Matthew: Live in the Because

So we are going through the Sermon on the Mount, which is if you haven't been around church or maybe you're new to church, we're glad you're here.

The Sermon on the Mount is the core of Jesus' teachings.

And so we're just making our way through this teaching, this sermon that he gave week by week, section by section.

And so the section for this morning, the passage was in the handout, your bulletin is Matthew 5, 17 through 20.

So I will read this as you read along.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

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

Or that word could be to complete them.

For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass away from the law until all is accomplished.

Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The word of the Lord.

So Jesus is talking about the standard of who we should be.

That's what the law is.

The law is the standard of who we should be, that we should be faithful and we should be patient, we should be kind, and we should be moral.

This is who we should be.

These are the shoulds.

We should honor God.

So the law is all the shoulds in life.

That's what the law is.

And we read it in the scripture.

You feel it in the scripture.

When you read it in the scripture, you feel it and you know it in life, who you should be.

So it's all the shoulds.

And the law is good.

We need the law.

We need the law.

We can't relax it.

We don't take out an iota of it, not a dot of it.

We need the law to guide us, to guide us away from destruction.

So we need the law.

And what we talked about is we went through the Ten Commandments.

When was that last year sometime?

And we talk about with the commandments that the law is good and holy, and we need it by while but while it is good and it guides us, it also crushes us.

And you know this.

You know this by experience because you you have tried to be righteous or perfect or all put together on your own and always trying to get to that perfection, that standard, and there's all this exhaustion and insecurity in it.

You've felt that on that path, and it's because the law is inept to produce the thing that it's commanding of you.

So it commands something of you, but it has no ability to deliver you into it.

Meaning, meaning this.

All the shoulds in life, all the shoulds in life, they can't deliver your heart from guilt or isolation or distance or insecurity or disharmony that it feels.

All the shoulds in life cannot deliver you into life and joy and freedom.

This is why you can be told to eat kale and hummus and almonds, and you still want Kit Katz and a Slurpee and a Cinnabon.

Anybody eaten a Cinnabon lately?

Have you eaten a Cinnabon with a jar of talenti together?

The two together, don't do it.

You will feel you feel worthless after unless unless you eat it followed by a Swiss cake roll.

You don't feel anything.

You're just numb.

Right?

Right?

Jim Gaffigan's made a career around it.

He says, You you know you're just eating your feelings, but your feelings are so delicious.

Right?

We we know this, we know it.

And so we hear the law, we know what we should eat, and we still don't eat what we should eat.

Right?

And we've all been eating a lot watching the Olympics.

Is anybody having Olympics withdrawal?

Olympics are over, which all that's ironic because we're shoving Cinnabons down our throats as we watch perfect athletes in perfect shape.

Uh, did y'all see the Chinese swimmer, uh Fu Yanhui?

Did y'all see her?

Anyone know about this?

So she she wins bronze.

She gets out of the pool.

Have y'all seen the little video went viral?

She gets out of the pool and she's getting interviewed by a journalist.

She doesn't know she has won the bronze medal in her swimming event.

And she gets out of the pool, she goes up for the interview, and the journalist says, What do you think about that swim?

And she says, Oh, I didn't swim so good.

I think it's because of my short arms, which is hilarious.

That that was her answer.

And she says, I just don't think my short arms.

And the journalist tells her, like, you no, you won, you just won the bronze medal in the Olympics.

And she goes, What?

Third?

I did not know.

Well, then I think that's not bad at all.

Though I did not win first place today, I was that fast.

I am so happy.

All right, so a girl, a girl wins gold and is ecstatic happy, right?

She has just won and reached the perfection of the standard of that race.

And a girl wins bronze and is so happy.

And have you been watching the faces of the silver medalists?

They're not such a happy bunch.

They're not.

And actually, it's proven.

CNN had this article called The Bizarre Psychology of the Bronze Medal Win.

And at Site's Research, the University of Colorado did.

