Scattered thoughts from my latest reading, yet most of my thoughts of late are scattered. Scattered and yet full of glimpses of the sweet, sweet Gospel.
I left off the with Jesus withdrawing to the sea of Galilee, just before He choose out His disciples and climbed a mountain. Ah, that sermon!
However, before that I read of Matthew citing Isaiah 42:1-4. Such a beautiful passage, though I understand not the second verse about not anyone hearing His voice in the street. But something that struck me is in it God calls Jesus His beloved. And yet, somehow, I, too, am His beloved. Oh, how can that possibly be?? I, the sinner? I, who struggles mightily with despair and doubt? The answer is that this is another example of how God seems me through faith, through the obedience of Christ, His perfection!
When I finally came to my official reading of the sermon on the mount, into which I dabbled before, the very first bit I noticed was Luke 6:17. Jesus climbed a mountain and stood on a level place. A level place. Sure footing again. Again, the words of the Psalter about a smooth path, sure footing, a level place sprain to mind again. And again I marveled that, to me, it seems as if Jesus is our smooth path, our sure footing, our level place! Am I strange that I hunger so to start from the beginning of the Psalter again and circle each and every cry for or thanksgiving for a smooth path, smooth footing, a level place.
Somewhere in the Psalter is a verse I need to find again where the psalmist is kept from stumbling by angels lifting him up. It is highlighted, but so much is highlighted in all of my copies of the Bible with regard the to Psalter--at least it is now--that finding verses I know are in there by highlights is no longer easy.
It puzzles me at times, that those prayers are such a complex mixture of doubt and despair and an unshakable certitude. Of course, is that not the epitome of the old Adam and the new Adam both living within the petitioner, within the penitent?
I wrote about how the beatitudes are not attitudes marking proper Christian living but who we are in Christ. They are the To Be of Christ that we are because we are in Him. Mind the verbs, Myrtle. They are not yours, but Christ's.
Matthew 5:13-16 still puzzles me, makes me yearn deeply for a proper lessoning on that bit. As I wrote before, from the Psalter's references to light, I suspect that this is another part of who we are in Christ. We are salty. We are light. These are not evidence of our faith for which we are to strive or earn as evidence of our faithfulness. They are.
Perhaps it is another coin. One side is our Triune God. The other is believers. One side I am. The other side you are. Only, really, if you think about it, no matter the speaker, the words are the same: I am. Is that not what Luther teaches us to fling back at our foe when he is accusing us? Yes, I am a sinner, but I am baptized. End of discussion you lout!
I could be wrong, but Matthew 5:16 could be my first encounter (in this reading) of "good works." Of that I note that the verse tells us to let our light shine in such a way that others see our good works AND give glory to God. Hmm. Good works doesn't seem to be about sanctification, here, but rather glorifying God the Father. God the Father who care for His creation, provides for His beloveds.
The parallel version continues on with just Matthew for a bit. For now, I wanted to finish with Matthew 5:17-20.
"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Fo truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scries and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven."
Verse 18 caught my eye. At first, I puzzled over how the Law is still in effect if it is fulfilled. When speaking this, of course, Jesus had not yet died for our sins. He had not yet been the perfect lamb, the sacrifice that finally fulfilled the Law. Much puzzling, wondering what this could mean. I would have thought this verse would have had something about until the temple is destroyed and raised up again in three days, rather than until heaven and earth pass away. The earth is still here! Yet the Law is fulfilled. Why, then, has it not been accomplished? Did Jesus not proclaim on the cross, "It is finished"?
Yes, it is finished. The Law is fulfilled. Its wrath and judgement no longer falls upon those who have received the faith of Jesus Christ. However, mankind is not finished, is it? My forgiveness is not finished, for I daily sin. Thus, Luther reminds us that we are daily and richly forgiven.
