The Law Giver Becomes the Law Keeper

The Ten Commandments as God’s Spoken Law

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

Our primary text tonight for our Lenten meditation is taken from Exodus chapter 20, verses 1 -21. And God spoke all of these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or that is in the water underneath the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children of the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all of your work, but on the seventh the seventh is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's. Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking, the people were afraid and they trembled and they stood far off and said to Moses, you speak to us, we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die.

Moses said to the people, do not fear for God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you and that you may not sin. The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

In the name of Jesus. So for this Lenten season I've decided that I will be preaching on the paradoxes of Christ. Now that seems kind of an interesting topic. If you were to kind of think of it this way, there's some interesting paradoxes regarding Christ.

The book of Revelation says that he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. And over this Lenten season we will explore and meditate on the fact that the creator joined his creation, was born of a virgin and became man.

Today we're going to be looking at the fact that Christ is the law giver and he is the law fulfiller. And this is important stuff. Verse 5 of our very long hymn that we all love to sing at least once a year says this, yet as the law must be fulfilled, or we must die despairing.

Christ came and has God's anger stilled, our human nature sharing. He has for us the law obeyed, and thus the Father's vengeance stayed, which over us impended. So as we read in our text tonight from Exodus chapter 20, I'm going to note some important things along the way.

First thing, God was the one who was speaking. God was who is Christ. He's God in human flesh. God is the one who's speaking. In fact, the first verse of Exodus 20 says, and God spoke all of these words.

And then I read out the Ten Commandments. Now when we talk about God's law and we talk about the gospel, that's kind of an abstract way of talking about God's law. Because you have to think of it this way, who's the one speaking?

This is God's word of law. This is not some abstract thing put together by some judiciary committee. It wasn't put together in legislative committee. Our Congress or Senate didn't sit down and vote these things into existence.

What we see is God speaking to us. And well, let me note how that went down for the people of Israel. Here's what it says after God spoke the Ten Commandments. And see, that's the thing. We really like that gospel thing.

Because it shows God's love. It shows God's mercy. It shows God's compassion. We like that. But here when the law is given, people didn't say, oh, this is the best.

Thing ever. We heard the voice of God. It was glory. The mountain was on fire. Wow. We've got to do that again.

No. They said, don't we know. No. Don't let God ever talk to us again. You talk to us, not Him. But see, when we read God's law, God's word of law, that He speaks to us and our sin is convicted and we realize, oh boy, I have fallen way short.

Who's talking to you? God is. Let's be a little more specific. Christ is. So Christ is the law giver. And so we don't like to think of Jesus as the one who is speaking in such a way that everybody comes unglued.

But that's exactly what's going on here, is it not? It is. See, Christ is the law giver. And it's important to note this is God speaking to us. Why on earth would these people be so terrified of God's voice saying, thou shalt not steal, you shall not kill, you shall not murder?

Why were they afraid of that? I can't think of one reason at all. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that they were coveters and murderers and liars and they're not like, well, they're not any different than we are today.

And so when God's word of law speaks to us, we have a tendency internally to come unglued. And we don't necessarily like hearing God speaking in this way. And yet, we must hear God speaking in this way.

You have no idea why you need a Savior unless God speaks to you in this way. Unless God's word speaks to you in this way and convicts you and shows you the blackness of your heart. Shows you the sin that just burbles up so easily from within you.

All the different ways in which you have committed idolatry. All the different ways in which you have not loved your neighbor as yourself. The list is quite extensive. And unfortunately, the sad truth is that if we're honest, when we hear God's word of law, we realize this is not an occasional misstep on our part.

It's a daily, constant problem. One that, well, runs so deep there is no solution for us. So what's the answer? What's the answer? Well, Jesus, who is the law giver there on Mount Sinai, does something fascinating for us.

He keeps the law perfectly for us. Hence, the great theology in the Spiritist hymn that says that the law must be fulfilled. From the time of Moses and the giving of the law on Mount Sinai until the time of Jesus Christ, how many Israelites perfectly kept God's law?

None. Since then? None. So, this is where type and shadow is important. Because we note that when Jesus appears, like when he's tempted in the wilderness, which we talked about on Sunday, where is he when he's tempted in the wilderness?

Well, he's in the wilderness. How long has he been there? Forty days. This whole fasting and bread thing comes into play. He's eating on the words of God and stuff to that effect. And so, in the type and the shadow, we see that Jesus is all of Israel, in fact, all of humanity, squished into one person.

And what is he doing? He's fulfilling the law for us. The one who gives the law is the one who then steps into human history and keeps it for us. And so we'll do a quick little New Testament survey of a few passages that bear this theology out for us so that we can see the magnificence of this wonderful paradox.

The lawgiver becomes the law-obeyer. So that what the gospel demands, the gospel will always provide. Hebrews 4, 13 -16. Here's what it says of Christ. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.

Let us hold fast to our confession. Our confession is the confession that Jesus is none other than God in human flesh. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.

