The high price of admission into God’s kingdom

Sermon for Trinity 6

Romans 6:3-11  +  Matthew 5:20-26

Whether or not a person believes in God, or in the existence of the human soul, everyone, and I mean everyone, is aware of the common problem that plagues humanity. Our common problem is death. And everyone, by nature, also has a sneaking suspicion, deep down in their hearts, that God does exist, and that the soul does exist and that, after our bodies stop working, we will have to answer to God. Atheists deny all that, of course, claiming that neither God nor the soul exists and that everything just comes to an end when we die. Agnostics claim not to know about God or the soul, claim that such things are unknowable. But for the rest of humanity, those who are not so foolish as to deny God’s existence, the question has always been, what is required for the soul (and possibly even the body) to escape torment after death and to be allowed into the kingdom or the realm of God the Creator, to live in blessedness and happiness with Him in His kingdom? In other words, what’s the price of admission?

Most of humanity, for thousands of years, has had a basic answer to that question. Do these or those good works. Offer this or that sacrifice. Be good. Work hard. And God will let you into His kingdom. Even some who call themselves Christians mimic that basic answer. There’s a phrase in a song of the famous country artist Alan Jackson that’s always made me cringe. There’s a lot of “workin’ hard to get to heaven, where I come from.” That about summarizes it. You gotta work hard to get to heaven. Right?

The great Lutheran professor and author Philip Melanchthon wrote about that basic human answer in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, where he refers to it as an “opinion of the Law”: Works, he writes, are recognizable among human beings. Human reason naturally admires works. Reason sees only works and does not understand or consider faith. Therefore, it dreams that these works merit forgiveness of sins and that they justify. This opinion of the Law naturally sticks in people’s minds. It cannot be driven out, unless we are divinely taught.

Thank God, we are divinely taught today in the Gospel as Jesus opens His mouth and preaches the Sermon on the Mount. Ironically, He doesn’t tell His disciples at that time what the answer to the question is, how can we enter the kingdom of God? But He does slam the door on any notion of workin’ hard to get to heaven. I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

We see part of an answer there. You have to have a righteousness that exceeds, that goes beyond, the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Well, what was their righteousness like? It was externally flawless. No one worked harder than they did to get to heaven. But according to Jesus, being externally flawless just isn’t good enough. No, the price of admission into God’s kingdom is higher than that.

What do You mean, Jesus? Well, He explains what He means in the next words. You have heard that it was said to men of old, ‘You shall not murder,’ and, ‘Whoever murders will be subject to judgment. He’s quoting the Fifth Commandment, of course. Most people agree that murderers are not righteous enough to get to heaven, but most people also are under the impression that they aren’t murderers, because most people haven’t actually taken the life of another human being. Oh, is that what you thought?, Jesus implies, that you aren’t murderers? That you haven’t broken the Fifth Commandment? That you’re righteous?

No, He says, there are other ways to break the Fifth Commandment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without cause will be subject to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be subject to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire. Murder is an outward sin that will get you condemned in the judgment of both God and man. Man’s judgment may possibly also have some condemnation for certain slanderous or insulting words that are spoken. But man’s judgment can’t condemn you for the anger or hatred that comes up out of your heart, while God’s judgment can and will condemn you for it. Hellfire is the opposite of being admitted into God’s kingdom.

So the commandments imply much more than the big outward sins that they forbid or the big outward good works that they require. Jesus goes on after our Gospel to treat the Sixth Commandment in the same way: You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. The same application can be made to the Fourth Commandment, and to the Seventh, and the Eighth. The Ninth and Tenth Commandments make it absolutely clear that sins of the heart are just as much condemned by God as sins of the hand, because coveting is, by definition, a sin of the heart. And Moses explicitly commanded the people of Israel about both sins of the heart and good works of the heart: You shall not hate your brother in your heart…, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

And if unrighteous thoughts, words, and deeds against one’s brother or against one’s neighbor prevent a person from entering the kingdom of God, you’d better believe that sinful thoughts, words, and deeds that are directly against God do the same thing. The first three commandments also must be obeyed, even as we’re beginning our focus on the Ten Commandments this morning with the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. In short, to be righteous enough before God to enter His kingdom, you have to be perfectly righteous on the inside and on the outside, toward God and toward your neighbor. That is the high price of admission into God’s kingdom. Anything short of it, and there is no kingdom of heaven for the soul, or the body. Only eternal death and hellfire.

