Making the Connection

What is the law connection of the law and the gospel? What is the connection between works and

faith? What is the connection of God who gave us the Ten Commandments and God dying on the

cross for you and I? Those questions can be difficult to understand sometimes- but before we can

your words, I understood your love.” Babies learn they are loved when they make the connection

that the care they receive from their mother is love.

Then one day- the mother tells her toddler not to touch the hot stove. She is laying down the law.

And if they touch it and get burned they begin to understand cause and effect. But more

importantly, hopefully they begin to make the connection that whatever their mom tells them not

to do- it is for their safety, spoken in love for them. Because of that, they should listen and obey-

something that sometimes gets harder to do as a teenager.

In the reading from Deuteronomy this morning we hear God laying out to the nation of Israel the

law of cause and effect. “when you obey the Lord by observing the commandments- then you

will be blessed- in fact it is his delight to prosper you.” In contrast, he warns us of what will

But there is a danger of focusing only on God’s laws and principles as a way to be blessed- as if

we can manipulate God into getting what we want. Every good and perfect gift comes down

from God. Our Father takes delight in blessing us. At Christmas we take great delight in picking

out that perfect gift for our children and spouse. We want them to love the gifts we give them-

but we want them to understand and make the connection that the gift we have given was

because of our love for them. And when they make the connection- they drop the gift and run

over to you to thank you- and shower you with hugs and kisses. It should be no different with

God.

One day a lawyer stood up to test Jesus and asked him: “what must I do to be saved?” Here was

a man who took the law seriously. He had made it his life work to know the law and what was

required. He no doubt had studied the passage from Deuteronomy and understood cause and

effect- if I obey the law, I will be blessed- if I don’t, I will get punished. I’m not sure what his

motive was in testing Jesus- whether it was to see if Jesus knew as much as he- or to learn from

Jesus. Either way- anytime we ask Jesus a question- it is we who learn.

Jesus threw it back to him-“you are a student of the law- what does it say?” He knew

immediately. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and

forgive each other- and so we break up fights and demand they tell each other they are sorry- and

they go through the motions and hug and say they are sorry-even though we can tell they aren’t-

and so we take it the next step further and tell them to say it like they mean it. No law can make a

person feel sorry. A contrite heart happens when our hearts make a connection with God’s heart.

Writing to the Corinthians, Paul made the statement that the written code kills- but the Spirit

gives life. Centuries before that, God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah saying: “this is the

covenant I will make with the people of Israel- I will put my law in their minds and write it on

their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their

neighbor, or say to one another- know the Lord-because they will all know me- from the least of

them to the greatest.”

on the other side. And then a Levite came along and did the same thing. They were respected

people in the community- learned people who supposedly knew the right thing to do- and yet

they rationalized their actions for not helping by reason of the law. They had not made the

connection between the law and what the law is summarized to be- that of loving God with all

your heart, soul and mind and your neighbor as yourself.

And then a Samaritan came along-seen as an outcast of the Jews- someone they thought

understood and knew little of the law- and yet it was the Samaritan who saw the man lying there

and was compelled to help. And why? Because the law had been written on his heart-and seeing

the man lying alongside the road, he could not help but help him.

God loved us first. He has always loved us. God sent Jesus to fulfill the law- not only the

outward requirements, but He came to show us what it meant to fulfill the law written on his

heart.

We are not saved by the law. We are not saved by being good people or by helping others and

being good citizens. We are saved by grace through faith-and we have nothing to boast about but

Christ in us- the hope of glory. And then we read James telling us that faith without works is

the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who

comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any

affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

The list is long- unending in fact. We are loved by God- and having made the connection that we

are loved by God, we are moved to love others. Because we have received mercy from God- we

learn to be merciful to others. Because we have been forgiven by God- we are able to forgive

others. Because God has shown us His grace as a way of salvation, but also a way to live- we are

able to share grace with others.

Jesus said: “I am the vine and you are the branches- apart from me you can do nothing.” May we

make the connection of the truth of those words to our daily life. To God be the glory- Amen.