| March 15, 2000 | Life brings Death | Romans 7:7-8,10

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Romans 7:7-8,10 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead...I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

Last week we began discussing the theology of the cross. We spoke about how the cross is our theology, that is, the center and focus of our life with our Lord. That walk with our Lord has the character of the cross. We begin bearing a cross received in baptism. We walk experiencing that cross, which are the stuggles of the Christian life. In the end of this Lenten season we will arrive at the foot of the cross on Good Friday.

To further understand this theology of the cross, we will consult the work of Martin Luther. We will use portions of Luther's Heidelberg Theses during these coming Wednesdays to help us grasp the full impact of the theology of the cross. Luther wrote these theses in the summer of 1518 after he was invited to debate his teaching in the German city of Heidelberg. He summarized his teaching in 28 points or theses.

Now, here is the first thesis. "The law of God, the most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance humans on their way to righteousness, but rather hinders them."

This thesis answers the question of what we can do with the law of God. Where does the law get us. It is the most salutary, that is, the most health-creating, helpful doctrine of this life. Luther pointed out, however, that it could not gain us righteousness.

There is a great misunderstanding among religious people as to what the law can do for us. This mistaken thinking can be found in Biblical history also, at least as far back as the time of the Exodus. During that time, the Israelites were listening to the demands of the law as they sat along the banks of the Jordan River, ready to enter the promised land. Moses spoke for God, repeating all the requirements, and then asking the people to obey the law and then, as a result, to live and prosper. You can read about this in Deuteronomy 30. This sounded fine to the Israelites and so when asked if they would commit to following this law they readily agreed.

Perhaps they thought about it this way, which is still popular today: If the law is what God expects us to do, and if God will bless us if we follow the law, then this is something we can and will do. We are sure that God would not ask us to do something that is impossible to do and then promise blessings for doing it. In other words, if we have an obligation to keep the law, that implies that we have the ability to keep the law. This is perhaps how these Israelites thought about God's request. However, this thinking is wrong and damaging to us. You see, just because we are obligated to the law does not mean we have the ability to keep the law, only the responsibility to keep it.

The purpose of the law is not that we keep it perfectly and thereby obtain a blessing. Its purpose is, instead that we understand something about ourselves as seen from God's eyes. This understanding can only come from a person who commits to God's law but fails again and again.

Since the time of Moses, the people of God have continued to struggle and become confused about the role of the law of God in His plan of salvation for us. The law has continued to show people, however, that they are imperfect people. The law shows us that we cannot bring our lives into conformity with the demands of the law.

Struggling with this idea, however, some reached the conclusion that we must do our part. If we cannot keep the whole of the law, at least we ought to do our best. If we do our little bit towards our salvation, then God will do the rest. This kind of idea was one which Luther was reacting against when he wrote the Heidelberg Theses. He recognized that this type of thinking has its origins in the Devil.

The correct understanding is that the law demands that we be perfect, not just do our best. It doesn't demand that we reach a little bit of righteousness. There is no such thing has semi-righteous. The law demands, instead, that we be perfect even as our Heavenly Father is perfect. There is no middle ground, but rather only two classifications one perfect and righteous and the other unrighteous and spiritually dead.

Now, the purpose of the law is to reveal to us that we are in the second group. It serves to bring us the crushing blow of recognizing that we must count ourselves as unrighteous and spiritually dead.

As we know with dead people, they are not capable of doing anything for themselves. Dead people cannot do even a little bit. It is positively silly to encourage a corpse to do its best.

We are constantly reminded of our unrighteous state. The more God places His law in front of us, the more He reminds us of the first commandment, the more He demands that we love Him with all our heart, mind, and soul, to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things-the more we see how far we fall short. We see that we stand before God as beggars. The more we commit to the law, the more it cuts us down. So, we are not slackers who need encouragment to try harder. Instead, we are dead. We are corpses who need to be restored to life.

This restoration comes through the cross. What better reason can we find to flee to the cross and receive the mercy of God than the desire to be alive spiritually. When we go to the cross, we can claim our connection to Christ through our baptism. We come carrying all our possessions, which are our filthy rags of our sins and spiritual deadness. Jesus comes to the cross and our baptism too with all that He has-that is His perfect works, His total fulfillment of the law, and all His forgiveness and favor with God. For we who are spiritually dead, desiring to be made alive, He makes a wonderful exchange at the cross. He takes from us our sin and death and gives to us His works, righteousness, and favor with God in exchange. With these blessings we are able to live with God, as righteous people, free from the demands of the law. We are able to live with salvation forever.

Now, back to Luther's thesis: "The law of God, the most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance humans on their way to righteousness, but rather hinders them." The law of God comes to us as a cross in disguise. Its demands crucify all of our best works and leads us to see that we have no righteousness. It hinders us in finding righteousness inside of ourselves. However, through the cross we find righteousness outside of ourselves. We find righteousness through the cross of Christ. We find salvation through the one who died there, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.