy the demands of the Law as the Substitute for mankind.

As we saw, the Law demands obedience—perfect love for God and man. And the Law demands punishment for the sinner. That’s exactly what Jesus the Christ provided: perfect love, perfect obedience, including the obedience of suffering and dying for the sins of the world. And because He is both God and man, His obedience and His death are worth all the lives of all the men of all the world. Every demand the Law ever made of anyone, Christ has satisfied for everyone.

So the Law rightly calls on all men to repent, to recognize and to grieve over their sins, and to fear the wrath of God that is being revealed against all the sins of men, because judgment is coming on the world, and no one will be safe from it if they’re judged by the Law. But now the Gospel cries out to all who repent, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! He has satisfied the Law for you, with His obedient love and with His innocent suffering and death. No one who trusts in Him will ever be put to shame. So flee from the Law! Don’t despair because of your sins, and don’t rely on your good works! Instead, flee in faith to Christ and you will be safe!”

All of this is illustrated for us in that picture on the front of your service folder today. The left side depicts the Law, the right side, the Gospel. See Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit and plunging our race into sin. Notice where Moses stands holding the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. He’s on the left of that tree in the middle, pointing to the Commandments, which declare all men to be sinners. And there goes the sinner, being pursued by death and chased into hell. Because, without the Gospel, that’s all the Law can accomplish. But on the right, you see Christ crucified, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You also see Christ risen from the dead and victorious over death and hell. You see John the Baptist, the preacher of the Gospel pointing the poor sinner to Christ. And through the dove, the Holy Spirit, the poor sinner is brought to faith in Christ and is sprinkled with the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

Two doctrines, two main teachings of Scripture: the Law and the Gospel. Both doctrines are divinely given. Both are good. Both are necessary. But only the Gospel can save. Without the Gospel of Christ, there is nothing “Christian” about the Law. Without the Gospel, Christianity devolves into nothing but moralism, life lessons, a cult of Pharisaical, self-righteous people who stick their noses in the air and do nothing but wag their finger at other people, even as they crucify Christ, though they bear His name.

Watch out for that. Watch out for a “Christianity” that’s devoid of the Gospel—or of the Law, for that matter, as if God no longer cared about right and wrong. But in the end, lots of religions come close to getting the Law right. But none has the Gospel of life. Only Christianity does. So give thanks to God for revealing it to you. Cling to Christ and stay close to Him, and even more so now as His coming is getting closer and closer. And trust in God’s promise that you heard in the Epistle: He will also confirm you until the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.