Law Finished, Freedom Found

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[0:00] God. Well, let's go now to our sermon, and our sermon text is Romans 10, 1 through 21, basically the entire chapter 10. I'm going to try to like turn up the speed on this because otherwise we'll be doing this till Christmas, so my goal is to be done with Romans by the end of September, just so you know. And we have actually Pastor Victoria's coming on her last day of sabbatical is August 26th. Turns out August 27th is a Sunday, and she's going to preach that day, her first day back, and she's going to tell us what she experienced on sabbatical, so it's kind of going to be a report slash sermon. So we're going to miss a Sunday of Romans for that, and then the next week we're going to have a joint worship service with Grace, so we're not going to preach on Romans then either. But trust me, we'll get through this. Like I say, the series is going to continue until morale improves. Just kidding. But I think it's great, but I today, so I'm going to preach a little differently on Romans 10 than the other ways I've done. But I want to start off by saying one thing, and that was that my family, a few weeks back, we got back from a really wonderful trip to Europe. We went to the Netherlands, and we went to Belgium.

[1:08] And in those places, we came to two, what I consider two amazing, and they're just two of probably hundreds of amazing cathedrals in Europe that were built in the Middle Ages. One was in a beautiful town called Utrecht, which is in the Netherlands, and another one was in the city of Antwerp in Belgium. And that one is called the Righteous Righteous Righteous Righteous higher than the top of this steeple. And it was much wider, of course. It was as wide as our church is wide, all the way up to the top and long, long, long, long, long, the whole way. And you walk in there and you think, what were these people thinking? The church doesn't need to be this tall to be a church. It could just, the roof could be half as high and it would still be amazing. But do you know why they did this, right? This was an idea that the Catholics had. It was called the visible church. The church had to be the tallest building in town. And you couldn't build a, you couldn't build a building taller than the church. That was considered wrong. And the, the church, and that was a visible representation of the power of God. And so it would remind people. And it was beautiful inside. I mean, there's a lot of great things about it, but it was beautiful inside too. It was

[2:46] very ornate, very. Now in some cases, we saw in Antwerp, some of the beautiful things were taken out of the church. And it was a very beautiful thing. And so the church was taken out of the church. And so the people who were in Antwerp, they were taken out of the church as a result of the Protestant Reformation. That was a movement called iconoclasm, where they decided to kind of simplify the inside of the church. Because they wanted to focus on the word and not have people distracted by the, the murals and the statues. Or they thought the murals and statues were idolatrous, so they wanted to focus people on the word. And Antwerp, at least, they've managed to uncover some of the plaster. And underneath the plaster, some of the murals are now emerging. And it's really kind of cool. Now that's not quite the point, but these churches, some of them took 150 years to build. So you imagine being a worker on the church and you spend 40 years maybe of your, of your workable life as a, as a craftsperson. And it would take four lifetimes for that to be realized. People worked on this church who never saw it finished, right? So this is beautiful, tremendous movement of, you would hope, of love being poured into

[3:50] this building. But I think there's a shadow side to it too, right? If the church is the, if the church is the tallest building in town and you can see the church from everywhere in town, then what follows from that? The church can always see you. The church can always see what you're doing. And that was also the part of it too, was God's got his eye on you. God's gonna watch over you. God's gonna judge you. God's gonna, you know, you better watch out. The Catholics believed in something called purgatory, the sort of in-between place between heaven and hell or between earth and heaven. And if you weren't quite good enough to go straight to heaven, which almost nobody was, you had to spend some time in purgatory burning away some of your sins. It wasn't a great place. Now, how did they build these giant cathedrals, right? Beautiful stonework, really a lot of, you know, just a lot of work. You can imagine that they asked all the peasants to have like a yard sale or a bake sale or something like that. And maybe they did, but that would have been enough to make a mud wall. You know, where did the money come from, from these churches? Well, as it turns out, especially in Germany, this was part of something that Martin Luther had a problem with. They said, we'll sell you an indulgence. We'll

