Matthew 5:13-20 - All or Nothing? - February 9, 2020

All or nothing. It sounds like something a coach would say when he’s trying to pump up his team; a gambler would say as he pushes all of his chips into the pot; like something that a military commander might say to his squad before a mission. But the question is: does it sound like something Jesus would say?

Let’s start with different question: how can we possibly reconcile the words of Paul we heard this morning and the words of Jesus? Didn’t they directly contradict one another? Listen again to what Jesus said: Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy them but to fulfil them. Amen I tell you: until heaven and earth pass away, not even the smallest letter, or even part of a letter, will in any way pass away from the Law until everything is fulfilled. So whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. So that sounds good, right? We would agree with that. Anyone who believes that the Bible is God’s Word would agree with that. Every word of the Bible is important. We must believe and obey it down to the letter – or else we cannot be saved (Revelation 22:18-19).

What was Paul thinking then? Did he invent a new religion? Paul wrote I had no intention of knowing anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). Really Paul? Nothing except Jesus and the cross? What about all the other letters and words and sentences in the Bible? What about the Law? So which is it? Who’s wrong here? Is Jesus wrong or is Paul? I’ll give you the answer first, then the explanation. The answer is: it’s all or nothing.

This time of year we’re all getting our W-2’s, our 1099’s, our mortgage statements in order. And that means that we will soon begin the process of calculating deductions, exemptions, and credits. And at some point – especially if you do your own taxes – you come to the realization that our tax code is really complicated! 20 years ago, a billionaire by the name of Steve Forbes ran for president, and he proposed an idea that would simplify things: a flat tax. [1] No matter how much you made, you would be taxed at a flat rate of 17%. Sounds great, right? Except for one thing. Critics and analysts said that it wouldn’t work. At least not at a rate that low.

People often try to apply a flat tax – an attempt to smooth out – what God says in his Word. They do this in many ways. Some simply flatten out certain difficult teaches of the Bible, deleting them altogether: the creation of the universe in six ordinary, 24 hour days (Exodus 20:11); the Exodus and the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 12-14); the virgin conception and birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:18) – to name a few. Others argue that many of the Bible’s teachings are archaic and need to be updated: while homosexuality may have been bad in the past because it involved abuse, today it can be good in a loving relationship (Genesis 19) or that the Biblical prohibition against women serving as pastors was relevant in the first century but not the twenty-first (1 Timothy 2:12). But easily the most common way people – including me and you – flatten out God’s Word is by carving out exemptions for ourselves. 3rd commandment – God won’t mind if I skip worship just this once. 4th commandment – our elected leaders are fools, they deserve to be mocked and disrespected. 5th commandment – hatred is a virtue if you use it for motivation. 6th commandment – it’s ok to look as long as you don’t touch. 7th commandment – it’s only stealing if someone catches me not scanning every item at the self-checkout. And we could go on. It’s easy, isn’t it? Just simplify, smooth out the tough areas of God’s Word – like a flat tax.

There’s just one problem. Jesus says it won’t work – not at such a low rate: whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. In other words, any lowering of God’s standards won’t work. Keeping the Law 17% of the time won’t work. In fact, even keeping it 99.9% of the time won’t work (James 2:10). If we think that God will accept partial obedience, we’re only deceiving ourselves. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its flavor, how will it become salty again? Then it is no good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people. So much for the lawless, gutless, tolerant, post-modern 21st century Jesus that is often presented today. Jesus is not giving us suggestions or a buffet of options to pick from, but commands. We must be salt to season the world around us. We must let our light shine. We cannot keep quiet and blend in. We must obey every letter – and every part of every letter – of the Law. Jesus doesn’t give any exemptions or exclusions. With him, it’s all or nothing.

Let’s be honest, if we didn’t know better, we might assume that these words were spoken by a Pharisee or teacher of the Law – not Jesus. We might even find that we prefer Paul to Jesus. Paul’s message seems a whole lot simpler: just Christ and his cross (1 Corinthians 2:2). According to Paul, the cross is the whole message. Paul would have been great at children’s sermons, wouldn’t he? Simple, to the point, and the answer to every question would be “Jesus died on the cross for our sins.” Next to Jesus, Paul was probably the most brilliant theologian of all time. But he says that the simple message of Christ crucified is IT; all of it, there’s nothing more. We confess the same thing every week. Jesus’ died for us. Jesus’ death saves us. The question is: is that really all there is? Does the cross say it all – every letter and every part of every letter of God’s Word?

