The Law as Curb and Mirror - Good Friday - March 29, 2024 - Text: Commandments; Rom. 2:14-15; Rom. 3:20

Last night we continued our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe about our daily bread, especially the daily bread of the Word of God and Jesus’ body and blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins in His Holy Supper. Today on this Good Friday we fittingly continue our series by being reminded of what we believe about the Law as a curb and a mirror, how it works, but often fails to keep us on the straight and narrow, but more importantly how is shows us our sins.
 

We begin with the Law as curb. Most of us understand and have actually seen a curb, you know that thing on each side of a road that is meant to keep cars on the road, out of the ditch, and off peoples property. The first use of the Law, as we are taught is that it is a curb. As a curb the Law attempts to keep order with its does and don’ts. The Law tells us, most especially, what we are not to do, but in telling us what we are not to do it also tells us what we are to do, that is the opposite of what we are not to do. In his explanations of the commandments, as we have learned in Luther’s Small Catechism with explanation, Luther reminds us of these does and don’ts and how when we do the don’ts that is the sin of commission and when we fail to do the does that is a sin of omission. As Luther says, “we should fear and love God so that we do not . . .  ” and he expresses what we are not to do and then he goes on and says, “but we should . . . ” and he expresses what we should be doing. Thus, we see that either way we sin, by doing something we should not and not doing something we should be doing.
 

As a curb the Law attempts to control behavior. As parents, as teachers, as anyone in charge of others knows, the Law is the best way to attempt to control behavior. Classrooms, cities, states, nations must have Laws in order to keep order and peace. Without Laws there would only be anarchy and chaos.
 

And so, the first thing the Law does is it always demands. The Law demands our complete obedience. The Law threatens punishment when it is not followed and obeyed. And if the punishment for the Law is not meted out then the Law means nothing. As a child in a classroom if the teacher fails to punish those children who disobey the Law then the rest of the class do not feel safe. If our legal system fails to punish crimes we citizens feel less and less safe. Thus, the Law is good.
 

The second use of the Law, as we are taught, is that it is a mirror. A mirror is that thing we use to look into in order to see what is on our face or body. As a mirror the Law reflects our natural condition, that is it shows our sins. Just as a person can look at their face in a mirror and see their acne, their scars, their need to shave, their “flaws” so when we look at the Law it shows us what we have done that we should not have done and what we have failed to do that we should have done, thus it shows our faults, our failures, our sins.
 

Ultimately, if we only have the Law it would lead us either to works righteousness or despair. If we only have the Law that tells us what we are to do and not do we may come to the conclusion that we can indeed keep the Law. Of course, the bar we set for keeping the Law must be set very low. In other words, we may think that just because we have never actually stolen anything or actually killed anyone, we may believe we are good people. We may even compare ourselves with others and see that we are pretty good people. And so we may actually be lead to believe we are good and right which amounts to thinking we have earned our way into heaven, works righteousness. On the other hand, if we only hear the Law and we understand and see just how sinful we truly are we may finally reach the point where we believe there is actually no hope for us so we are led into despair.
 

Simply stated, the Law points us to ourselves. After all the Law is about us. It is about what we are to do and not do. It demands our obedience with the threat of punishment. It makes us evaluate our lives and unfortunately, as we have just said it can only lead to either works righteousness or despair.
 

In the beginning God’s Law was simply written on the hearts of people. Actually, His Law is still written on our hearts at conception still today, what we often refer to as our conscience. God’s Law simply stated is that we are to be perfect. As God told Israel, “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:45b).
 

In the beginning God created all things perfect and holy. He created a perfect man and a perfect woman and He put them in the perfect Garden He created for them, the Garden of Eden. And He gave them only one rule, to not eat of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, with the threat that the day they ate of it dying they would die. They would suffer eternal death and hell, unless God stepped in, and they began dying a physical death.
 

It was not until we get to the Exodus of the Children of Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt that we get to the written Law. In order to bring order to the multitude of Israelites, God gave Moses the ceremonial Law, the sacrificial system, which was a constant reminder that the price for sin was death, but He also gave Him the written moral law of the Ten Commandments. The moral Law of the Ten Commandments was given as a curb, a mirror and as we heard a few weeks ago, because these were God’s people, they were given as a guide for their lives in order to keep peace and harmony.
 

As we gather once again on this Good Friday to be reminded of God’s great love for us in Jesus we ask, “What does this mean, the giving of the Law of God for us today?” God’s one rule, one Law given to Adam and Eve in Eden was given so that they might respond to all that God had given them by being obedient to God’s one rule. Adam and Eve had a free will and were actually able to decide to do or not do as they pleased. Personally, I believe that since they only knew good the devil used that as a way to exercise his usual way of lying, being the father of lies. Anyway, God’s threat was that any disobedience, any sin would bring death, human death for human sin. And we know that account, which is very much why we are here today. They did sin. Their sin brought death and the curse. Today, each one of us is born with that sin in our DNA. Remember, no sin, no accountability nor sin would mean no death. Because we know that a person can die from the moment of conception therefore we are conceived and born in and are accountable for our sin.
 

And because we are conceived and born in sin we cannot overcome sin. Just as a dead person cannot bring themself back to life. Just as a drowning person cannot save themself. Just as we cannot choose to be born or reborn, so we cannot pay the price for our sin. There is absolutely nothing we can do to save ourselves. In order to be saved, our salvation must come from outside of us and thanks be to God that it does and that is what we continue to rejoice in and be reminded of this very day, Good Friday.
 

Just as God promised in Eden and reiterated to Abraham, so Jesus was born. Jesus was true God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and true man, conceived by the human woman, the virgin Mary, thus He was conceived and born in perfection. He had to be God in order to be born perfect in order to live the perfect life demanded of us. He had to be truly human in order to be our substitute, that is in order to trade His human life, His perfect human life for our human life, our imperfect human life.
 

Jesus was born, which we celebrated at Christmas. Jesus lived a perfect life, obeying all of God’s Laws, the ceremonial, moral and civil laws, never breaking any nor sinning even once. Jesus fulfilled all of God’s promises for the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior He promised. And then He took all sin, the sin of all people who ever lived, who are living and who ever will live upon Himself and He paid the price of death; physical and eternal death for us in our place.
 

But, we know the rest of the story, the history, what we will come and celebrate on Sunday, Jesus did not stay dead, but He rose from the dead thus He defeated death. He defeated sin, death and the devil. Thanks be to God.
 

So, this evening, as we should we look at the Law and we see just how completely lost we are, what great sinners we are, how it was because of me and my sin that Jesus was nailed to the cross, but more importantly we recognize and believe what great love God has for us so much so that even if we were the only person in the world, Jesus would have done what He did for us anyway. What a great God we have. What a loving God we have. What a gift giving God we have. To Him be all the glory. Amen.