Sixth Sunday after Trinity – July 27, 2025

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus is the heart and center of the scriptures.

The Old Testament talks about the Savior who is coming in the future,

and the New Testament talks about Jesus who fulfilled these prophecies, who already came.

The Old Testament contains prophecies about Christ, his birth,

his ministry, his death, and his resurrection.

And the New Testament talks about Christ fulfilling these prophecies.

Both the Old and the New Testaments testify about Jesus.

Jesus is the heart and center of the scriptures.

If you misunderstand who Jesus is and what he has done, you misunderstand the scriptures.

And this is exactly what happened with the scribes and Pharisees.

The scribes and Pharisees read and studied God's word, but they misunderstood

who Jesus is and what he has come to do.

They refused to believe that Jesus is the promised Savior.

They saw Jesus as one who would abolish God's word and one who would do away with it.

They saw Jesus having no connection with the Old Testament.

Jesus said in the Holy Gospel for

today, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law of the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota,

not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Jesus is saying that he has not come to do away with the Old Testament.

Rather, he has come to fulfill it. He is the promised Savior whom the prophets pointed to.

Jesus is also saying that not one detail of God's word is going to pass away.

In other words, all of God's word applies to us today.

Both the law and the gospel. Now the law is good for us.

It's very important in our lives. The law teaches us to love God and to love the neighbor.

The law reveals God's will for our lives.

It keeps order in society.

So don't see Jesus as abolishing the Ten Commandments.

Don't see Jesus as one who brings in a new morality that's different than the Ten Commandments.

Don't think that you can add to God's word by inventing new laws.

Don't think that you are brighter and smarter than Moses, Jesus, or even St. Paul.

Don't try to soften the law in order to make you look sinless.

Don't try to take the teeth out of the law thinking that you can fulfill it.

Don't ever think that your righteousness before God is based on your works.

Don't ever think that you can earn God's favor by what you do.

The scribes and Pharisees thought that they fulfilled the fifth commandment.

You shall not murder.

They thought that they fulfilled it by not physically hurting or killing anyone. Not so, said Jesus.

If you have anger in your heart, he says, you've broken the fifth commandment.

So what Jesus is saying is not only an outward, that the fifth commandment is

broken not only outwardly, but also inwardly by the heart and the mind.

Do you get angry? If there is a persistent anger in our hearts,

then this leads to kind of murder by the heart and not by the hand.

Jesus wants us to reconcile with one another And to work out our problems And

to forgive each other Our text says come to terms quickly with your accuser

So if we receive love and forgiveness from God Then he wants us to give that

love and forgiveness to others too as well,

The scribes and Pharisees also thought that they fulfilled the sixth commandment

You shall not commit adultery Now so, said Jesus.

Even if you have lust in your heart You've broken the sixth commandment Transcription by CastingWords,

The principle of sexual purity in the Sixth Commandment applies to all kinds

of sexual sins, fornication, adultery, and you name it.

Jesus, again, Jesus is saying that the Sixth Commandment is broken not only

outwardly, but also inwardly by the heart and the mind.

So if we fail to see our sin, then we will also think that we don't need the gospel.

If we soften the law, then we will also soften the gospel.

If we do not confess our sin, then we are deceiving ourselves,

because the truth of the matter is that we are sinful by our thoughts, words, and deeds.

Now, it hurts when the law shows us our sin. It hurts when it's like a mirror.

But it is good that we identify

our sin That leads us

to our need for a Savior The Holy Spirit then convicts us of sin And so that

we are ready to hear the gospel God was merciful to us poor sinners He was merciful

by sending His only begotten Son To be our Savior,

to rescue us from sin and the condemnation that we deserve.

When Jesus was born, he was born under the law.

And so, eight days old, he was circumcised according to the law, the ceremonial law.

Throughout Jesus' life and ministry, he truly loved his heavenly father and he loved his neighbor.

Jesus came into our fallen world in order to fulfill the law that we cannot

fulfill, to fulfill it in our place.

So Jesus kept the law perfectly In thought Word and deed He never stole anything

He never gossiped about anyone He never coveted other people's possessions He

never coveted other people's possessions,

He did everything that the commandment required. He did what we cannot do,

and he did it in our place.

Jesus was righteous in every way.

His righteousness exceeded the so-called righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

Jesus was perfect in every way. Therefore, he was the spotless Lamb of God.