[5:05] sell you a piece of paper that will shorten your time in purgatory. You'll go straight to heaven in some cases if you donate enough to church. And so they were, the money was coming, coming in. You know, you can sin, you can plan in advance to sin, and you can have that paper, and that paper covers it up. Well, this was a huge moneymaker for the church. This is what the Lutherans were, and Luther himself was particularly angry about. They were like, you're using the law to coerce people. You're scaring them into thinking that they've done all sorts of wrong things, and probably they have, and saying, we can rescue you from that. And, and so it was sort of like a, you know, it was a, it was a, it was a, of these cathedrals in Europe and think about the Lutherans who were so mad about this practice of selling indulgences as we read from Romans 10. So let's go ahead and read from Romans 10, 1 through 21. The apostle Paul writes this, and this follows along directly from what we just finished in Romans in our first reading. Romans 10, verse 1. Paul writes this, brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them, the Jews that he's speaking about, is that they may be saved. It's clear from this point that Paul cares about this, that his heart's desire and prayer to God

[6:52] for the Jewish people in Rome and elsewhere is that they may be saved. I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. For being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God. They have not submitted to Jesus. They have not submitted to Jesus. They have not submitted God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that the person who does these things will live by them. But the righteousness that comes from faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, no one who believes in him will be put to shame, for there is no distinction

[8:08] between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? Unless they are sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. But not all have obeyed the good news. For Isaiah says, Lord who has believed our message.

[8:47] So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. But of Israel, he says, all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary God. People. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. We ask that you add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen. I want to go back, and let's do the first slide please, Steve, if you can. I want to go back to something that may have caught your attention, because it's kind of, maybe confusing, but a bit stark. It's verse four, and it says this, Christ is the end of the law. It's right there.

[10:02] The end of the law, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Now how do I understand this? Think about that. You could think about this, actually it works in English, but it really works in Greek, and it probably works in both languages the same way, because they're both of a similar, they're both from the similar branch of languages, the Indo-European languages. The word underneath that word, end, is in Greek, is telos, which means goal, or end, or something that's in the the description of the book. So, it's a word that's in the description of the book. It's a word that's in the description of the book. It's a word that's in the description of the book. It's a word that's in the description of the book. And so, when you launch a satellite into space, it sends back something called telemetry, which is the measurement of something at a distance, at a far place. So, the telos is the goal. You could even say, if you're running a race, the finish line, you could call it the telos. But, it could also mean the cessation of something, the ending of something, the quitting of something. So, just like in English, words have multiple meanings in Greek, and how to understand this.

[11:00] And actually, there's been a lot of ink spilled about this. So, I'm going to read out verse 4 of chapter 10. And there's two choices, right? Christ is the end of the law. One choice is that the law has come to an end in Christ. The law is, in essence, is no more. It has no significance anymore. It's done away with because of Christ, right? And there's a school of thought in Christianity, it's not particularly strong anymore, but every now and then you run into it, it's called antinomianism. That's on the quiz, so you better write this down. No, I'm kidding.

[11:37] Antinomianism, it's a bit of a tongue twister. Nomos is the word for law. And so, antinomianism is people who are opposed to the law, or who are against the law. And sometimes, these were Lutherans. I'm going to give the Lutherans a little grief today. And I grew up Lutheran, so I can do that. It's just like that rule. You can only make fun of your own tribe. And I'm going to make fun of the Lutherans a little bit. But some of the Lutherans, not all of them, they're reacting to how the law is. And they say, the law has been abused as a way to control other people, talking about indulgences, building cathedrals, building St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. They were collecting for that in Luther's time.

[12:14] And the antinomians would quote this first. They say, the law is ended because the law was being abused. So they had an interest in ending the power of the law, but they misunderstood something. We'll get to that. So they would say, the law is ended, it's been replaced by Jesus. He's put an end to it. It's not binding on us because we have the Spirit. All of that is pretty much true. And in its best form, they were able to free themselves from all sorts of unnecessary guilt. And they couldn't be coerced or shamed by other people who would use the law to try to extract something from them. So that's all good. That's all good. You shouldn't experience shame or guilt from somebody else by them preaching the law at you. That's not their place to do that. Only God can do that. But on the worse side of this, they began to actually sin more and say, Christ is the end of the law. The law has no power over me. I can go do what I want. It's all covered by grace. And they actually, in a weird way, began to kind of give themselves a whole new set of indulgences that just didn't cost any money. Which was really smart. You know, it was just like saving money. I can just give myself an indulgence. It's all grace. It's all grace. It's all grace. God will cover it. I'm going to go do something tomorrow. I know it's wrong.

[13:27] And then when it's done, I'm going to do it again. And they're like, no, no, no, no. I'm going to do it again. I'm going to repent and it's all grace. That's antinomianism. That's this idea that the law has no power anymore. But you know what? Do you remember this?