What did Jesus say? Until heaven and earth pass away, not even the smallest letter, or even part of a letter, will in any way pass away from the Law until everything is fulfilled. It sounds like Paul…and Martin Luther…and every Lutheran pastor after him might be guilty of what’s called Gospel reductionism – that is, reducing God’s Word to a few simple things, maybe even one thing, like the cross of Christ. [2] Gospel reductionism sounds like this: “Jesus loves me this I know…and that’s all I want to know.” And if you reduce Christianity to just the Gospel, then anything else goes; do whatever you want, live however you want, deny anything else in the Bible, especially the Law – especially the Law, because the Law is hard to keep. Just focus on God’s love and Jesus’ cross and then nothing else matters.

How do we reconcile the two? Paul and Jesus; Calvary and Sinai; Law and Gospel? It’s simple: it’s all or nothing. But perhaps you would like a further explanation. Yes? Ok. Here it is: Christ crucified is the fulfillment of every letter and every part of every letter of the Law.

In other words, preaching Christ crucified is preaching the Law. That’s why we can’t skip over the small details. Allow me to illustrate with just one of the seemingly small that we spend a lot of time on: the fact that Jesus was born of a virgin and therefore was truly human. What does that matter? It matters because Jesus’ humanity placed him under the law – yes, the law that he himself gave. In Galatians Paul explains: when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law (Galatians 4:4-5). Jesus was born to obey the whole Law, down to the last letter, to redeem us. That’s why the little letters do matter; they matter for our salvation.

And then on Calvary, there is no clearer preacher of the Law than the cross. After all, that’s the sinless Son of God on that cross! That’s God the Father turning his back on his Son, handing him over to the hatred of men and the damnation of hell just because two people took a bite out of some fruit they weren’t supposed to thousands of years earlier (Genesis 3:6). But that’s not the only reason he hung there. God’s perfect Son hung there because of the one loveless thing you said to your spouse yesterday; over the frustration you had with your child two days ago; over the horrible thought you had about your boss on Monday; over the fact that each of us has failed to love God above all things and love our neighbor as ourselves. The cross demonstrates God’s refusal to lower his standard. He demands 100% compliance or full punishment. He accepts no excuses. He lets no one off the hook. In Christ crucified we see that every sin against every letter – and every part of every letter – of the Law must be punished, to the full extent of the Law. God hung his Son on a cross – that’s how serious he is about his Law. That’s how serious God is about sin. That’s how serious God is about my sin…and how serious he is about your sin. Indeed I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and experts in the law, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

What hope do we have, then? Here it is – and listen very carefully: Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy them but to fulfill them. When you know Christ and his cross, you don’t only see God’s seriousness regarding his Law, you see his mercy, his grace, his love – for the cross shows you that Christ has fulfilled the Law for you – every letter of it. Through his 33 years of life Jesus obeyed every letter of the Law perfectly for us and on the cross he suffered the full punishment of the Law. Every letter of the law has been fulfilled and every letter of the punishment demanded by the Law has been paid – not by us but for us.

So back to the question: is it all or nothing? What’s the answer? It would seem that the Law and the Gospel give us two different answers: if you want to be saved by the Law you must keep it all, if you trust in Jesus you don’t have to keep any of it. And that’s true, but really, the answer is even simpler than that. The answer is Jesus. Jesus is not a legalist. He’s not going to explain the Law to us over the next few weeks so that we would try to earn salvation through our obedience – but so that we understand what God demands of us and how desperately we need him. Nor was Paul a Gospel reductionist. He wasn’t dismissing the importance of every other word of Scripture, including every demand of the Law. He was summarizing it all in its perfect complexity and simplicity when he preached Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

It’s still the same today. We must maintain both Law and Gospel as the unchanging Word of God and embrace the tension between the two. We cannot and do not diminish God’s commands: to let our lights shine, to be the salt of the earth, to obey every letter of every word of God’s Law. At the same time, we cannot and do not diminish the fact that when we cling to Christ and him crucified in faith, God considers us as having kept his Law, down to the last letter (Genesis 15:6). The better we know Jesus the better we will understand just what the Law demands of us and the better we know just how much love it took for God to send his Son to earth to fulfill it for us.

In the end, it is really very simple. It’s all or nothing. You either have Christ and him crucified for you – and then you have it all, all the obedience and righteousness you need to stand before God; or you don’t – and you wind up with nothing. Amen.  

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2014/03/07/the-tax-code-make-it-flat/#6dc418837e0e

[2] https://www.patheos.com/blogs/justandsinner/the-danger-of-law-gospel-reductionism/