And when he went to the cross, he made the perfect payment for our sin.

Jesus came into a world not only to fulfill the law, but also to die upon the cross in our place.

On Good Friday, Jesus cried out, It is finished.

In other words, his mission to save the world through his sacrifice has been accomplished.

There's no other work that needs to be done. It is finished.

No other payment by you or me needs to be made for our salvation.

And on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead and he lives forevermore.

Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament regarding his life,

his ministry, his death, and his resurrection.

Therefore, in Christ we are free, free from the guilt of its punishment and

the power of sin, and we are saved eternally.

In our holy gospel for today, Jesus says, For I tell you that unless your righteousness

exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The scribes and Pharisees were outwardly moral,

and they kept the outward observance of the law, but they were not righteous

because they had no faith in Jesus. us.

What Jesus is saying is that there is no way that the scribe or Pharisee or

you or me can attain a righteousness on our own.

We can only receive it through faith in Christ and in his righteousness.

Where can perfect righteousness be found? Not from the scribes and Pharisees,

not from fulfilling the law, or not from anything we do.

Rather, perfect righteousness is found in Jesus alone.

Jesus is our righteousness, and his righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.

We are righteous in Christ.

He is our righteousness.

Romans 5 says that because of Adam's disobedience, we are made sinners.

But it goes on to say that because of Jesus's obedience, We are made righteous.

2 Corinthians 5 verse 21 says that Jesus was made to be sin who was without sin.

2 Corinthians 5:21

So that, quote, in Christ, we might become the righteousness of God.

Again, we are righteous only in Christ. And then St.

Paul says in Romans chapter 1, I'm not ashamed of the gospel,

Romans 1 · chapter mention

for it is a power of God and a salvation for everyone who believes,

to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.

For in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.

The righteousness of God is revealed

in the gospel. And faith hears this wonderful news and says, Amen.

Faith trusts in Christ. Faith believes that we enter the kingdom of heaven on

account of Christ's righteousness.

Only in Christ have we true, do we have true righteousness.

So the law teaches us what to do and what not to do, but the gospel teaches

us what God has done for us in Christ.

Jesus died upon the cross as a payment for our sins, and he rose from the dead

on the third day for our justification.

And this gospel is not only a thing of the past. The gospel is not some kind

of history lesson merely and only, but rather the gospel is a present tense.

It is real, and it is active today.

The cross earned the forgiveness of sins, but the forgiveness was given to you in your baptism.

The forgiveness was spoken to you earlier. The forgiveness is proclaimed now,

and this forgiveness you will receive into your mouth here from this altar.

The law shows us our sin, but the gospel shows us our Savior, our one and only Savior.

Are you troubled by your sin?

Are you repentant? And the gospel is proclaimed for you.

The gospel gives you the peace and comfort that your sins are forgiven Then

you joyfully love the neighbor,

doing good works for their sake You, the baptized,

confess your sin, you seek God's forgiveness And then you go about your day

joyfully You draw on your sin and confession,

you hear the word of absolution You commune with our Lord, receiving the forgiveness

of sins Then you go about your life joyfully Loving the neighbor And doing good works for their sake.

Because we have a fallen nature, following the Ten Commandments will not be perfect.

We are sinful by nature. And so we return here to God's house Sunday after Sunday,

being forgiven and receiving his gospel, being fed with his body and blood in Christ.

And this gospel changes us for the better.

Our epistle lesson for today mentions baptism. It talks about Christ's death.

It talks about us being baptized into Christ's death and his resurrection.

So in baptism, we are connected both to the cross and to the open tomb.

It was a day when the power of sin and death in your life was defeated.

Our baptism was a day when Christ's robe of righteousness was given to us.

Our epistle lesson goes on to say that as the baptized, we should,

quote, walk in the newness of life.

In other words, God wants his baptized children to be salt and light in a dark

world, that others may see Christ in us.

He wants us to reflect his love

and mercy toward others. We now delight in loving God and the neighbor.

We gladly follow the Ten Commandments, not in order to be saved,

but out of love for God and out of help and love toward the neighbor.

God loves you He loves

you by giving the law And the law protects

you And the neighbor God wants order in home and society But God also loves

you By giving his son to die for you And to rise from the dead God loves you

by means of the gospel So that you may be forgiven,

Since your righteousness is from Christ Then you will Enter the kingdom of heaven.

Thanks be to God. Amen.