Remember what I wrote about the paralytic? Jesus asked those watching if it would be easier to say "you are forgiven" or "rise and take up your palette and go." I noted there the verb To Be with regard to forgiveness. We are forgiven. Each day we are forgiven. Does that also mean that, in a sense, the Law is being fulfilled each day as well?
Creation is still ensnared by sin. The Law still applies. Thus, for each one of God's created, the Law must be fulfilled. It was. It is. It will be. The Promise was coming. The Promise came. The Promise comes again.
I wonder if, when Jesus says that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, those are merely two spots in time or if He saying that He is the whole, from the beginning until the end. After all, I read in John 1 that all things come into being through Jesus and nothing has come into being that has come into being except through Him. In a way, Acts 17:24-28 (verse 28 being a favorite of mine) mirrors this.
I suppose all this is to say that I had in my mind somewhere that the Law was finished. Yet here I learn that it is not. And here the following bit from the Book of Concord, the tenses within it make much more sense to me.
The Law indeed says it is God's will and command that we should walk in a new life. But it does not give the power and ability to begin and to do it. The Holy Spirit renews the heart. He is given and received, not through the Law, but through the preaching of the Gospel. Thereafter, the Holy Spirit uses the Law in order to teach the regenerate from it and to point out and show them in the Ten Commandments what is the "will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2) in what "good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk" (Ephesians 2:10). He encourages them to this. When they are idle, negligent and rebellious in this mater because of the flesh, He rebukes them through the Law. So the Spirit carries out both offices together: He slays and makes alive. He leads into hell and brings up again. For His office is not only to comfort, but also to rebuke. For it is written, "when [the Holy Spirit] comes, He will convict the world [which includes also the old Adam] concerning sin and righteousness and judgment" (John 16:8). Sin is everything that is contrary to God's Law. St. Paul says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof" (2 Timothy 3:16), and to rebuke is the Law's special office. Therefore, as often as believers stumble, they are rebuked by the Holy Spirit from the Law. By the same Spirit they are raised up and comforted again with the preaching of the Holy Gospel. ~BOC, FSD, VI, 11-14
And I take comfort in the beginning, the fullness, and in the unceasing work of the Holy Spirit.
Christ was given for this purpose, that forgiveness of sins might be bestowed on us for His sake. He was also given so that the Holy Spirit might bring forth in us new and eternal life and eternal righteousness. Therefore, the Law cannot truly be kept unless the Holy Spirit is received through faith. So Paul says that the Law is established through faith, and not made useless, because the Law can only be kept when the Holy Spirit is given. ~BOC, AP, V (III), 11-12
The flesh distrusts God, trusts in present things, seeks human aid in trouble, even contrary to God's will. It flees from suffering, which it ought to bear because of God's commands. It doubts God's mercy and so on. The Holy Spirit in our hearts fights against such tendencies in order to suppress and kill them and to produce new spiritual motives. ~BOC, AP, V (III), 49-50
But the Holy Spirit carries on His work without ceasing to the Last Day. For that purpose He has appointed a congregation upon earth by which He speaks and does everything. For He has not yet brought together all His Christian Church or granted all forgiveness. Therefore, we believe in Him who daily brings us into the fellowship of this Christian Church through the Word. Through the same Word and the forgiveness of sins He bestows, increases, and strengthens faith. So when He has done it all, and we abide in this and die to the world and to all evil, He may finally make us perfectly and forever holy. Even now we expect this in faith through the Word. ~BOC, LC, II, 61-62
You see, all this is the Holy Spirit's office and work. He begins and daily increases holiness upon earth through these two things: the Christian Church and the forgiveness of sin. But in our death He will accomplish it altogether in an instant and will forever preserve us therein by the last two parts [of the Creed]. ~BOC, LC, II, 59
The final thought is how fitting it is that the sermon on the mount is followed by Jesus' declaration that He came to fulfill the Law. For if you read such wonders about being so very blessed, and (if you are like me) your flesh is sure to begin to doubt, to even accuse you, and then immediately thereafter you read of how it is you are, in truth, blessed!
Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!
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