But “all have fallen short,” says the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 3. So how can anyone enter the kingdom of heaven? How can anyone afford the price of admission? The Christian answer is: You have to die. You have to die, and then, somehow, you have to come back to life and enter the kingdom of heaven as a perfect person, as a truly righteous person, inside and out. And God, in His mercy, has provided a way for all people to die and to live again in righteousness.

That way is Holy Baptism. As Jesus Himself told Nicodemus, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a person is born again, of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Being born again means that the person you were had to die. That death and rebirth are exactly what St. Paul points to in today’s Epistle: Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? So, then, we were buried with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we, too, should walk in a new life.

Holy Baptism is God’s answer to man’s unrighteousness. In order to live eternally, you either have to be righteous, or you have to be counted as righteous through faith in Christ Jesus. He truly is the Righteous One. He provided perfect obedience to God’s commandments, inside and out, for all mankind, and He paid the righteous price for the unrighteousness of all mankind with His death on the cross. Baptism, combined with faith, is what unites unrighteous sinners to the righteous Lord Jesus, and in this way God has promised to count the baptized as righteous in His sight. The high price of admission into God’s kingdom has been paid by Jesus for everyone. To be baptized and to believe is to use that payment made by Jesus to enter God’s kingdom even now, before you die, so that when your body dies, your soul is already there in His kingdom.

But we shouldn’t imagine that, since God has already counted believers in Christ to be righteous through faith, He is no longer concerned about your thoughts, words, and deeds, your attitudes and your behavior. We shouldn’t imagine that God doesn’t care whether or not you murder, whether or not you hate or burn with anger, whether or not you say cruel and hurtful words to your neighbor, and especially to your brother, to your fellow Christian. He certainly does! As we confess about Baptism in the Small Catechism, baptizing with water signifies that the Old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die, with all sins and evil desires, and that a New Man, in turn, should daily emerge and arise, to live forever before God in righteousness and purity.

Christ fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law for us, so that we don’t have to pay our own price of admission into God’s kingdom. But those who have died with Christ to sin, those who will live with Him forever in perfect righteousness and holiness in heaven—how can we serve sin now? If we died with Christ to hatred and unjust anger, to nastiness and bitterness and pride, how can we continue to live with those things?

No, God has united us with His Son Jesus and has given His Holy Spirit to live within us, so that we should walk in a new life, a new life of obedience, a new life of righteousness. By daily contrition and repentance, we bury those sins, again and again. And each day we determine to rise again, to live according to the New Man, to count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God. Just because we aren’t working hard to get to heaven doesn’t mean that we don’t have to work hard to live as God has called us to live. The one who seeks to enter God’s kingdom through faith alone in Christ works harder at keeping God’s commandments than the one who is trying to buy a place in heaven with his works, because we are working in the service of the God who loved us and gave His Son for us. We are working in the service of the God whose favor has already been won for us by Jesus, the God whom we love because He first loved us. No one trying to pay his own way into heaven, or even part of his own way, can love God like that. But those who trust in Jesus have the assurance of being counted righteous even now, through faith, so we have a real motivation and real power to live for God every day until we meet our Maker.

And we will meet Him. There is a God, and there is a soul. There is an eternal death and torment for the unrighteous and an eternal life of true happiness for the righteous. Turn away from the “opinion of the Law” that seeks to work hard to get to heaven, and trust in Christ for the righteousness that counts before God, which He will share with you for free. Then work hard, not to get to heaven, but as a child of heaven. With such a life your Father will be well-pleased, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.