Neither Culture’s Handmaiden

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 16, 1988.

Sermon transcript

This morning, our scripture reading is from the fifth chapter of Matthew, and we are reading from verse seventeen through verse twenty. This is Matthew’s gospel from the Sermon on the Mount, the fifth chapter, beginning with the seventeenth verse. Hear the word of God.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Ten years ago, a young student from America made his way to Switzerland. He was going to Basel to study under Marcus Barth, the son of the great Swiss theologian Karl Barth. He was surprised at what he found. He was intent on doing doctoral work there. And as he discussed the prospect of his dissertation with Dr. Bart, he was informed that he had no choice as to what the topic would be. He was told that he would have to write on the question of the law. Now the student was taken back. Somewhat shocked. Because he felt he thought. He had imagined. That the subject of the law was a long forgotten issue. In theological circles a long forgotten issue especially to the mind of the liberal. And Marcus Barth, with his father, was a liberal.

Besides, in this modern era, had not Europe been blessed with the likes of Rudolf Bultmann, a man who had set faith in an absolutist consideration over against every form of constraint, every form of legalism. Had he not told us in his monumental essay, Kerygma and Myth, that the day had now come for the perfection of a life of faith over against a life of constraint, a life of rules. And have not his student, another theologian by the name of Ernst Casimir, written his monumental book? Jesus means freedom, so said Casimir. making the point, freedom stands over against constraint, order, law. Therefore the student was taken back.

Hardly the environment in which he had thought to find an interest in and emphasis upon the law. But you see, there was a new spirit at work in Europe after the Second World War. How much theology is the handmaiden of culture? Prior to the war and during it, every effort was being made to set the gospel as it was being conceived in Europe over against anything that smacked of Judaism. And thus the absolute antithesis between law and gospel. But the events of the century had convicted Europe seemingly And how did they seek to make amends? Would they, for instance, make amends by returning to the genius of the Reformation in order to understand the relationship between law and gospel?

Or would they then again prove to be merely the handmaiden of culture? for that which had been persecuted prior to and during the war had now become a major force in the emerging culture. For the Church, in order to make her way in this New Europe, she had to make peace with No more anti-law, but pro-law.

No more is the Jew considered on the other side, but a brother in a common quest. No longer the object of an evangel, the gospel. that one who understands the message of God’s love in his own particular way, which we do well to appreciate and appropriate, since we too are building on the foundations of Judas. Ah, but the student doesn’t stay in Europe. he comes home to America.

And what should he find here as he returns at the beginning of the eighties? He discovers that here in the United States there is also an emphasis, an unprecedented emphasis, upon but it’s not coming from liberals, it’s coming from conservatives. Again, he observes that theology is the handmaiden of culture, for the society itself seems to be on the brink of dissolution, for institutions in question. And the watchword of a campaign run in 1980 is nothing less than law and order.

In theological circles in the church itself, we had come through an era of spiritual antinomianism. in which the spontaneity of response to God in the spirit was put over against all forms of restraint, as if duty, or doing something in response to duty, was somehow inferior. There were the ravages of so-called dispensationalism. the theology of Hal Lindsey, for instance, and his book, The Late Great Planet Earth. This, too, taking its toll. And more than anything else, it seemed, there was a cultural barbarism, a society out of control.

And into this chaos, then, there walked some of strong, conservative, and even reformed conviction who were intent upon reasserting the claim of the law, the law in all of its fullness. This, in fact, being at the root of what has been called the Theonomic Movement. Now, there’s an irony to all of this.

Maybe you’ve picked it up already. So it doesn’t matter whether the student is operating in his European context with a bunch of liberals or he’s operating in his American context with a bunch of conservatives. The question that arises is the same as he faces in both directions. And that question is this.

With this turn towards law, be it by the liberal in his attempt to appeal to the Jew, or be it on the part of the conservative in his attempt to assert the claims of the Old Testament, how in the world are you as a Christian different from a Jew? You tell me what progress has been made. What is the significance, then, of the coming of Jesus Christ? Thus enters Matthew 5, 17-20. The calling card of both movements European and American. Especially in the American version that we have become acquainted with now. We are being told.

That all that is intended by this passage is a mere republication of the law by Jesus. All that is intended by him is a reassertion of that mosaic understanding of things that now, through and by Jesus, we have the proper interpretation and the appropriate application of that law.

Well, I must admit, from a cursory reading of this text, it would seem that those who suggested this approach to these verses are correct. After all, we have that 18th verse that speaks about the job and the title. We have that 19th verse that tells us about commandments, great and small, and their importance to us. But in reading it, and in assessing it within the context of the Sermon on the Mount, can we say, in the end, that the appearance of Jesus Christ has made no impact upon and brought no alteration to the law. Are we just Jews with better insight into the nature of the law? Or has something actually occurred here, transpired, that puts everything in a much different light?

There are two things that are obvious in the text, first of all, that convince us that we cannot approach this passage as if we were simply Jews who have come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. There is a distinctiveness that is obvious on the face of things in two respects. First of all. This text makes sense only within the context of the coming of Christ himself. It is Christ’s coming that creates a crisis a crisis for the understanding the typical ordinary understanding of the law and that’s why he has to say in verse seventeen I came I came to I came not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill.