[13:40] Even in Romans, if they're quoting from Romans, they should read all of Romans. Because what does Paul say? You may ask yourself then, should we go on sinning so that grace may abound or increase? And what does he say? By no means, by no means. So even the antinomians would have to have read that and go, hmm. Let's not do that. Now, the other translation of the word telos is that of a goal or a finish line or the thing that's being aimed for. So that would mean, the meaning then would be that the law doesn't end with Jesus, but the law is completed in Jesus or the law finds its fulfillment in Jesus. And I think that's the more correct understanding of this. Not that Jesus replaces the law, but the law comes into its full purposes in Jesus. The law finds its true meaning in Jesus. So the law still matters because it has been a part of the pathway to the Messiah. It's more like the road than the end, right? The end of the law, you think of the law as the road. The road leads to Jesus. Jesus is the telos. Jesus, the end of the law, is Jesus. Jesus is the end of the law, right? The Messiah tells us, you know, the Messiah tells us that the law is important. So the Messiah doesn't discount the law. Do you remember the Sermon on the Mount?

[15:08] Jesus doesn't discount the law. He intensifies the law. The law does not go away. Now, he's not a second Moses. He does that. He intensifies the law so that we could ever possibly despair, and particularly the people who are listening to him, could ever despair, that would completely be in despair that they could keep it. All they could have said to themselves, I've never committed adultery against my wife. And Jesus would say, that's great, but have you looked at somebody with lust in your heart? Then you've committed adultery. And not one of them would say, oh no, I've never done that. You know, they might say it, but it wouldn't be true. So when you intensify the law, it's just like Paul's understanding of the law. The law is a school teacher. The law is the schoolmaster. He says so in Galatians. It teaches us that we're sinners.

[15:56] The law isn't gone away. The law isn't rendered powerless at all. It has this great power to teach us that we're sinners. And it drives us to our knees, and we pray for Jesus in that moment of despair. That's what the law now does. So the end of the law, or the goal of the law, is found its fulfillment in Jesus. Jesus makes the claim by his life and death and resurrection, and Paul does too, that the righteousness that the people thought the law promised is actually only available in and through Jesus. This is the message of Romans right here. The righteousness that people thought, particularly Jewish people, that the righteousness that people thought they could attain by keeping the law is actually only available in and through faith in Jesus. And it doesn't come by memorizing and keeping of the law, but it's available to all who believe. That's what Paul says. And that's like, the call back to Romans 1 that we use for our call to worship. The gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. So to answer the question, is it the end of the law, or the goal of the law? And as usual, the answer is yes, because in a way it is the end of the law. It's the end of the law's power in some places, not like the antinomian thinks. But actually,

[17:18] when you've reached the goal of the race, guess what? The race has ended, right? So end, end goal are similar concepts, and they're similar for a reason. When you've reached the end of the race, the goal of the race, the race has ended. That's wrapped up in the meaning of telos, and our meaning, our word end. But the law has not gone away. It's just that we understand that we can't keep it by our own power. And instead, we need the power. This is a previous lesson we've had on this. We can't keep the law by our own power. We need the power of the most powerful being in the universe, the Holy Spirit living in us. And that's what we're talking about. We need the power of the most powerful being inside us to then do what is right. That's how this works. And that does give us true freedom from shame and the coercion of the law that people would use against us, all right? Now, where does this all leave the question that Paul is wrestling with? In this section, especially, as Wendy said last week, we've got about three chapters here, which is really intensely about the question of Judaism itself, the Jewish people and their relationship to the gospel. And it's a question that we've got to answer. And it's a question that

[18:26] we've got to answer. And this is the core of it right here. This chapter is right in the middle of it, 9, 10, 11. So where does that leave the question that Paul is wrestling with? The status of the Jewish people who he has such heartfelt hopes for that they would come to know the Messiah. And to make it work, he has to put the nail in the coffin of how they are using the law. And he does that by saying Christ is the end of the law. It's the goal of the law, but also the end of the law, at least as far as you understand it this year. Now, here are the two things that Paul is really attacking. One is that the zeal for the law, which fights to preserve Israel's distinctiveness. Israel is saying our zeal for the law is what makes us who we are. It's our identity. So you can't really take the law away from us, because to take that away from us would be to take away who we are. This is super important. We're going to talk about that some other day. But Paul is saying the law doesn't function, that way. The goal of the law was not to make you uniquely identifiable people. Something else has to make you uniquely identifiable people. Your zeal for the law can't be that which makes you distinctive or different from other people. The other was that Israel as a whole nation would have

