Word of Salvation – February 2011
THE LAW AS A MIRROR by Rev. John Haverland
(Sermon 2 in a series on texts related to the Heidelberg Catechism)
Text: Matthew 22:34-40
Confession: Heidelberg Catechism LD 2
Readings: Psalm 53; Romans 7:7-25
Theme: The entire law can be summarised in the command to love God and our neighbour.
Purpose: To explain how the summary of the law shows us our sin and misery.
Introduction before the reading:
There are three main parts to the Heidelberg Catechism. The first part describes our misery; the second part describes how we are delivered from our misery; and the third how we are to express our gratitude to God for this deliverance.
These three parts can be expressed as three S’s – Sin, Salvation, Service; and as three G’s – Guilt, Grace, Gratitude.
Lord’s Day 2 uses the law of God to identify our sin and misery. Reformed theologians have described three uses or purposes of the law.
First, the law has a civil function in restraining sin in society. This has been compared to the use of a bridle on a horse. Just as a horse is restrained and guided by a bridle so people in society are restrained from sin by the law and its enforcement by the police.
The second use of the law is to show us our sin.
In this way the law acts like a mirror. This is how the law is used is used in Lord’s Day 2.
The third use of the law is as a rule of gratitude. It shows us how we can express our gratitude to God for saving us. This is how the law is used in the third part of the catechism.
Read: LD 2 and Matt 22:34-40
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones was the minister of Westminster Chapel in London for 30 years during the middle of last century. He is very well known in Christian circles for his thorough expository sermons, especially on Ephesians and Romans, which have been published in book form.
Before he went into the ministry he was a medical doctor – a very able doctor with a promising career. He gave this up because he had a compelling call to preach the gospel – he was called to deal with people’s souls rather than their bodies.
Because of his knowledge as a doctor he often used medical examples and illustrations in his sermons. One of his frequent comparisons was the importance of a doctor examining a patient and coming to a correct diagnosis before he prescribed any treatment.
In a physical examination your doctor will check you over carefully – your blood pressure, pulse, tongue, heart, lungs, and so on; he will keep a careful record of his findings and observations.
He could for example use a stethoscope, a blood pressure meter, a light for your ears and thr oat, a reflex hammer or even a thermometer to check your temperature.
The Heidelberg Catechism begins with an examination of our spiritual condition, an analysis of who we are and our position before God.
It is examining your heart, mind, thoughts and actions. The instrument it uses is the law of God. The law functions like an X-ray and MRI scan – it shows us what we look like on the inside, it reveals our true condition.
So the catechism asks; “How do you come to know your misery?” Answer: “The law of God tells me.” The catechism uses Christ’s summary of the law to show us our sin.
We are going to consider:
1. The requirement of the law
2. The revelation of the law
1. THE REQUIREMENT OF THE LAW
Jesus often had long discussions with the Jewish religious leaders. This whole section of Matthew’s gospel from chapter 19 to the end of chapter 23 records his talks with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, as well as a number of parables that are aimed at these groups.
The Pharisees and the Sadducees were two distinct religious groups and they differed in a number of ways, both in their theology and in their practice.
The Sadducees were associated with the priests and with the temple and they worked in closely with the Romans.
The Pharisees were associated with the scribes and with the law and they tried to keep themselves away from the Romans and any other Gentiles. They were known as “the separated ones”.
The Pharisees had been listening to a discussion Jesus had with the Sadducees about marriage at the resurrection. Hearing that Jesus had silenced them by his answer they put their heads together and then nominated one of their number to ask Jesus a question. This man was “an expert in the law”. “Teacher”, he asked Jesus, “which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
The Jews were very interested in questions and discussions about the law. The scribes and Pharisees had listed 613 commandments in the law, 248 of them positive and 365 negative. They spent a lot of time and energy discussing which of these was ‘weighty’ and which was ‘light’, and which was the most important.
In responding Jesus quoted from two passages out of the first five books of Moses. The Jews called these the Torah; we know them as the Pentateuch.
a. First he quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 – a very well known passage for the Jews because they recited this every morning and evening.
It was known as the “Shema” from the first word of that passage – “Shema Yisra-el“; “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
This quotation summarised the first four of the 10 commandments that deal with our relationship with God; especially the first of those commandments; “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex 20:3)
What does the law mean by the words heart, soul and mind?
Heart and soul are closely related and refer to the centre and source of who we are, whereas your mind refers to your intelligence and your understanding.
These terms are not dividing us up into different parts nor are they giving us a close analysis of the human personality.
Rather they are overlapping terms that build up a picture of the whole man, the total person. The law demands that you love God with everything in you, with all your faculties, with everything you have, with your entire person and your whole being. All you are and think and do must be directed to the love of God.
This must be a total commitment: all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.
