“Q & A 3 How do you come to know your misery? The law of God tells me.
Q & A 4 What does God’s law require of us? Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22:37-40, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment, and a second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Q & A 5 Can you live up to all this perfectly? No. I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.
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I want you to imagine that something is quite wrong with your body. Perhaps you have a severe pain in your abdomen or sudden difficulty breathing. You have any number of guesses as to what the underlying problem might be. You know that you should see the doctor, but you would rather not because, on some level, you are afraid of what you might hear. Whatever is wrong with your body, however, is indifferent to your unwillingness to go to the doctor and the trouble continues. Eventually loved ones convince you to see your physician. She runs her various tests and calls you into her office. “Well,” she says, “there is something wrong and it is serious.” She says nothing more. She gives a faint smile, stands up, shakes your hand, and thanks you for coming in. How satisfied would you be with that conversation? You wouldn’t be satisfied at all. Even though you are afraid to know what is wrong with you, you want to know.
Now the fact is that there is something quite wrong with you. On some level, we all know this. There is something quite wrong with all of us. There is something dreadfully wrong with the human condition. We know that we are not what we should be. “Our hearts are restless,” as Augustine put it.
Something is seriously wrong with human nature and you are a human. God will tell you what is wrong with you. It will be hard to hear, but the question before you is, ‘do you really want to know what is wrong with you?’ You wouldn’t be satisfied with a doctor who knows what is wrong with you but won’t tell you the bad news. God will tell you the bad news. He will tell you the bad news so that the good news of the gospel makes sense to you.
God tells you what is wrong with you for your good. That is the claim of this sermon: God tells you what is wrong with you for your good.
We will study this in three points. First: the law tells you what is wrong with you. Second: the law tells you what is right to do. Third: your natural tendency needs changing.
First: the law tells you what is wrong with you. The word that the Catechism uses to describe what is wrong with you is ‘misery’; “how do you come to know your misery?”
Now the Catechism doesn’t raise this question to make anyone miserable. The human condition is already miserable. The Catechism is asking, ‘how you come to know what is causing this misery?’ People have a sense that there is something wrong with them. What is it that is wrong with them? People have the sense that this life we are living is not the way life was meant to be. Why isn’t life the way it is meant to be?
You need to understand this misery if you are to recognize the relief. You need to grasp the bad news if you are to ever recognize the good news. The man best equipped to tell us what is meant by this word ‘misery’ is the man who was most likely the primary author of the Catechism, Zachariah Ursinus. In his explanation of the Catechism, he said that, “the misery of man… is his wretched condition since the fall, consisting of these two great evils: first, that human nature is depraved, sinful, and alienated from God, and secondly, that, on account of this depravity, mankind are exposed to eternal condemnation, and deserve to be rejected by God.”
Human nature is miserable because we humans have cut ourselves of from God by our sin. The human condition is miserable because man is a transgressor and, “the way of the transgressor is hard.”
The human condition is miserable because it deserves the judgment of God. The Catechism is merely repeating Scripture, “you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.” The human condition is miserable because man is depraved, sinful, alienated from God, a slave of Satan, and worthy of wrath.
Now, some people think that the Bible invents these problems only to solve them. Some people think that these categories of sin and guilt make us miserable rather than explaining our miserable condition. They see the categories of sin and guilt as weights that are heaped upon our backs thus making us miserable rather than findings on a cat-scan revealing the misery that is already there.
You need to decide what you believe on this matter. Is the human condition miserable because of sin and guilt or would a man be happier without ever considering sin and guilt?
If sin and guilt are real, you can’t make sense of yourself and the human condition without taking them into account. David Brooks has discovered that. Brooks is a journalist for the New York Times,and he has become much more friendly to the message of Scripture over the last few years. He wrote, “in truth ‘sin’… is one of those words that is impossible to do without… Sin is a necessary piece of our mental furniture because it reminds us that life is a moral affair… when modern culture tries to replace sin with ideas like error or insensitivity, or tries to banish words like ‘virtue,’ character,’ ‘evil,’ and ‘vice’ altogether, that doesn’t make life any less moral; it just means we have obscured the inescapable moral core of life with shallow language.”
We humans are moral creatures and our miserable condition is a moral matter. This morality is judged by the view of God. You discover what is wrong with you by submitting to the judgment of the law of God. As Paul said, “through the law we become conscious of our sin.”