[19:45] a righteousness that was defined by their keeping of the law. And Paul is also quick to say in Romans, he says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You are not capable of doing this thing that you are hoping for. Your righteousness cannot be defined in terms of you keeping the law, because you don't keep the law. I mean, I just say it to everybody. You don't keep the law. You don't keep the law. And I'm pointing myself. You don't keep the law. You don't keep the law. None of you keep the law. I'm sorry to be mean. I mean, it's just true, okay? Let's just be honest. None of us keep the law. So you can't define yourself as somebody who keeps the law. You have to define yourself as somebody who breaks the law, but is then thus forgiven by Jesus and restored to wholeness and holiness, right? So these were the things that would prevent the Jewish people from ever forming a beloved community with the Gentile Christians. Because if they said, here are two things about us in relation to the law that make us who we are and make it impossible for us to be in fellowship with you because you aren't us. And you will never have this. And Paul says, for this community to ever come together, we have to dismantle these things. And so that's why he says, Christ is the end of the law,

[21:06] the goal of it, but also the end of it, at least in the way you've been using it. And so we'll see next week that Israel's distinctiveness will actually be defined by something that's not controversial really, is that they are the original vessels of God's plans for the world. And so we'll see next week that Israel's distinctiveness will actually be defined by something that's not controversial really, is that they are the original vessels of God's plans for the world. And so we'll see next week that Israel's distinctiveness will actually be defined for the world. And that should be celebrated. So they're like the original tree, and the Gentiles are grafted into them. That's what makes them special. No one's ever going to take that away from them. That's what makes them special is that God chose them first, but not that their connection to the law makes them righteous or that it defines them. And that's okay because Paul thinks everybody can live with that. The Gentiles can live with the idea that the Jews were first because there's really no argument about that, right? It's just all in the scriptures.

[21:55] So their righteousness can't be defined by their keeping of the law, and it can't be defined by them thinking that this is their identity, that the law is their identity. So once these two obstacles are out of the way, there is hope that Jews and Gentiles can form a real community together. But it's not easy. I don't think this happened easily. And in fact, I think this letter to the Romans, I mean, we can imagine that they received it and they're like, oh, thank you for clearing all this up. Now we're going to have a perfect community. I don't think it happened that way. I think it did for a few. I think a few of them were like, ah, this is what we've been missing. We can get rid of these things that were standing in the way of us being a community together. But I can imagine that just like in any human population, there's a few people who are going to go one way and a few people are going to go another way. There were a few people in that church that just said, I'm not going to give up who I think I am just for the sake of community with these people I don't like. I'm not going to give up who I think I am just for the sake of community with these people I don't like. I'm going to start my own church. I'm going to start,

[22:53] I'm going to do my own thing, or I'm going to go back to Judaism. I'm not sure about Jesus anymore. So it's tough. It's not easy to build community. It's not easy to give up things that define us. That's the real hard thing. Somebody I was listening to on a podcast earlier, a few weeks ago, he was talking about people who have political views that are so deeply held, but even, even if they're, even if they're illogical, even if they're not, they're still going to be a part of the community. And so I think that's what we're Right.

[23:48] Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. they will do everything except for actually look at the thing itself and go, oh, that's not very logical because their identity is bound up in it. If our identity is bound up in something, we're not going to let go of it very easily. That's tough. So Paul's asking a lot here. He's saying to the Israelites, the Jewish people in Rome, you can't define yourself that way around the law. You can define yourself a different way. That makes sense. But you can't define yourself around that way because that's not how it works. That's actually not how it works. And there's going to be some pushback. It's going to be hard. So what can we say for us today? You may be asking, is this all just going to pie in the sky back in time? And no, it's not. I want to really quickly run through the rest of the section that we have for answers. I'm not going to read it again, but if Christ is the end of the law, as it says in verse four, what should we do? Well, here is the same thing for us. We don't make our identity. On the basis of our keeping the law, it can creep into us too. We can go, oh, we're the people who don't do X, Y, or Z. We don't smoke. And this is how my mom used to say, we don't smoke and we

[25:00] don't chew. And we don't go with girls that do, you know, we're not like that, but she didn't say, she said that in a, in a ironic way. Like she didn't really believe that she, my mom was smarter than that. Thank God, you know, we don't make our identity on the basis of our keeping the law. Cause actually we'll end up looking kind of foolish if we do, cause we break the law. We know that. And so, I mean, I would just be careful when you tell your children not to do a thing and then do it while they're watching you. If you're going to do it, do it while they're not watching you. I guess that's my advice or don't do it, you know, or don't tell them, you know, there's got many choices here, right? Better, in my mind, better to not have said anything, right? Don't just like do as I do, not do as I say, not as I do.

