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Oh, my 'Boys....
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I never received the sermon today, so I spent some time with Walther. Before moving on, I confess, I read through the first eight lectures again, savoring the words, repeating those Law and Gospel distinction pieces that I need ever so much to burn within my heart. Work quickly Lord Jesus! Then I turned to the Ninth Evening Lecture, which begins with Walther's 5th Thesis:
The first manner of confounding Law and Gospel is the one most easily recognized--and the grossest. It is adopted, for instance, by Papists, Socinians, and Rationalists and consists in this, that Christ is represented as a new Moses, or Lawgiver, and the Gospel turned into a doctrine of meritorious works, while at the same time those who teach that the Gospel is the message of the free grace of God in Christ are condemned and anathematized, as done by the papists. (The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, 69)
Oh, my, did I find this lecture fascinating!
Just yesterday, Pastor plucked the no end runs around Christ graphic from his bible and emphatically waved it in my face, for I was lamenting the wrath I know I invoke in God. Walther begins this lecture examining what the Gospel is: both good news and the only work needed. Where did he start? Genesis 3:15!
It [the Woman's Seed] shall bruise thy head."
What is the import of these words? It is this: The Messiah, the Redeemer, the Savior is not come for the purpose of telling us what we are to do, what works we are to perform in order to escape from the terrible dominion of darkness, sin, and death. These feats the Messiah is not going to leave for us to accomplish, but He will do all that himself. "He shall bruise the serpent's head," that means nothing else than this, that He shall destroy the kingdom of the devil. All that man has to do is know that he has been redeemed, that he has been set free from his prison, that he has no more to do that to believe and accept this message and rejoice over it with all his heart ...."Now that the rule of the devil has been destroyed, anything that I must do cannot come into consideration" ...This is what Scripture means when it says, "Believe." That means, Claim as your own what Christ has acquired. (70-71)
My goodness, I could spend a year just thinking about the jewels in this passage: These feats the Messiah is not going to leave for us to accomplish...all that man has to do is know that he has been redeemed...Claim as your own what Christ has acquired. And then the glorious idea that the Gospel began in Genesis 3:15, not John 1:1. Good stuff there!
Walther further extends the meaning of the Gospel by using a passage from Jeremiah to emphasize how it is that Jesus is not merely the new Moses.
Many additional prophecies might be cited to prove the correctness of this interpretation. Let me call your attention only to one, which shows clearly what the doctrine of the Gospel really is. Jer, 31-34 we read: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which My covenant they brake, although I was an Husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My Law in their inwards parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
A new covenant, then, God is going to make. Note this well. This covenant is not to be a legal covenant like the one which He established with Israel on Mount Sinai. The Messiah will not say: "You must be people of such and such character; your manner of living must be after this or that fashion; you must do such and such works." No such doctrine will be introduced by the Messiah. He writes His Law directly into the heart, so that a person living under Him is a law unto himself. He is not coerced by a force from without, but is urged from within. "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more," --these words state the reason for the preceding statement. They are a summary of Gospel of Christ: forgiveness of sin by the free grace of God, for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Any one, therefore, imagining that Christ is a new Lawgiver and has brought us new laws cancels the entire Christian religion. For he removes that by which the Christian religion differs from all other religions in the world. All other religions say to man: "You must become just so and so and do such and such works if you wish to go to heaven." Over against this the Christian religion says: "You are a lost and condemned sinner; you cannot be your own Savior. But do not despair on that account. There is One who has acquired salvation for you. Christ has opened the portals of heaven to you and says to you: Come, for all things are ready. Come to the marriage of the Lamb."
That is the reason, too, why Christ says, "I heal the sick, not them that are whole. I am come to seek and save that which was lost. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." (71,72) [paragraph breaks and emphasis mine]
Some things you should note in the passage above:
- a new covenant, not legal, not a new law
- a new covenant, something completely different than that which God had established
- no character...even the harlot!
- no manner of living...no specific food or dress or religious activity!
- no work...nothing, nada, zilch!
- come for the sick
- come for the lost
- come for the sinners
That last bit reminds me of something Pastor told me a while ago in my lessoning that I spent some time reflecting upon Friday. I had received a new journal and decided to combine the notes in two small spiral notebooks (remember I lost one for a while) from his bible studies and lessonings into the new journal. Basically, I reviewed all the notes I have had from his teaching over nearly five years.
The opposite of not sinning is not not sinning, because we cannot not sin. The opposite of not sinning is repentance.
We were in the 1st petition of the Lord's Prayer, hallowed be Thy name, which we pray that we might use His name rightly, as commanded in the 2nd Commandment, by which we can honor Him. We use His name rightly by calling upon Him in every need; we use His name well when we pray, praise, and give thanks. The honor we gain is not gained by our work but by the work He is doing in us.