Cornell did this big study in 1995 where they studied the facial reactions of the silver medalists win and the bronze medalists win.

And the bronze medalists, they're happier.

They are so much happier than the silver medalists, right?

And the silver medalists, you know why they're not happy?

They were so close to being great.

They were so close to the standard of perfection that they were beat down by it.

And so in the world psychology, this is called counterfactual thinking.

This is what this article talks about.

And counterfactual thinking is where we live in reaction to what could have been.

So the silver medalist lives in reaction to the reality she was so close to greatness.

And the bronze medalist lives in reaction to she almost had nothing.

And who's happier?

The bronze medalist.

See, this is the danger and the brilliance of the law.

If we live in fascination to it, thinking we can actually meet it, to get that gold on our own, we're crushed by it.

We're the sad silver medalist all through our lives.

But if we live in response that we will never be able to meet this standard, even though we want to meet it, and somehow by a miracle of grace, we get a bronze.

We're just grateful.

We're joyful.

So Jesus says in verse 17, do not think I've come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them, to complete them.

Now Paul expounds on this idea in Galatians 3.

It's in your handout, Galatians 3, 23 through 26.

Now, before faith came, before faith came, we were held captive under the law.

So under standards, the standard, we are held captive under it, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.

So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons, or we could say daughters of God through faith.

So here's the deal this morning.

So this whole sermon is a plead.

I'm pleading with you as I plead with myself every single morning.

Stop living under the law.

Stop willingly going under the captivity of trying to find your security with God or your value as a human being by the law, by standards or a merit system that it promotes.

And maybe you're hearing like, what are you talking about?

Well, have you have you ever felt like you're just trying to produce that one magical piece of the puzzle?

And that if you produce it or you find it and you put it in your puzzle of your life and you get it in there, then you'll be okay.

Then you'll be righteous, then you'll be secure before God, then you'll feel whole, then you'll be healed, then if you just find that piece.

And you know what happens, right?

Like you find a piece, you produce it, whatever, you self-create it, you curate it on Instagram, and you feel something, you put that, you put that piece in your puzzle, and you get it in there, and then you realize there's a few other pieces that aren't there, and so you're not still not feeling it.

So you go back out again, and this is this merit system, it's law.

The law is always asking you to produce, right?

Have you ever felt like that?

This is captivity of the law, of always having to try to measure up.

And it's not the way of faith and grace and love, it's not the way of Jesus being the fulfillment of the law.

Now we're gonna nerd out for just a second because it's a it's a long paragraph quote in your handout.

Thomas Merton, a monk and mystic writer, and we're gonna nerd out on this, and you're gonna have to read it like ten times this week, but it's just so good.

The tenth time I read it, I actually understood it.

The human existent, that's you.

I think.

I think it's you.

Uh still not sure.

The human existent is redeemed and delivered into the full freedom of the Christian person when it is liberated from the demonic and futile project of self-redemption, the self-contradictory and self-defeating enterprise of establishing itself in unassailable security, as if its existence were identical with being, and as if it were completely autonomous.

This hateful enterprise is carried on by the existent, remember that's you, maintaining itself as being and as autonomous self-fulfillment, challenging and defying every other existence, seeking either to dominate or to placate all that it confronts.

This implies a constant, wearying effort at deception, with eager thrusts of passion and power, constantly frustrated and falling back into the cunning futility of trying to outwit reality itself.

I'm not going to break down that quote.

I really am going to let you reread it about 10 times this week.

That's why I printed it out for you.

But a few points.

Point number one: our problem is our shortcoming before the law and our ongoing fascination with it.

That's our problem.

We don't relax the law.

We need high law.

Like we need high standards, we need high morality, we need all of it, and we need it in its fullness.

We need it to guide us.

We do destructive, horrible things to each other and to our families.

And so we need high law.

But even you have to understand, while it guides us, it crushes us.

So if it's just a guide, if it's just a guide, you will live condemned.