The second thing that is obvious from the text is the assertion of his authority. Not only has he come, but he is one who is able to say that his word is now that vantage point from which we ought to view even those words that have been previously uttered. Truly, I say in the language that is reiterated throughout the sermon. Repeatedly calling attention to the Supreme Authority of Jesus Christ, that authority which is exercising even here. But the distinctiveness of the Christian position is also presented to us. focused for us by some subtle factors laying beneath the surface of the test. This morning, I will mention two. First of all, the unspoken question.

What is it, for instance, that compels Jesus to move from that sixteen birth where he’s talking about light shining before men in such a way that they may see good works and glorify the father was in heaven. What is it that drives him from that sixteen birth to the seventeen to immediately afterwards in that seventeen birth bring up this issue of the law on the profits.

The ordinary answer to that question has been Jesus, here, is anticipating those attacks that will be brought against him and against his church. He is anticipating the attacks of the detractors who are interested in pitting Christ over against the Law and the Prophets, as if he were here responding to his enemies. But I ask you to consider if Jesus here speaking to his enemies, is he anticipating their response to his message, or is he speaking to his own, speaking to them directly?

Those who have come to him on the mount are in fact his disciples, and it is to them that he addresses his comments, and it is they who are raising the question that stands behind these verses. What then of the law and the prophets, and if they are raising that question, you see the question must arise out of what has preceded in verses three through sixteen out of the Beatitudes and Jesus commentary on them. What in those Beatitudes, what in that commentary would compel the disciples of Jesus to ask the question, what then of the law and the prophets? Well, it’s this, their expectation with regard to the kingdom was precisely the scenario in which the Messiah would appear and he would bring everything to a consummation, but the way in which Jesus speaks when he gives to his disciples those the attitudes and then he gives them his commentary upon those the attitudes he is therefore saying to them that what they had expected will not in fact take place.

Actually, what is going to happen is life is going to go on and isn’t going to be all that pleasant. And the immediate response, the question in the mind of his disciples is, what of the law and the prophets? What have we been believing in all of these years? What have we been giving our lives to? If, in fact, this is what you’ve come to do, what of the law and the prophets? So Jesus is there for telling.

Nothing of the law of the prophets is lost, rather the law of the prophets will be fulfilled, but you see, there’s something else here on intruding, and this is the second factor, the second subtle factor that is impinging upon this passage. For there’s not only an unspoken question, there is also an unspoken assumption. You see, Jesus never speaks as one. who is not considering fully and completely, at the time he speaks, the end, the completion, the fulfillment of his ministry. So even here, before the fulfillment and completion of that ministry, Jesus is speaking as one who has in full view that ministry’s conclusion and end. He speaks in light of the cross that is going to come. And when you ask the question about verse twenty concerning the passing righteousness, that righteousness that surpasses even the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, a superlative righteousness, I quote. When you ask a question as to what might be the content of that righteousness, you cannot express the content of that righteousness without speaking about the problem.

Jesus came not to abolish but to fulfill. How does he fulfill? He fulfills the law and the prophets in his work upon the cross. You ask, how is that accomplished on the cross? How are the law and the prophets accomplished by Jesus, fulfilled by Jesus on the cross?

How is righteousness manifest there? Not so much that righteousness of God, but that righteousness that is required of us and is communicated to us by Christ, a superlative righteousness, a righteousness that is revealed from heaven itself. If you think that you can keep the observed or place before you the commandments of God without taking into consideration the cross of Christ, you are greatly mistaken. And it is that cross that makes Christian gospel utterly distinct and unique and separates it in fact from Judaism.

For what will be the fulfillment of the law? Is it not this? That there came one among us who sought not to be served, but to serve and to give his life. a ransom for many. Jesus is saying that is the fulfillment of the law and the promise. And as that has been manifested by our Savior on the cross, which is now the superlative righteousness that is to be manifest in your life. The one who is first becoming last, the exalted one becoming the slave, the one who has privilege becoming the servant, forsaking advantage that others might be preferred before him. not the saving of life, but the giving of life away. All that the law and the prophets were saying is summed up in the cross. And you obey God and you keep his commandments when the law of Christ is fulfilled in you. And according to Paul, when you bear one another’s burdens.

The tragedy is That those liberals in Europe and the conservatives in America will continue to exegete the Sermon on the Mount as if the cross is fully, completely human. And not really a consideration at this point in Jesus’ ministry. You know that. You know that.

As you think about that cross, and you think about your own obedience and the superlative righteousness that is yours, you come to the table, which memorializes, commemorates the death of our Savior for us. Our Lord, we would not be those who would bind ourselves in the law of the void of Christ, but we would have ourselves placed there as you sovereignly have done in that law, that obedience, that command. filled full with Christ, and the significance of His cross. Let us know for certain, Lord, that this is what is pleasing in your sight, as that superlative righteousness is manifest in us, and that in conformity to our Savior who is gone before us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.