13TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY-2
Text: Galatians 3:15-22
Source from Back to Luther with German archive reference. Back to Walther's Epistle Sermons.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In this same dear Savior, beloved hearers.
Even those, who superficially page through Holy Writ, will soon make the noteworthy observation, that it contains two entirely different doctrines, which show two entirely different ways to heaven.
Thus, for example, Moses writes: "Ye shall therefore keep my statues, and my judgments; which if a man do, he shall live in them." Lev 18:4. On the other hand, the Prophet Habakkuk writes: "The just shall live by his faith." Heb 2:4. John says: "He that doeth righteousness is righteous." 1 Jn 3:7.
386 13th Sunday after Trinity-2
On the other hand Paul writes in Romans 10: "Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Rom 10:4.
Moses writes: "Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen." Dt 27:26. On the other hand Paul writes: "There is no difference, for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forebearance of God." Rom 3: 23-25.
Finally in the ninth chapter of John's Gospel we read: "God heareth no sinners." Jn 9:31; in the Epistle to the Romans we read: "There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Rom 10:12.13. Yes, in Isaiah we read: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Is 1:18. And the Son of G©d himself says: "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Jn 6:37. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Mt 11:18.
We see: Two different doctrines run throughout the Scriptures like two great threads through a woven cloth. One doctrine demands its own works of men; the other says absolutely nothing about the works of men and speaks only of God's works. One doctrine says: If you want to be saved, you must do this and this; the other says: If you want to be saved, then believe! One demands its own works of all men; the other promises everything, life and salvation, without merit, alone by grace. One doctrine preaches curses, punishment, and damnation to all sinners; the other preaches blessing, forgiveness of sin s, and salvation to all sinners. The one takes away from all who have not done God's will all hope, hurls them down, and frightens them; the other gives all, even the greatest sinners, reason to expect eternal life, raises the stricken, and comforts all the sorrowing with abundant comfort.
These two doctrines are the Law and the Gospel. The Law is the terrible doctrine which condemns all men; the Gospel is the joyous sweet message that all sinners will be helped without their merit and worthiness, out of pure grace and mercy.
Now tell me, my friends, to which of these two different doctrines should and must a person cling? to the Law or the Gospel?
I think you will all say: If we want to be saved, we must cling to the comforting Gospel. You are right; but say: Is not the Law just as binding as the Gospel? Is not the Law God's eternal unbreakable Word just as well as the Gospel? So, what is the use of wanting to cling to the Gospel? Will not the Law condemn us anyhow? If we wanted to flee into the Gospel as into a free city, will not the Law come and fetch us forth as the avenger of blood and place us before God's judgment? If the Gospel has assured us of God's grace will not the Law deny it and take it away?
Sad to say, my friends, such thoughts are indeed only too often in the Christian's heart and these thoughts almost never want to let them have true rest, certainty, and happiness. If Christians were to hide in the Gospel as doves in the clefts of the rock, they usually tremble, when they hear the Law with its thunder against sinners and see its lightning flash. They always imagine that in the Gospel they can never be completely safe against the Law.
Well, then, permit me to show you why the Law should not restrain us from appropriating the Gospel with a joyous, certain faith.
The text. Galatians 3:15-22.
The Galatians, to whom our text had first been sent, had been misled by false teachers to become righteous before God and be saved not alone through faith in the Gospel but also by the works of the Law. The Galatians were therefore in a most perilous position. They could never become truly certain of their state of grace and their salvation. The purpose of the entire Epistle to the Galatians and also our text is to show them that the Law dare not let them be prevented from confidently accepting the Gospel. Therefore, permit me to show you today:
WHY SHOULD THE LAW NOT HINDER US FROM APPROPRIATING THE GOSPEL IN JOYFUL FAITH?
On the basis of our text I answer:
1. Because The Gospel Is A Promise Of Free Grace Which God Gave Us Long Before The Law, and
2. Because The Only Purpose Of The Law With Its Stern Demands And Threats Is To Drive Us To The Gospel.
Oh God, you are no respecter of persons. You grant even the most unworthy sinner the certainty of your grace. You have therefore commanded that your sweet Gospel be preached to all creatures. And you know, when we hear the demands and threats of your holy Law and alas, when our conscience tells us that we have repeatedly sinned and that your stern demands and threats are righteous, how easily we do not know what to make of your comforting Gospel. Oh, therefore, show us from your Word that your Law is not your testament, not your last will, but that the gracious Gospel is, so that we finally begin to rest in your free promises and to let nothing allow us to become confused regarding the certainty of your grace; then we will be able and happy to love you and our brethren, be exercised in all good works, also suffering in patience, and finally die in firm confidence in your grace. Hear us for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom we are also acceptable to you. Amen !
I.
There are few Christians who have always been absolutely certain of their state of grace. Many never become certain of it; most, however experience a constant wavering between doubt and certainty, between despair and joyful confidence. How is that? Is perhaps the Gospel so sparing with its comfort and connected with such strict conditions that only a few dare appropriate it to themselves? No! The Gospel showers its comfort in the richest fullness upon all people, be they who they are; everyone need simply grab it. As we believe so should it be. Or is it perhaps that most Christians are not pious enough? No; nor that. For no one can be so pious that he can build the certainty of his state of grace upon that.