Jesus here gave us the most comprehensive of all God’s commands. You are to love God with all your energy, your time, thoughts, ambitions, hopes, plans and dreams; with all your words and all your deeds.
“This is the first and greatest commandment”, Jesus said. This is the essence of the law; this is your priority and supreme obligation.
b. Then Jesus quoted another commandment from the Pentateuch – from Leviticus 19:18, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself.”
This quotation summarised the last six of the ten commandments that deal with our relationship with others around us.
The law requires us to care for our neighbour in the same we care for ourselves.
We all look after ourselves don’t we?
You feel thirsty and you take a drink.
You feel hungry and you get something to eat.
You get tired and you sit or lie down.
You see something you like and you save up to buy it.
We look after ourselves very well. Now, says Jesus, love your neighbour in the same way; love your neighbour as wholeheartedly as you love yourself, with the same dedication and attention!
“All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
These two commands are tied together.
If you love God you must also love your neighbour; “For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20)
And you cannot truly love your neighbour in a biblical manner unless you love God first of all.
This is the sum total of all God’s commands. All the other laws in the Bible are expressions of these two laws; all the other commands apply these laws to us in more detail.
This then is the requirement of the law.
2. Secondly we consider THE REVELATION OF THE LAW; that is, what does the law show us or reveal about us?
The catechism asks; “Can you live up to all this perfectly?” Can you do this? Is this how you live? Do you love God with your entire being all the time? Do you care for your neighbour in the same way you care for yourself? Do you fulfil the law of God perfectly, constantly, and in every detail?
The answer, of course, is, No. We do not obey God’s law. We don’t even come near it. We fall far short of his requirements. “I have”, to use the words of the catechism, “a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbour.”
The Book of Common Prayer expressed this in a prayer of confession:
“Almighty and most merciful Father; we have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders.”
This prayer is a fitting response to the sobering diagnosis of the law. If you and I examine our lives carefully in the light of God’s commands this is the only conclusion we can come to.
In this way the law functions like a mirror.
You might lie in bed in the morning and imagine you look great and that you are quite presentable and ready to face the world. Then you arise from your bed and you look in the mirror, and – horrors – you see yourself for who you are – bleary eyed, grubby and untidy!
Just as a mirror exposes our physical condition so the law exposes our spiritual condition; it reveals our sin.
We could come back to the medical comparison that Lloyd-Jones liked to use.
Probably all of us can think of someone who has had cancer. When cancer first develops a man may feel fit and healthy and look well. Yet the cancer cells are growing inside of him. Although he doesn’t know it he is in a serious condition. If he doesn’t get treatment his condition will be terminal – he will die.
Now apply this to your spiritual condition. You may feel fine and think you are doing well. Life is going smoothly; there are no crises; you feel in great shape.
Yet underneath that happy exterior something is drastically wrong. There is sin in your heart. You are spiritually dead. You are far from God.
The catechism describes this as “misery”. Ursinus, the author of the catechism, used the German word “elend”. It means to be out of the land, exiled, lost, separated from God, and alienated from him.
Again, many people may not realise this is their position. And they will not come to know this through their own self-assessment, nor through the evaluation of their friends, nor through any psychological analysis.
How do you come know your condition? “The law of God tells me.” Romans 3:20 says; It is “through the law that we become conscious of sin.” Romans 7:7 says; “I would not have known what sin was except through the law.” The law explains God’s requirement and this reveals our true condition of sin.
This sin has affected every part of us; in Reformed theology we call this total depravity. This means we are unable to help ourselves; we describe this as total inability.
The Catechism began with our misery because we will only look for a treatment when we realise our sinful condition. It is only when we have seen our sin that we will ask the question of the apostle Paul at the end of Romans 7; “What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (vs 24) It is only when we realise our sin that we will look for a Saviour.
The Bible tells us that our only hope lies in the Lord Jesus and his death on the cross.
In this way the law not only shows us our sin but also points us towards the Lord Jesus and to our need of his grace, mercy and forgiveness. This is the only cure for our spiritual condition. This is our only hope for life.
We need radical heart surgery that must be performed by the Holy Spirit. If you ask him he will take out your old heart and give you a new one. He will cause you to be born again. He will renew your mind. He will put a new spirit within you. He will write God’s law on your mind and give you the will and ability to begin to keep it.
Yet, even with the Holy Spirit living in us we still fall short of God’s law and so we are in constant need of God’s saving grace. Every day we need to confess our sins and ask God for his forgiveness.
That forgiveness is possible through Jesus and his death of the cross. He died for our sins; he paid for them with his precious blood. He has set us free from the shackles of sin and death.
The law of God reveals our sin in all its darkness and depravity; but it also reveals the Lord Jesus in all his light and holiness. So we say with the apostle Paul; “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:25)
Amen