The beauty of the Law of God is that you can attempt to preach it to its full extent and still not even be close to articulating its demands. The Law is that comprehensive and demanding. Even the most fiery preacher cannot scrape the surface of its requirements. Nowhere are the Laws' demands more exacting than when it comes to our words. Jesus said that the Law requires that we account for EVERY careless word (Mt 12). The average person would fill up 140 two hundred page books per year with his words. The average man speaks 2.5 million words and the average woman speaks 7 million words per year. Jesus said that we will account for every single one of those millions of words. Who can measure up? No one. The gossip can't measure up. The extroverted talker can't measure up. The introverted thinker can't measure up (he thinks his words which is the same thing as saying the words or even worse according to Jesus). The first century Pharisee, with all his law-following didn't and couldn't measure up. No one can measure up. And it isn't that we miss the mark by just a little bit. Mother Theresa missed by a lot with her thoughts and words. Billy Graham missed by a lot with his thoughts and his words. The Apostle Paul said he missed by a lot...that he was the chief of sinners. He even carried a secret to his grave that may have been a sin struggle...the thorn in his side. The Law makes demands but it doesn't give us the power to carry out the demands.
But thanks be to God that the Law was not God's final word! While the Law says, "do it and live" the Gospel, God's second and final word, says, "I did it for you...it is done!" While the Law makes demands, the Gospel provides deliverance. How does the Gospel apply to our millions of words? The Gospel tells us that every word that Jesus spoke was credited to us...it was as if we spoke Jesus' words (2 Cor 5: 21)! The Gospel is that every careless word we spoke, speak, and will speak was taken up by Jesus in his body on the cross (I Peter 2: 24). This is what Martin Luther called the Great Exchange...we get his righteousness, he gets our sin. Instead of having the status of being a convicted criminal awaiting terrible sentencing we become an heir who inherits an eternal estate. Jesus takes on himself our careless and cruel words and we get the beauty of his words as if we had spoken them. Jesus died for people who are careless with their words and for gossips and for those who think lousy gossipy thoughts because those are the only kinds of people there are.
Here is the irony...when we live out of that freedom, loving, kind, gentle, and encouraging words will flow from our hearts of gratitude. Ironically, it is freedom from the Law (Acts 15: 10, Romans 6: 14, 7: 6, 10: 4, Eph 4: 14) and reliance on grace that leads to a transformed life. Even more ironic is that the more the person who lives under grace "improves" the more aware the person under grace sees how far they have yet to go. Therefore, grace produces fruit that is not attainable under Law, but it also produces humility and awe of Jesus.
"Therefore, my dear brother, learn Christ and him crucified. Learn to pray to him and despairing of yourself, say: "Thou, Lord Jesus, art my righteousness, but I am thy sin. Thou hast taken upon thyself what is mine and hast given to me what is thine. Thou has taken upon thyself what thou wast not and hast given to me what I was not." --Martin Luther on the Great Exchange
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