The Bible tells you why life is not the way it is supposed to be; it is not the way it is supposed to be because Adam and Eve sinned and fell short of the glory of God. The law tells you what is wrong with you and what is wrong with you is that you have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
The law tells you what is wrong with humanity in general and what is wrong with you in particular and it does it by measuring you against the goodness of God. The law of God is a measuring stick to help you compare yourself with God. We don’t like to do this. We like to measure our own goodness by comparing ourselves with other people, particularly with people to whom we consider ourselves superior. The law forces you to measure yourself against God. The incarnation forces you to measure yourself against Jesus who was the only man to put the law into action perfectly.
You see the reality of your miserable condition not when you compare yourself with others but when you compare yourself with Jesus. Until a man compares himself with Jesus, he only knows a fraction of the extent of his miserable condition. When he does compare himself with Jesus, he is like Isaiah upon seeing the Lord, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.”
Now coming to know your misery is a gift. Knowing what is wrong with you is a gift. Ask anyone who was searched for years for a diagnosis. The Jews saw that the revelation of their sin by the law was a gift. Psalm 147 reads, “[God] has revealed His word to Jacob, His laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His laws. Praise the Lord.” The Psalmist didn’t say, “He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His laws. Lucky them.” He said, “He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His laws. Praise the Lord.”
If you want to know what life looks like without this revelation of what is wrong with us, listen to this Ancient Near East prayer. I’ve read it before, and I will read it again because it demonstrates the sorrow of a man who is miserable and has no idea why. “May the wrath of the heart of my god be pacified! May the god who is unknown to me be pacified! May the goddess who is unknown to me be pacified! May the known and unknown god be pacified! May the known and unknown goddess be pacified! The sin which I have committed I know not. The misdeed which I have committed I know not.”
Modern man asks the same questions, but he often asks them without reference to any god. He simply asks, ‘what in the world is wrong with me?’ The law of God will tell him what is wrong with him if only he will listen. Comparing himself with Jesus will tell him what is wrong with him if only he will meet him.
The culture in which we live is filled with people in a rather miserable condition. They distract themselves from this condition by hours upon hours watching the television and surfing the internet. They numb themselves to their miserable condition with drugs and alcohol. They find moments of ecstatic relief from their miserable condition in promiscuity. They try to minimize their misery by judging others in order to feel superior and perhaps worthy, if only for a moment. Their miserable condition remains and they don’t know why. The law tells them why.
Do you want to know what is wrong with you? Do you want to understand your miserable condition? The law of God will tell you. We see what the law says in our second point: the law tells you what is right to do.
You see mankind’s misery in the fact that man does not keep the law. The law as summarized by Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The human condition is miserable because man wants existence to revolve around him, but it will not; it revolves around God.
You see the misery of man’s lawbreaking when you contrast it with the blessedness of law keeping. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, not stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of mockers but his delight is the in the law of the Lord and on that law, he meditates day and night.”
You see that blessedness in Jesus. He loved the Lord his God with all his heart, all his soul, and all his strength. He loved his neighbor as himself. He is the only man to do so and it is worth noting that he is, without question, the most fascinating person in human history. Why is it that generation after generation of believers and unbelievers alike have been captivated by a Jewish carpenter living in Roman occupied Palestine? If you read the account of his life, you recognize that it is because he is what humanity was meant to be. I think that is obvious to anyone, but what isn’t so obvious to everyone is that what humanity is meant to be people who love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and strength and their neighbor as themselves. That isn’t obvious to everyone, which is why the law makes it obvious.
Jesus phrased the law in positive language. He told us what is to be done rather than what is not to be done. We tend to think about the law in terms of ‘thou shalt nots.’ Those are part of it, but that is not the essence of the law. The essence of the law is not phrased negatively but positively. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you do that, you will by definition avoid transgressing any of the prohibitions.
This positive phrasing of the law is much more comprehensive than the negative phrasing. It is much easier to avoid adultery than it is to love God with all you are. It is much easier to avoid killing you neighbor that it is to love your neighbor as yourself.
What is so remarkable about Jesus is not simply that he avoided every sin every day of his life. What is so remarkable about Jesus is that he loved the Lord his God with all his heart, all his soul, and all his strength every day of his life. What is so remarkable about Jesus is not merely that he never sinned against anyone but that he always loved others as himself. Law-keeping is compelling when this positive essence is understood. Metaxas is right, “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.”
People who love the law recognize that the law doesn’t merely tell you what is off-limits but rather that it describes how life was meant to be. This is why the Psalmist says, “how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.” “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law. I am a stranger on earth; do not hide Your commands from me. My soul is consumed with longing for Your laws at all times.” I hope you can say that.