It has to be more than just a guide.

And so you have to let it show you, show you that you're not going to be a gold medalist.

You're going to be a bronze medalist.

Even while you want to be the gold medalist, you will not be perfect.

Somebody else was perfect for you.

Christ fulfilled the law.

Then you can live in the great place of rest of God's grace, and the Spirit of God comes into this place of your heart that you thought were okay and they're not okay, and you realize it, but you're, you know what?

You're a bronze medalist.

So you're like, hey, Spirit, welcome to any part of me.

I'm not perfect.

And the grace of God works in you, and transformation occurs out of that.

So Merton goes on to say in that paragraph: legal virtuousness, which is being virtuous by law, by the standards, is one of the ways in which the human existent, you, seeks to carry out this project of deception and to gain mastery over the death that is inexorably present in the very fact of bodily life itself.

There are other more complex spiritual ways of attempting the same deception.

All are self-defeating except the gospel mercy, in which the self-seeking self is liberated from its search and its concern, therefore, to some extent from anguish by finding not self but truth in Christ.

This finding is the discovery and grace and faith that one is mercifully understood.

See, you are mercifully understood, and that the spirit of this mercy and this understanding, one is enabled to understand others and mercy and pity.

So out of the race comes transformation.

The weakness and defenselessness in our hearts, which makes us pitiless to others, are then dispelled not by power but by trust and divine mercy.

So not by law, but by grace, which is given us when we no longer seek to defend our defenselessness and are ready to accept our own boundless need in a merciful exchange with others whose poverty is as great as our own.

Have you ever wondered why you're so tired of trying to be impressive?

Just so tired.

You're just so exhausted, or you're so exhausted as you're just trying to cover that shame with something new, something else, something new.

And it's just exhausting.

See, the law is always asking you to produce, but there's no rescue in that life.

It cannot deliver the heart.

It's the worst of lives, even while it can hide within successful lives.

So that's point number one.

Our problem is our shortcoming before the law and our ongoing fascination with it.

Point number two, good news, our rescue is God's perfect completion of the law in Jesus.

So we could say it in a more modern, less theological way, and say our rescue is his ridiculous, perfect, never-ending love and the pursuit of the core of who we are.

Maybe that's a more modern way to say it.

What this is about, it's about the fact that we are approved by God not by our perfection or our work, but his perfection and his work, and that the cross is about our shortcoming before the law going on to God Himself, onto Jesus, and His righteousness and the completion of the law and all standards and any barrier between us and him coming toward us, his righteousness put on us.

And so that gap we've talked about the last few weeks, that gap between our the actual who we are and the ideal who we want to be, and that difference between the am, who I am, and who I ought to be, that gap that produces shame and guilt, that gap that produces us trying to find that magical piece of the puzzle over and over and over again.

That gap's put on the cross.

That's what the cross is about.

And Christianity says, which is just far different than anything else you're going to find.

Christianity says you have to give up in the face of demand.

It's the only way out.

The only way out is at the bottom.

It is to be honest and to confess and to repent and to be done and accept that you need help.

And that grace is your only way out.

The way of rescue is to be humbled and to receive.

And new life comes out of the Spirit of God being in you and approving you and giving you value.

So because of point one and because of point two, point three, which is what Paul was making in Galatians, you are no longer under law, but under grace.

Because the law will keep yelling at you.

Be better, be more, be thinner, be stronger, be more successful, be whatever.

Whatever you're not, just be whatever you're not.

And you get there and then be something else.

And we're always saying, there's power, there's power in the name of Jesus.

That's my preacher voice.

There's power in the name of Jesus.

And I would hear that.

I would hear it.

So I've been in church 27 years.

I'd hear it.

I didn't know what this meant.

I'm not sure we say it a lot, a lot of verbiage.

I don't know if we know what we're saying when we say things like that.

And what we're saying is, we're saying there's power in the name of Jesus.

