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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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The Law of Death and Life |
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Hebrews
12:18-24 First
Sunday of Advent November
30, 2008 You have heard me speak of the Commandments and Law of God as the way of life and peace. And so they are, except for one problem, we don’t keep them. So, from the earliest days, the Law of God required a penalty for sin, which was imposed in the form of animal sacrifces. There were morning sacrifices, evening sacrifices, peace offerings, special sacrifices for special days and events. The sacrifices were costly. Only the best of the flocks and herds were allowed on the altar of God. Nothing less was acceptable. And so, day after day, year after year, countless sheep and cattle were killed and sacrificed to God as the Law required. And yet, the people always knew the blood of bulls and goats could never atone for their sins. Always they heard the words, “to obey is better than sacrifice” (I Sam 15:22), “for I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6), “Thou desirest not sacrifice else I would give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering” (Ps. 51:14). Knowing these verses, hearing them ringing in his ears, no worshiper could leave the altar without knowing that he was still in need of a mediator and sacrifice that is better than that of animals offered by human hands. Somehow God Himself must intervene, must provide a real sacrifice that is higher and better and really will cover his sins, or he will perish in them. And so we have the Law with its relentless standard. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart and with all thy might. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” and we know we have fallen short of this every moment of every day of our lives. Do you think you have loved your neighbor as yourself? “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend.” That’s the definition of love. Do you say you have never stolen? The Law commands not just our actions, it commands also our attitudes and our thoughts. It may be true that your hands have never stolen anything, but your heart has coveted, and that is the same thing. Every time we look at the Law of God we become aware that we do not keep it, we do not even come close. Even our best works and most righteous deeds are so filled with self-will and sin they are like filthy rags in the eyes of God. Why? Because the standard of God is perfection. The righteous and holy God, in whom there is no fault, no weakness, no evil forever, is like a consuming fire in the face of any imperfection in us. I am convinced that if we ever get a glimpse of the holiness of God, high and lifted up, like Isaiah saw Him in the Temple, I am speaking figuratively here, I am talking about understanding the holiness of God, and if we ever really begin to understand this, we will have no difficulty understanding what sin really is, and why we are unclean and unfit to have any kind of fellowship with God. We will cry out with Isaiah, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips,” that is, full of sin, “and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.” We will have no problem understanding how God could condemn a person to hell. Instead we will marvel that anyone is ever saved at all. This is what Paul is telling us in Hebrews 12:18-24. The mount that can be touched is Mt. Sinai, symbolizing the Law of God. The Law is a fearful thing. The people stood in fear before that mountain. Moses trembled before that mountain. Animals that touched it were to be slaughtered immediately. Why? Because God is holy. His will is holy. His Law demands absolute perfection, and we sinners are unfit to be in the presence of God. So the preaching of the Law is not the preaching of life to us. It is not a word of comfort and hope. It is our sentence of death. For we are criminals against every part of it, by our actions, by our attitudes, or by our thoughts. The Bible is not saying the Law itself is evil. Quite the opposite. The Law of God is good. It is perfect. The problem is not with the Law. The problem is with us. We do not keep it. Indeed we are not able to keep it. We are weak, and every part of our being rebels at the thought of submitting ourselves to the Law of God perfectly, completely, and forever. “Love God with all my heart? Never,” says the natural man in his sin. “I will love Him when it suits my will and purpose. I will love Him my way. I will love Him only as long as I can be my own god and He will enable my godness. As long as He enables my lusts and allows me to live for myself and my pleasures, as long as He does this for me, then I will love Him.” This is the demand of fallen and sinful humanity. And so the Law brings no peace to the heart. It brings fear. It moves us not to love God, but to hate His unchanging holiness and His implacable righteousness. It leads us to hate His unyielding justice which demands that “the soul that sins, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20). But in Christ we have not come to Mt. Sinai. We have not come to the mount of Law with its eternal decree of death. We have come to Mt. Zion, to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the general assembly and Church of God, “and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel” (Heb 12:22-24). We have come to the mountain of grace. In grace God does for us what we could never do for ourselves, He justifies us. He absolves us of our guilt. He makes us righteous in His sight. He does this through the cross. He does not do it by negating the Law. The Law is still in effect. We are not relieved of its duties. But Christ has fulfilled it for us, as our representative. He first lived a sinless life and fulfilled the Law by keeping it perfectly. Then He fulfilled it by offering Himself as the one complete and full sacrifice for our sins. He suffered the wrath and justice of God in our places. This is the heart of the Christian message. This is the Christmas message, the Lenten message, the Easter message. This is why we are here today. We are not here to say pretty words. We are not here to be moved by a beautiful liturgy. We are not here make ourselves worthy of heaven. We are here because God has purchased our salvation through the cross of Christ. We are here to tell that story. We are here to commemorate it again. We are here to let it sink into our hearts and minds. We are here to worship the God who has done all of this for us. And this is the Advent message. There was a time when the world groaned under its sin, waiting, looking for the day of Christ, looking for the Redeemer who alone could deliver us. That Redeemer has come. His name is Jesus of Nazareth, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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