[25:47] That's another point. Guilt and shame are these destructive forces in our lives. If there's a voice in your head, it could be from a parent or a preacher, I hope not, or even your own internal critic that's saying you failed, you need to do better. You've brought shame on yourself and your family. Listen, I have these voices. I have these voices that, you know, those are really weird moments where you remember all the bad things that you've done or all the foolish things that you've done and you go, oh, and it's almost like you melt right in the moment, you know? And sometimes those are useless. Because they remind you that you're human. Sometimes they're actually not useful because you're beating yourself up. There's times that I can remember my mistakes all too clearly. Guilt and shame are destructive forces in our lives. They can be. I want you to hear this. Christ is the end of the law. That's the good news in this way too. The law cannot condemn you anymore and the accuser cannot accuse you anymore because you've been washed clean. You've been washed clean. You are free. Your freedom is waiting for you to take by your own hand. Hallelujah. Let's get it. Can we have an amen for that? I mean, there's just this freedom that comes from guilt and shame because faith in

[26:58] Jesus washes us and makes us clean. And how do we get all this? This is what Paul's talking about. He's like, he's not going to leave them hanging like all this stuff. You don't have the law anymore. Well, then what do you have? This is what he says. How do we actually get free from the law? And that's where some of the most memorable verses of Romans help us here. I want you to, I keep saying this. You should probably memorize these. Verse nine and verse 17, you should memorize. Verse nine says this, because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, notice how the resurrection makes an appearance here. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It's the gospel in a nutshell. Chapter 10, verse nine. And how do we come to believe? That's the question. Paul's following up. It's all logical.

[27:47] you should memorize this one too. Where does faith come from? Well, just since you ask it that way, Paul says, so faith comes from what is heard. And what is heard comes through the word of Christ. So you're doing the right thing by being here today, right? When you hear the gospel, it's the power of salvation for all who believe. The gospel spoken. The gospel isn't the power unto salvation for all who believe if it's in a book locked away in a safe and is never read out loud, is never spoken, is never said, is never read in your own mind, right? Faith comes from what is heard and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. The power of salvation for all who believe. And this is an interesting theological idea. I really like it. The idea is that when the word of the gospel is spoken, it has a power and a life almost all its own. And this isn't much of a leap though, because the word, if you say something negative to somebody, or if you give a speech of tyranny or something like that, that has a life all of its own too, doesn't it? All words actually have a life of their own. They go and they do things. They have power if people hear them. When the gospel is preached, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is preached,

[29:12] it has a power and a life of its own. Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? somebody else can quite give you. You can't transfer it from one person to another like a bank account. Faith comes and is created by hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ spoken out loud. I love it. The word has power. Think about Isaiah. The word goes out. It does not come back to me empty. It's like the rain that waters the earth. It goes and does what my purpose is for it, and then it returns to me. So the word of God is powerful. We never forget that. So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

[30:19] And all that says next is that, as Paul says, who's going to hear it unless somebody speaks it? And who's going to speak it unless we send them out to speak it? And so when we're done with Romans, I think we're going to talk about evangelism. But in the short term now, I'm sending you out today, and I'm sending you out today, and I'm sending you out today, and I'm myself out today and I'm sending Zach out today to continue his testimony. You go out and you say the gospel to people. It has a power all of its own. That's all you have to do is say the gospel. You don't have to be particularly persuasive or even eloquent. You don't. All you have to do is talk about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to somebody who's receptive to hear it. And the miracle of faith comes next. Faith is created. Faith is created in that moment of hearing it. And so we'll go there next. We got to finish Romans first, but we'll get there. Well, let's finish with a word of prayer. Father, thank you again for this word. Thank you. Thank you that Christ is the end of the law and how that's good news for us. Thank you that we're free from guilt and shame. Thank you that we have new life in you. Father, send us into the world as

[31:29] people who proclaim the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Father, help us to create faith in those who hear it. Thank you. Amen.