What we're saying is, is there's no power in the law.

There's no power in standards or merit.

But there is power in the grace of God and his sufficiency and his completion of the law toward you.

That's where power is, that you are defined and secured outside of your production, good or bad.

This is the gift of grace.

This is the love of God to you that comes into you, the Spirit of God in you, and begins transformation of a new identity within you.

So when I was a senior at Georgia, I had a marketing project and we got grouped up in our class.

I think our class was maybe 40 people in there.

We got grouped up in groups of four.

And I got grouped up with a few people.

I think there's two ladies and two guys in the group.

And uh one of the girls is sort of girl, brown hair.

She lived in a townhouse off Lumpkin.

I can remember the townhouse, I remember exactly where it was.

And we all met, the four of us met at her house to split up the project, right?

I mean, that's what you did, group project.

You just showed up, split it up, you didn't talk to each other again, and then you came back, put it all together.

That's that was a group project.

And so we showed up, we split it up, and very clearly she was the boss.

Like it was clear, like we met at her townhouse, like right away, somehow that happened, and we met at her townhouse, we split it up.

She definitely came away with a load, like 75% of it or so, and the rest of us were doing a few things.

And we come back, we get back to a week later, we come back, same townhouse, same living room, we come back, she's finished it.

She finished the whole project.

She just did she did it all.

She did all.

I think I think we came in with I came in with my little bit here, and everybody else came in with their little bit, but she did the whole thing.

She was the perfect classmate.

She completed it.

She pulled all the weight.

We got a great grade.

We all received the same grade because of her work.

And we loved her because of this.

Right?

It produced, it produced love toward her.

It's just how it worked.

We were good students because of her, not because of us.

We didn't do anything.

But we were good students because of her.

See, this is the language of the gospel in the Christian life.

Because.

The language of the law is when and if.

When I get those friends, when I get that girl, when I get that next whatever I order on Amazon Prime, when I get, I don't even need it, I'm gonna order it because it'll make me feel better.

When I have those perfect kids, if I if people finally realize how smart I am, if people are finally impressed with me, if I can keep all the Christian living principles I've been writing in my journal, if I can keep all of them, not eight out of the ten, but all ten, then, right?

Like then I will feel secure before God.

Then I'll be redeemed, then I'll be okay.

But the gospel is something entirely different.

It's a different language, it's the language of because.

The core of who you are is redeemed and secured because he has been so good, because he completed the law, because God is gracious toward you and regards you as his beloved, because you are righteous even before you're righteous, because you are forever his.

Because, because, because you get to imperfectly and joyfully exist today because you get to imperfectly and joyfully love others because you get to imperfectly and joyfully move toward godliness because.

See, there's nothing for me to add.

There's nothing for me, yeah.

When I showed up at that girl's townhouse, there's nothing for me to add.

She completed it all, and we got a great, great because of her word.

There's nothing for you to add to the work Jesus has already done for you.

Because of that, because of that, you are a secure, loved, beloved child, always, no matter what your life looks like, always.

That's the greatness of the gospel.

That's the language of the gospel.

That's the very thing that transforms the Spirit of God speaking that into all the parts of your heart that are insecure and fearful and anxious and wounded.

Every assignment, every demand, all the shoulds of who we should be, Jesus was that for us.

So, my brothers and sisters, may you continue to refuse to live in the way of if and when, and may you live in the grace of God living more in the because you are mercifully understood by your Father.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that we do not have to play a game of when and if for the rest of our lives.

We confess that we love the game because we love our pride and to feel good by our efforts.

And we would never say it, but we sort of think that Jesus completed about 80% of the law and we're gonna go to finish it off.

God, would you teach us the great wisdom that there is not a piece of the law to relax.

That we need high law, and yet we need to see that you completed it all.

We need high grace.

That these two things go together for the Christian life.

Freedom and godliness and our lives, great transformation and healing and wholeness.

And all the ways that we are using law.