And now, we would think that, well, Jesus being lawgiver, and then law-obeyer for us, that somehow his attitude would be, hey listen guys, I did it, I showed you how it's done, so now get busy and you can do it too.

That's not how the text talks. In fact, Jesus, although he committed no sin, he did this for us. This deals with what's called Christ's active and passive righteousness. His passive righteousness is the ways in which he obeyed God where he had no control over it.

But his active righteousness has to do with him actively, perfectly keeping God's law. And as one who did this for us, it says that he's not looking down his nose at us. Instead it says that he is now able to sympathize with our weaknesses.

Who, it says this, one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet is without sin. Wow. So Jesus understands our weaknesses, and where we have been tempted and given into temptation, Christ has been tempted and did not give into that temptation, and he did not give in for us.

That's the reason he did it. So, it then says this, so let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You see Jesus, the one who keeps the law perfectly for us, now understands firsthand, it's not abstract for Jesus, to know what you struggle with, to know what sin besets you, to know the temptations of the devil, and in the different ways in which you come up short and you hurt and harm your neighbor, he is fully aware of all of these things because he's gone through those exact same temptations and yet never sinned once.

And because of this fact, the law giver who became the law obeyer for us, we now have confidence, confidence so we can draw near to the throne of what? Not judgment, but to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace and help in time of need.

The Sinless Christ Who Takes Away Sin

Now this one's out of context, that's noted. 1 John chapter 3 verse 5 though, picks up on the same theology. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin. Talking about Christ.

That he appeared to take away our sins and in him there is no sin. You see, Jesus sees all of our weaknesses, sees all of our sin, sees all of the ways in which we fall short and he doesn't sit there and scold us.

What does he do? God lays on him the iniquity of us all and the sinless one becomes the sinner. But I'm getting ahead of myself. But it's important to note here that he takes our sins away and he's able to do that because in him there is no sin.

You see, if Jesus were not the law keeper for us, how would he have the ability to take our sins away from us? The sinless one has to be the one to take away the sins of the sinners. So Jesus does that.

Peter’s Witness to the Lamb Without Blemish

Peter, in his epistle, we'll pick up a large swath of Peter's opening thoughts in his epistle. 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 10 through 21 reads, concerning this salvation, the salvation you and I have, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, searched and inquired carefully.

Notice those slanderous words. What? The prophets prophesied that grace was going to be given to us? Sinners? Gentiles? Oh, that can't possibly be, but it is. It's good news. The prophets prophesied about the grace that was to be yours.

Yours. It's all yours. The prophets prophesied about this grace given to you. So they inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which the angels long to look.

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all of your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.

And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like the lamb without blemish or spot.".

And there it is. You see, all of this grace that is talked about here, all of this grace, this mercy, this forgiveness, is because Jesus is the spotless, sinless, law-keeping Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

In other words, your forgiveness completely hinges on the fact that Christ was sinless. And to be sinless, he had to keep the law perfectly for you. And because of this, because we are forgiven, because we are bled for, because we are died for, now we are admonished by the Holy Spirit in God's Word here in this text to be holy because Christ is holy.

You see, Christ's sinless, perfect keeping of the God's law. His holiness is now held up and say, you be holy because I am holy. And the wonderful thing is that Christ has made us holy. For those who've had their sins taken away, what are they?

Righteous. If you, in your deeds as a sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, those deeds make you unholy and Christ takes away your sins, what does that make you? Holy. You see? This is all working together.

It all pivots on each other and the linchpin is the lawgiver who kept the law perfectly for us. So it goes on to talk about this spotless Lamb of God without blemish, that he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in the last times for the sake of you.

See, Jesus was manifest for you. From the dead, for your sake, he was manifest through him. Our believers in God, God raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.

Wonderful words. Wonderful words indeed. And then 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 21 through 25 says for this you have been called because Christ Jesus also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to God who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but now have returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls.

And so there it is. The one who is sinless. He committed no sin, yet he bore our sins in his body on the tree. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that you might be the righteousness of God.

And so our first paradox this Lenten season is the paradox of the lawgiver who keeps the law for us. What does it mean? Well, based on the text that I've read it kind of means everything. Without the sinless, spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world there is no taking away of the sins of the world.

And because the sins of the world have been taken away, bled for, died for by Christ, and because he was sinless, God was able to lay on him the iniquity of us all. And this then gives us hope. And so we are admonished here in these texts with this reality, with this truth of God's Word to believe.

To believe this amazing good news and dare to hope that when Christ appears, he will say to you, well done, good and faithful servant. Will he say that because you've kept the law perfectly? No. He's done that for you.

He will say that because he's taken away your sins and now that you are made holy, now that you are a child of the light, have been set free from the dominion of darkness, you have the freedom to walk in holiness and walk as a child of the light.

Totally different idea altogether. And it all hinges on the fact that the law giver kept the law for us. In the name of Jesus,.

Amen.

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