The true reason is this: Most Christians let themselves be troubled so much by God's Law. If they read and hear the sweet Gospel, they feel like Jacob of old when he heard that his son Joseph still lived and saw the wagons which Joseph had sent him. As we read of Jacob: "The spirit of Jacob revived," Gen 45:27, thus also the spirit of Christians revived every time they heard the message of the Gospel of the heavenly Joseph, who wants to bring them into the
heavenly Goshen. But if Christians then hear the Law, if they hear how holy they should be and how God excludes transgressors from his kingdom of heaven, they feel as though the gates of heaven, scarcely opened by the Gospel, were quickly closed again. Their faith turns into doubt, their previous confidence into anguish and unrest.
Once the Galatians, misled by false teachers who wanted to be pious and strict, experienced the same thing.
How does the apostle try to cure his Galatians in our Epistle? In the main, he holds two things before them and first of all he writes the following: " Brethren. I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a MAN'S covenant. yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to SEEDS, as of many. but as of ONE. And to THY seed, which is Christ. And this I sav, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the Law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the INHERITANCE be of the LAW, it is no more of PROMISE: but God GAVE it to Abraham by PROMISE." Vv.15-18.
Bear in mind, my dear brethren, the apostle intends to explain what the Gospel is. You can read this in the story of Abraham, the father of believers. God said to Abraham: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." In these words God promised to Abraham and all people in the world his blessing, that is, grace, life, and salvation, and without the condition that they must do good works, as a free gift. And in order that no one would think, that every descendant of Abraham, yes, everyone born after Abraham had to do something in order to merit the blessing, God did not say: Through your descendants, as by many, but through your Seed, hence through one, namely only through Christ, this one Seed of Abraham, all the nations upon earth should be blessed. Therefore, why should you be concerned about the demands of the Law in the matter of your salvation, when God in these words has already promised and offered salvation to you as a free gift?
However, the Galatians could still think: Is not the Law given through Moses God's Word just as well as the Gospel, which God gave Abraham? Paul, therefore, Immediately reminds them of the time in which this Gospel was given. He wants to say: Was not the Law given 430 years later on through Moses upon Mt. Sinai? Did not God clearly show in this way that we are saved not by the Law or by works but by the Gospel, by grace? Or do you imagine that the Law has repealed the Gospel? Do you want to think that God is more unfaithful than men? What do men do when they have made and confirmed an agreement or a testament? Can someone later on add conditions which he had not made earlier? No; if a human testament is confirmed, no one dare change or add anything. Therefore be confident; not even God's testament, the covenant of grace, the free promise of God is not repealed by the Law given later on nor were any new conditions added. God is and remains faithful. He promised a blessing, that is, grace, life, salvation, to all people in the Seed of Abraham as a free gift 430 years before the giving of the Law. There the matter rests and will rest into all eternity as certainly as God is faithful and true.
Now, my friends, what the apostle here holds before the Galatians was valid not only for them; that applies also to us and particularly to all of you who let yourselves be hindered by the Law from appropriating the Gospel in joyful faith. Of course, you think you were doing right. You think: What else can 1 do but rejoice with trembling? Yes, what else can I do but doubt my state of grace, since T do 30 often what I should not do, and so often fail and am so
lukewarm and indolent in doing, what I should do with joy? Does not God clearly say at the close of the Commandments: "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me"? Ex 20:5.
True, according to these words it seems to be true humility and prudence to doubt your state of grace continually. But what does the apostle, enlightened by the Spirit of Christ, say of this? He calls nil such scruples unnecessary, false, yea, an insult t o God! He says: God has given to all men his free blessing, that is, life and salvation, by a promise of grace and not until 430 years later on did he give the Law. And so he who does not joyfully grasp and appropriate to himself this divine promise, because he is afraid of the Law, turns God into an unfaithful covenant God; he accuses God of cunning, as though first he gave something free of charge and then later on said what he wanted to be paid for his alleged gift; yes, he makes many people seeds by whom the promised should come and denies the only Seed of Abraham, namely Christ, through whom alone all the nations of the earth should be blessed.
Well, then, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, let us not deny the great love, mercy, and unchangeable faithfulness of God. Whenever the threats and demands of the Law want to take the certainty of our state of grace and our joyfulness away, let us rather think: The first and last revelation which God has granted to us fallen men is not the Law but the Gospel; the gracious will revealed in the Gospel is really God's first and last will with regard to men who have become sinners; the Law appeared only in the second place; our loving, generous, rich God does not want to sell life and salvation to us for our works and piety, but give it freely. Yes, this is his honor, that he alone is the Giver and that ail men are receivers, his beggars. This honor let us give him.
II.
Perhaps many will now say: If that is true, what is the purpose of the Lav? Would God have given it, if it were not necessary? This objection leads us to the second portion of our meditation. Let us now turn to it.