The law tells us what is right, but part of knowing what is right is recognizing that you are in the wrong. It is right to love God with all you are, but you don’t. It is right to love your neighbor as yourself, but you don’t. The law reveals what is right and by doing so it reveals that you are in the wrong. This is why Paul wrote, ‘I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”’ You can say the same for any sin that you commit. You would have known its grievousness unless God had told you what is right.
By learning what is right, you learn that you are in the wrong. By watching Jesus love God with all he is, you recognize that you do not. There is something wrong with you that needs changing. We see that in our final point: your natural tendency needs changing.
By nature, you do not love God with all you are. By nature, you do not prefer others the way you prefer yourself. The Catechism phrases it this way, “I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.”
The apostle Paul said that people have a natural tendency to hate God. He wrote, “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”
Now you might be thinking that most of unbelieving people whom you know don’t seem actively hostile to God. They are rather decent people. They want what is best for their children. They seek to be responsible at work. They are, in every way, respectable. Let me grant you that, but now ask yourself what happens when this respectable world encounters God. John described such encounter. He wrote that, “[God] was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” Not only did they not receive him, they crucified him. Respectable people crucified Jesus. Decent people crucified Jesus. There is a natural tendency to hate God and the incarnation and treatment of Jesus of Nazareth is proof. If the unregenerate man met God, he would not think highly of him. He would do all he could to escape from Him or kill Him.
The man without God is hostile to God because he prefers himself to God. That man has one appraisal of his own righteousness and God’s law gives an entirely different appraisal. That man has one assessment of what he deserves and God has a radically different assessment of what that man deserves. That man is a lover of himself and God calls him to deny himself. Man hates God because God is God and that man is not.
By nature, you have that tendency. Part of repentance is acknowledging that tendency. You also have a natural tendency to hate others. “I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor,” as the Catechism puts it.
Now, you probably aren’t actively seeking to harm your neighbor, but you do prefer yourself to your neighbor. You are prejudiced towards yourself over and against your neighbor. You have to be told to love your neighbor as yourself because, by nature, you do not do that. You have to be told to do unto others as you would have them do unto you because, by nature, you do not do that.
What Paul said was true of him by nature has been true of you, “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.”
Now you might be thinking those words have never applied to you. You might be thinking that you don’t have a natural tendency to hate others. You think that because you are comparing yourself with others whose hatred is more obvious. You are comparing yourself with a murderer. Compare yourself with Jesus. Do you love others the way in which the gospels portray Jesus’ love for others? I dare say that none of us would be willing to say that we do. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
None of us understand how little we love others. I remember talking with some missionary friends who said, “we didn’t understand how hard it was to love until we moved to Africa to try.” We humans speak very cheaply about love. We are, in fact, rather indifferent about our own indifference towards others. That is our natural tendency to hate others.
The Catechism describes this condition to us not to leave us is our misery because this condition can be changed. It lays out the bad news in preparation for the good news, that is the gospel. The good news is that you can have a new nature. You can have a new condition.
The Christian religion is not about reforming people. It is about the rebirth of people. As God said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
You can want to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength. You can want to love your neighbor as yourself.
If you haven’t been born again, you need to stop trying to reform yourself by your own power. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and if anyone in history could have ever reformed their nature, it was the Pharisees. They knew the tendency to hate God and they arranged their whole lives around fighting against it. They knew the tendency to hate others and they arranged their whole lives around fighting against it. Jesus said it wasn’t enough. He said, “truly I tell you, no man can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
If you are trying to reform yourself to avoid judgment, listen, “truly I tell you, no man can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” You need a miracle. Ask God for it.
If you have experienced that miracle, recognize that although you are no longer enslaved to this tendency to hate God and others, you still are tempted by it. David Brainerd was a missionary to the Native Americans, and he recognized that indwelling sin. He wrote the following in his diary which he never expected anyone to read. He wrote, “I longed to be perfectly holy, that I might not grieve a gracious God; who will continue to love, notwithstanding His love is abused! I longed for holiness more for this end, than I did for my own happiness’ sake: and yet this was my greatest happiness, never more to dishonor, but always to glorify, the blessed God.” The born-again man longs for complete deliverance from the misery of sin.
Now you have no choice of whether the bad news is true when it comes to you. By nature, you have this condition, “the misery of man… is his wretched condition since the fall, consisting of these two great evils: first, that human nature is depraved, sinful, and alienated from God, and secondly, that, on account of this depravity, mankind are exposed to eternal condemnation, and deserve to be rejected by God.” The question is whether the good news is true when it comes to you. “I am not ashamed of the gospel,” said Paul, “because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.” Amen.