We repent because we know our sin--we are grieved by it. We grieve because we fear and love and trust God. Yet we only fear and love and trust because of the faith given to us, by a work not done by us but by Christ. Thus, again, the Gospel, the new covenant is no law; it is a free gift.
I heal the sick, not them that are whole. I am come to seek and save that which was lost. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.
Christ is not asking us to not sin because that is simply impossible. We strive to honor him with our lives, our words, our actions. We strive to be loving, kind, gentle, peaceful... We strive because He lives in us, working His will. Not us. Never us. Us is flesh soiled by sin we can never escape this side of the veil.
John says in his gospel, chapter 1,17: The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He places the Law over against grace and truth. I need not explain what grace is. When John speaks of the "truth" that has come, he views Jesus as saying: "I teach the essence of the things which were foreshadowed in the Old Testament. The Old Testament presented emblems; I bring realities." The entire Temple-service of the Levites was figurative. Christ actually brought what was typified in the Old Testament. (72-73)
I really like this because it helps me, again, think about the lessoning I have had in the nooner bible study. At one point, Pastor talked about how the life of the Old Testament is a life that revolved around blood, around sacrifices. Until he talked about how the priests would literally kill the lamb that figuratively had had sin placed upon it, I had not really grasped, taken in, the wholeness of Christ as the Lamb of God. Strange I know. It was Hebrew to me, something that I spoke without understanding the meaning.
Christ the Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world have mercy upon us.
Christ the Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world have mercy upon us.
Christ the Lamb of God that grant us thy peace.
Amen.
Oh, how I love having Pastor sing the Agnus Dei as a prayer over me!
I like Walther's word choice: emblems. Emblems are only and merely representative. The temple-service was emblematic because it could fulfill the law, not wholly. Satisfaction could never be rendered completely. Always, always another sacrifice was needed. Each day, sin needed to be covered again. Sin permeates our lives, clings to all that we are and all that we do. Sort of changes being washed in the blood, eh? All of us, every part of our life, needs to be cleansed, not just those less-than-perfect times we admit to others or to ourselves.
In chap. 3,17 the same apostle says: God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that that the world through Him might be saved. Quite plainly the thought that Christ came into the world to proclaim a new law is barred here. Had that been His object, He would have come to judge the world. For the Law passes judgment on sinners. However, God did not send his Son to pass judgment on the world, but to save the world through Him. By the term world the Lord refers to mankind in its apostate and lost condition, to the lost, accursed, and condemned sinners that make up the world. To these the Savior brings this blessed doctrine: "Though you have broken every commandment of God, do not despair; I am bringing you forgiveness and salvation here and hereafter." (73)
Walther's emphasis here on judgment verses forgiveness is the base drum beating the idea that there is no Law in Gospel. If there were, it could not be Gospel!
A friend's sister keeps the Sabbath, from Friday evening to Saturday evening, she lives essentially as a Jew, though she is a Christian. She is living the Law, believing it is a work that is pleasing to God. But by living it she is calling Christ a liar; she is denouncing His Gospel and claiming His passion and death insufficient.
Now, lest you think I am harsh in saying that about her sister, I admit that I do the same most every day, placing myself beneath the Law once more, falling back into the idea of works, despairing of my sin, sure that I have drawn His wrath, that He finds me a stiff-necked wretch, a stench in His nostrils. You have read such falseness here in the emotions and fears and struggles I've poured out here. Regularly, I forget the Cross is not set in time, does not rest 2,000 years ago. No, the cross is today, tomorrow, and always.
I am baptized! I am forgiven!
Lord I believe. Help my unbelief!
In sundry other places of their confessions [papists] [and Protestants] they explain their meaning more fully thus: Many laws were uttered by Christ of which Moses knows nothing; for instance, the law to love our enemies, the law not to seek private revenge, the law not to demand back what has been taken from us, etc. All these matters the papists [and Protestants] declare to be "new laws." This is wrong; for even Moses has said: "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might," Deut. 6,5; and: "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself," Lev. 19,18. Now, Christ did not abrogate this law of Moses, but neighbor did He publish any new laws. He only opened up the spiritual meaning of the Law. Accordingly, He says in Matt. 5, 17: "Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." That means that He did not come to issue new laws, but to fulfill the Law for us, so that we may share His fulfillment. (73-74)
Christ did not come, did not live imprisoned in our flesh, did not endure devil's temptation, did not walk about teaching, did not offer Himself as a lamb, did not suffer His passion, did not die, did not descend into Hell, did not rise again for us to live a purpose driven life or to be a promise keeper or whatever rubric any man has or will come up with for us to achieve sanctification. Christ came because we cannot. Christ came so that we might receive what He could.
Claim as your own what Christ has required.
Share His fulfillment.
Receive His forgiveness.
Quit Sinai, Myrtle. Go to Golgotha! True, the world labels you one way, which you cannot escape, but Jesus does not. Live with the former, but remember the latter, too!
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