For God does not deal, nor has he ever dealt, with man otherwise than through a word of promise, as I have said. We in turn cannot deal with God otherwise than through faith in the Word of his promise. He does not desire works, nor has he need of them; rather we deal with men and with ourselves on the basis of works. But God has need of this: that we consider him faithful in his promises [Heb. 10:23], and patiently persist in this belief, and thus worship him with faith, hope, and love.
This is sort of along the lines of Walther's teaching about the means of grace, in that God desires to deal with us, to treat with us, to dialogue with us through the Word...spoken, written, visible, invisible, Lived.
More and more I marvel at the Bible, the Living Word, that God has given us. Despite the many times I have been through the Book of Psalms in the near year that has passed since I took my first tentative steps down the path of praying the Psalter, the Word in this portion of Scripture remains ever new, ever fresh. All over the place, in every Psalm, there is at least one bit that are the very words of my heart at the very moment I am praying them.
Sometimes, I need others to pray them for me. So much to I long for them to be true. So deeply ashamed am I at my own sin and unbelief.
Call me and ask me what I would like to do...well, most likely I will want to play a game or watch a movie or both at the same time, but I will also want to add in singing a hymn or two and praying a few Psalms...oh, and reading aloud some scripture...perhaps a bit from the Book of Concord. I would never dare ask if we could read Walther, too, but I would not be above reminding you of some portion I've savored. Yes...I am VERY greedy about the Gospel and yet I still want to work in that game of Rumikub or that episode of Stargate SG1. SIGH.
I would have thought the Psalter might become old hat to me, having prayed it so much, but it has not. It has not for I know what I will find as I read: God speaking to me; Christ speaking for me.
It is no secret that I stink at understanding and clinging to the promises of God. Granted, it has only been a short while in which I have been instructed that there are very many promises of God. I have come to understand the Lutheran approach to promise is: God said...and it must be so. But, to my great sorrow, I have not yet learned to see those promises, most of the time, unless they are pointed out to me.
Come to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28)... I read those words and immediately start thinking about how I struggle to find rest in Christ, to be comforted beneath His wings. But these words are not a command, not a work at which I am failing, but a promise.
Remember what Brother Goose wrote: "You will be my witnesses." That's not a command. It's a promise.
It is easier for me to see those promises in the Psalter: He will call upon me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him, and honor him (Psalm 91:15). Not I might answer him or I will consider answering him, but I will answer him. SIGH.
While I need to learn of the promises of God, more still do I need to learn of the Promise of God, of Christ crucified and all that means for me.
Luther has a great big for me later on in this piece as he also expounds upon the signs God gives us, as surety of His promise, in the means of grace He bestows upon us.
I was right then in saying that the whole power of the mass [the Lord's Supper] consists in the words of Christ, in which he testifies that forgiveness of sins is bestowed on all those who believe that his body is given and his blood poured out for them. This is why nothing is more important for those who go to hear mass than to ponder these words diligently and in full faith. Unless they do this, all else that they do is in vain. This is surely true, that to every promise of his, God usually adds some sign as a memorial or remembrance of the promise, so that thereby we may serve him the more diligently and he may admonish us the more effectually. Thus, when he promised Noah that he would not again destroy the world by a flood, he added his bow in the clouds, to show that he would be mindful of his covenant [Gen. 9:8–17]. And after promising Abraham the inheritance in his seed, he gave him circumcision as a mark of his justification by faith [Gen. 17:3–11]. Thus he granted to Gideon the dry and the wet fleece to confirm his promise of victory over the Midianites [Judg. 6:36–40]. And through Isaiah he offered to Ahaz a sign that he would conquer the king of Syria and Samaria, to confirm in him his faith in the promise [Isa. 7:10–17]. And we read of many such signs of the promises of God in the Scriptures.
So in the mass also, the foremost promise of all, he adds as a memorial sign of such a great promise his own body and his own blood in the bread and wine, when he says: “Do this in remembrance of me” [Luke 22:19; I Cor. 11:24–25]. And so in baptism, to the words of promise he adds the sign of immersion in water. We may learn from this that in every promise of God two things are presented to us, the word and the sign, so that we are to understand the word to be the testament, but the sign to be the sacrament. Thus, in the mass, the word of Christ is the testament, and the bread and wine are the sacrament. And as there is greater power in the word than in the sign, so there is greater power in the testament than in the sacrament; for a man can have and use the word or testament apart from the sign or sacrament. “Believe,” says Augustine, “and you have eaten.”89 But what does one believe, other than the word of the one who promises? Therefore I can hold mass every day, indeed, every hour, for I can set the words of Christ before me and with them feed and strengthen my faith as often as I choose. This is a truly spiritual eating and drinking.
[Luther, Martin: Pelikan, Jaroslav Jan (Hrsg.) ; Oswald, Hilton C. (Hrsg.) ; Lehmann, Helmut T. (Hrsg.): Luther's Works, Vol. 36 : Word and Sacrament II. Philadelphia : Fortress Press, 1999, c1959 (Luther's Works 36), S. 36:III-44]
Never more has one of my all time favorite passages of scripture meant more to me as I ponder the depths of "every spiritual blessing":
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. ~ Ephesians 1:3-14
Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!
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