The Apostle Paul also supposed that the Galatians would make this objection and say: If one is not to keep the Law to be saved, what is it for? The apostle therefore raises the question: " Wherefore then serveth the Law ?" And what does he answer? He says first of all: " It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made." V.19. The apostle means to say: The Law was given after the promise not for the sake of righteousness and salvation but because of sin, that is,so that sin would be recognized, and only until the Seed, that is, until Christ came. If Christ has come to a person through faith, then the Law has done its work.
The apostle continues: " And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one." Vv. 19b. 20. Paul wants to say: That the Jews could not and should not be righteous through the Law you see from the fact that they needed a mediator, namely, Moses; for a mediator is never necessary for one person but at least for two whom he must mediate. Moses, therefore, was not only a mediator for God but for both, for God and the people who could not stand before God without a mediator, when God gave his Law amid lightning and thunder.
In conclusion the apostle writes: " Is the Law then against the promises of God? God forbid; for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ
390 13th Sunday after Trinity-2
might be given to them that believe." Vv.21.22. The apostle means to say: The Law is therefore not against the promise or against the Gospel; for the Law had neither the office nor the power of the Gospel; that is, it cannot make a person alive. Rather, its only office and power is to conclude a person under sin. It is to turn his sins into a prison in which he finds himself enclosed by sin like a criminal with chains, and now yearns for that freedom which Christ offers in the Gospel by grace to those who believe.
What the apostle wants to say is briefly this: The Law should and dare hinder no one from appropriating the Gospel in joyful faith, The only purpose of the Law with its demands and threats is to show us the misery of our sin and thus drive us to the Gospel which alone frees us from all this misery by its promises of grace.
Now, my dear hearers, you tell me: Is this not an inexpressibly comforting, glorious revelation? It truly is, my friends; all men can never praise and glorify God enough in all eternity for this revelation, which has been given us through the Apostle Paul! For in these words all uncertainty whether they also could be saved is in one stroke forever taken from the hearts of all who gladly want to be saved. If only we would all rightly understand, believe, and take this to heart! How many tormenting doubts, how much anguish and unrest would be spared us! How restfully and joyfully we would be able to took forward to our death, eternity, the judgment!
Tell me: Why are so many of us continually uncertain as to whether they can take comfort in the Gospel? Why do so many of us believe that sometimes God is gracious to them, sometimes that they are not in grace? The chief reason is this: They read in Scriptures: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Phil 2:12. "Ye shall be holy; for I, the Lord, your God, am holy." Lev 19:2. "Pray without ceasing." 1 Thess 5:17. Ah, they think, this I fail to do; I do not work out my salvation with fear and trembling; I do not pray without ceasing; I am still unholy; I am a very bad Christian; how dare i comfort myself with the Gospel and God's grace?
What are you doing who think thus? You are seeking your salvation in the Law. You want to be righteous through the Law, whereas its only purpose is to make your sinners. All by yourself you want to deal with God according to the Law, whereas you can deal with God by means of the Law only through a mediator. You want to give yourself life through the Law, whereas the Law can only kill you. You want to become free from sin through the Law, whereas through the Law you will only be concluded under sin, that is, you can experience that you are the prisoners of sin.
Believe me, my dear friends, in this way we never reach our goal. Every time we have learned to know and feel our sins through the Law, the Law has accomplished its work in us. It can bring us no further. Then the Law leaves us like the priest and Levite forsook the one fallen among murderers; it neither wants to nor can help us. Then we must let the Gospel, Christ, grace help us. For the only purpose God has in convincing us of our miserable condition, of our complete unworthiness, yes, of our worthiness for damnation through the Law is that, as Paul testifies in our Epistle, we turn to the promise through faith in Jesus Christ which is given to those who believe.
Permit me to ask all of you a question: What would we do if God would send prophets who would say that we must all die within the hour? Would we who have known that we are poor sinners who could not stand before God with our works quickly try to make ourselves pious and holy? Rather, would not all of us
despairing of our betterment without hesitation turn to Jesus, cling in faith to the Gospel's promise s of grace, and even in our last breath say: "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief"? I believe we would. Thus many thousands even under the papacy are saved because in their last distress they let go of everything and turned directly to Jesus, to his innocence and righteousness, his free grace and mercy, grasped these in faith, and thus have died in blessed hope.
Are we not fools if we do not now want to do that which we must do anyhow in the hour of death?
Come, then, my friends, we do not know whether God will let us die suddenly and unexpectedly so that we could not once sigh: "God be merciful to me a sinner!" Let us now, while we still live and are as healthy as we are say farewell to the Law as great, unworthy sinners and comfort ourselves in the precious, sweet Gospel.
That will not make us secure and indolent, as many suppose, but alive, strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, willing and able to do all good works.
Now may the Holy Spirit himself lead us down from flaming Sinai up to Golgatha, where the blood of the reconciliation flows for us; may the heavy rod of Moses drive us under the gentle shepherd's staff of our Good Shepherd Jesus Christ; may the fearful writing which is written upon the Law’s tables of stone frighten us so that we open our ears and hearts to the Gospel's loving voice of grace; thus and only thus will we become Christians and finally be saved. May God grant this to us all through Jesus Christ. Amen !